What the curriculum actually says
Lpfö 18 and Lgr 22 are public Skolverket documents. Three key passages are reproduced verbatim below — without interpretation. Readers can judge for themselves whether the language reads as value-neutral care or as an active pedagogical mission to reshape children's understanding of sex.
The curriculum text below is Sweden's official Skolverket documents. Three key passages are reproduced verbatim — no interpretation added.
Lpfö 18 (rev. 2025) — 1. Grundläggande värden
No child in preschool shall be subjected to discrimination on the grounds of sex, gender-crossing identity or expression […] Preschool shall actively and consciously promote equal rights and opportunities regardless of gender.[1]
Source: Skolverket · Lpfö 18 (rev. 2025)Lpfö 18 (rev. 2025) — 2.1 Normer och värden
Preschool has a duty to counter gender patterns that limit children's development, choices and learning. How preschool organises education, how children are met, and the demands and expectations placed on them help shape their perceptions of what is feminine and masculine.[2]
Source: Skolverket · Lpfö 18 (rev. 2025), avsnitt 2.1Lgr 22 — 1. Skolans värdegrund och uppdrag
The school shall actively and consciously promote pupils' equal rights and opportunities regardless of gender. The school also has a duty to counter gender patterns that limit pupils' learning, choices and development.[3]
Source: Skolverket · Lgr 22
‘Dragons and drag queens’ — story hours and the curriculum
What Swedish public debate sometimes calls ”drakar och dragqueens” — story hours for children hosted by drag performers in libraries and preschools — is an imported practice. The Drag Queen Story Hour concept (now Drag Story Hour) was launched by author Michelle Tea in San Francisco in 2015.
In Sweden individual libraries (including Stockholm City Library and Malmö libraries) have hosted similar events since the late 2010s. RFSL's LGBTQI certification of preschools and schools has spread in parallel, and material such as Regnbågsungar is used in pedagogical work. The Södermalm preschool Egalia was, in 2010, an early precursor of ”gender-neutral” pedagogy.
The difference between a library story hour (municipal cultural programming that a parent opts into) and the preschool's curriculum mandate (compulsory for every child from age one) matters. Criticism is directed almost exclusively at the latter — at a theoretical position (queer and gender theory) being written into a binding steering document without active parental consent.
International comparison — who is applying the brakes, who is not
Canada / Australia
2025
Alberta Gov 2024Most provinces/states retain the affirmative model; individual provinces (e.g. Alberta 2024) introduce age limits for hormones.
Affirmative line retained
Denmark
2023
Sundhedsstyrelsen 2023Danish Health Authority rewrites guidelines: most youth with gender incongruence should receive counselling, not medical transition.
Applying the brakes
Finland
2020
COHERE 2020PALKO/COHERE guidelines: psychotherapy is first-line; hormones for minors only in exceptional cases.
Applying the brakes
France
2022
Académie de médecine 2022Académie nationale de médecine warns of ‘great medical caution’ before early medical transition; risk of irreversible harm.
Applying the brakes
Germany
2024
BMFSFJ 2024Self-Determination Act: legal gender change from age 14 (with guardian consent). Affirmative line retained.
Affirmative line retained
Netherlands
2024
Tweede Kamer 2024Amsterdam UMC pauses parts of the ‘Dutch Protocol’; parliament orders an independent review of paediatric gender services.
Applying the brakes
Norway
2023
Ukom 2023Ukom (Norwegian Health Investigation) classifies affirmative treatment of minors as experimental — the evidence base is weak.
Applying the brakes
Sweden
2022
Socialstyrelsen 2022 · SBU 2022National Board of Health tightens guidance: hormones for children only within research studies. SBU deems evidence insufficient.
Applying the brakes
United Kingdom
2024
NHS England / Cass 2024Cass Review (388 pp.) leads to a permanent ban on puberty blockers outside clinical trials; Tavistock GIDS is closed.
Applying the brakes
USA (states)
2025
SCOTUS 2025 · KFF TrackerMore than 25 states have enacted restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors. The Supreme Court upholds Tennessee's law (Skrmetti).
Applying the brakes
10 of 10 countries
What the research shows
Cass Review (NHS England) 2024
A 388-page independent review. Found a weak evidence base for medical affirmation in minors and high co-occurrence — autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm and documented trauma — among referred children. Led to a permanent ban on puberty blockers outside clinical trials.
Dhejne et al. (Karolinska) 2011
Followed 324 people who underwent sex-reassignment surgery in Sweden 1973–2003. Found significantly elevated psychiatric morbidity and roughly 19-fold higher completed-suicide risk versus a matched control cohort — surgery did not remove the psychological pain.
Littman 2018 — Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria
Documents teenage clusters (mostly girls) suddenly identifying as trans after intense social-media and peer-group exposure, without prior signs of gender dysphoria. Confirmed as a pattern by the Cass Review 2024.
Desistance research
Older prospective studies — including those the Dutch Protocol was built on — show 60–90 % of children with gender dysphoria naturally reconcile with their biological sex through puberty if no medical intervention is given. Most turn out to be gay young adults, not trans.
Detransitioners and litigation
A growing group of people who regret transition. Keira Bell (UK, 2020) and Chloe Cole (USA) have brought high-profile lawsuits against clinics that affirmed them as children without investigating underlying issues.
Method & uncertainty
Definitions
- — ‘Affirmative model’ = clinical practice in which a child's self-reported gender identity is affirmed as the starting point for social, hormonal or surgical transition.
- — ‘Desistance’ = share of children with early gender dysphoria who naturally reconcile with their biological sex through puberty when no medical intervention is given.
- — ‘Drag Story Hour’ (formerly Drag Queen Story Hour) = story-reading for children hosted by drag performers, a concept originating in San Francisco 2015.
Uncertainties
- — The overview reflects published national guidance per country as of 2025 — individual clinics and states may differ.
- — Curriculum text is cited from Skolverket's open documents. How individual preschools interpret the wording varies.
- — US states continue to move quickly — the Supreme Court in Skrmetti (June 2025) affirmed states' authority to regulate minor gender medicine.
Sources
- Skolverket — Läroplan för förskolan (Lpfö 18, rev. 2025)
- Skolverket — Läroplan för grundskolan (Lgr 22)
- Socialstyrelsen 2020 — Utvecklingen av diagnosen könsdysfori
- SBU 2022 — Hormonbehandling vid könsdysfori, barn och unga
- Karolinska/Astrid Lindgren — riktlinjeändring maj 2021
- Cass Review (NHS England) — Final Report 2024
- COHERE Finland (PALKO) 2020 — riktlinjer för minderåriga
- Ukom (Norge) 2023 — Pasientsikkerhet for barn og unge med kjønnsinkongruens
- Sundhedsstyrelsen (Danmark) — Vejledning om kønsidentitet 2023
- Académie nationale de médecine (Frankrike) 2022 — La médecine face à la transidentité
- Amsterdam UMC / Dutch Protocol — översikt och kritik
- US Supreme Court — United States v. Skrmetti (2025)
- Littman L. — Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (PLOS ONE, 2018)
- Dhejne et al. 2011 — Long-term follow-up after sex reassignment (PLOS ONE)
- Drag Story Hour — officiell organisation (fd Drag Queen Story Hour)
- Selbstbestimmungsgesetz (Tyskland) — BMFSFJ 2024
2035
If Northern European medical authorities are simultaneously applying the brakes — why is the Swedish preschool curriculum moving in the opposite direction?
If further countries follow the UK's Cass line, Sweden — where Lpfö 18 remains unchanged — would become the Northern European state whose pedagogical steering documents diverge most from its own healthcare guidance.
Read the full investigation of how Sweden has changed.
Back to overview →