Extra Credit: The fight for 2SLGBTQ+ dignity in Canadian schools

Anne Creighton, PFLAG Toronto: Canadian schools have been on the frontlines of 2SLGBTQ+ advocacy for decades! From the mid-90s onward, we’ve successfully fought for changes in education. The Triangle Program, created in 1996 for 2SLGBTQ+ students who are struggling in school, is still running today! Two years later Blockorama formed at Pride Toronto, an important Black queer and trans space. The start of Blockorama was an important milestone for inclusion at Pride in Toronto.

Aeryn Pfaff, The 519: In 1999, a student successfully sued his school board in Sault St. Marie when they failed to protect him from extreme homophobic bullying. Then in 2002, teacher James Chamberlain in BC fought all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada for his right to use books with same-gender parents in his kindergarten class, and he won! The issue of inclusive books in schools was already litigated in this country 22 years ago.

Anne Creighton, PFLAG Toronto: The same year, student Marc Hall won his case against the Durham Catholic District School Board, forcing them to allow him to go to prom with his boyfriend. These days non heterosexual couples at prom might be a lot more common, but in 2002 Marc Hall had to win in court first!

Gurpreet Singh-Rai, Teacher: In 2005 and 2006, New Brunswick and BC were the first provinces to get 2SLGBTQ+ inclusive education, with mentions of sexual orientation and gender identity added to their school curriculums in those years. In 2008 the first elementary school Gay Straight Alliance was also formed in Ontario, creating an important safe space for queer and trans youth.

Aeryn Pfaff, The 519: These policy changes came about because of real need from students, parents and families in Canada. The ideas that 2SLGBTQ+ students deserve protection from bullying, deserve to see themselves reflected in books and curriculum, and deserve freedom to be themselves at school have been established facts in this country for decades.

In our next video we’ll talk about all the other protections 2SLGBTQ+ students and supportive parents have fought for in Canada. Stay tuned for more!

Anne Creighton, PFLAG Toronto: Everyone knows how prevalent anti-2SLGBTQ+ bullying in schools has been in the past, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Laws that mandate clear instructions and consequences to shut down bullying is what protecting children really looks like.

In 2011, Ontario passed the Accepting Schools Act. Sadly, this change came after the suicide of a boy named Jamie Hubley, who had been the target of extreme homophobic bullying. In the next few years, the Yukon, Manitoba, Newfoundland and New Brunswick followed. In more recent years, BC and the Northwest Territories also modernized their student protection laws.

Gurpreet Singh-Rai, Teacher: Legal changes are important because they apply to entire provinces, and they’re enforceable in court. Policies can change from administration to administration, but laws must be observed.

Guidelines or policies are carried out by school boards. For example, a teacher could get in trouble with their school board for not following a board policy, but that policy wouldn’t apply province-wide the way a law would.

Aeryn Pfaff, The 519: That doesn’t mean other efforts and resources aren’t still good to have! Some provinces have teaching resources, like the Choices graphic novel released in 2012 in Nunavut that includes a story about a teen coming to terms with being gay from an Indigenous perspective. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario has an awesome training resource for teachers called Inclusive SchoolPlace Starts Here. They also have a great 2SLGBTQ+ education history timeline that they made in 2016 in collaboration with the ArQuives, which inspired this video series!

Inclusive curriculum has been a hot topic in Ontario and across the country, and anti-sex-ed movements have been the blueprint for a lot of the far-right hate activity we’ve seen related to Canadian schools recently. We’ll get into some of that in our next video, so stay tuned.

Aeryn Pfaff, The 519: Inclusive school curriculum lets every kid, and the adult they will become know that they are welcome in every place, and that they can do anything, which is the message we want to give to kids!

Curriculum should talk about Black history month, Diwali, Ramadan, Sanjay’s mom and dad, Jaida’s two dads— Abdul has three Barbie dolls, he gives one to his friend Ha-Joon. Samantha manages a construction site that has to produce 2,000 pounds of concrete. All with the message that I belong, you belong, we belong.

Jeishan Rajakulasingam, Teacher: The first province to have 2SLGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum was New Brunswick in 2005. The next year two teachers got the BC Ministry of Education to include references to diverse sexual orientation throughout the K to 12 curriculum, and to develop a grade 12 social justice course that educated students on gay and lesbian issues.

Anne Creighton, PFLAG: In Nova Scotia we saw changes in 2014 and 2015 that include reminders to educators that all students regardless of orientation deserve accurate sexual health information. The same year, Six Nations Pride celebrated Pride for the first time on an Indigenous reservation. Of course, in Ontario we got the 2015 inclusive sex-ed curriculum, which was repealed in 2018 and re-instated largely unchanged in in 2019. We’ll do a deeper dive into that in another video. Quebec included 2SLGBTQ+ references to their curriculum in 2018, and BC did another update in 2019.

Aeryn Pfaff, The 519: Schools will teach all types of kids from all types of families who will grow up to be all kinds of adults who need to be prepared to live in a world made up of diverse people. We’ve always seen pushback to that idea, but in the last few years, some hateful folks have gotten really loud. We’ll talk about that more soon, so stay tuned

Anne Creighton, PFLAG: Last year we saw horrible protests attacking kids and teens from 2SLGBTQ+ communities in schools as well as attacking their supportive parents. These attitudes are growing steadily as a result of long and well-funded misinformation campaigns.

In 2010, former Ontario Premiere Dalton McGuinty tried to introduce inclusive sex-ed, but he didn’t, because of enormous pressure from a Christian fundamentalist group.

Gurpreet Singh-Rai, Teacher: Five years later, Kathleen Wynne re-introduced progressive sex-ed in Ontario schools, and this time she followed through with the changes.

Again, Christian fundamentalists engaged in a smear campaign where they lied to parents about what was actually in the curriculum, and about the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

These folks can’t win your support without telling lies, because the truth is that all kinds of students deserve a robust and inclusive health curriculum to keep them safe, healthy and informed.

Aeryn Pfaff, The 519: When Ford became Premier, he repealed the curriculum for the year of 2018, then reinstated it after consultation in 2019, basically the same as it was because studies show that most parents in Ontario do want comprehensive and inclusive sex-ed taught at schools, and the ones who don’t, shouldn’t get to decide for everyone else.

Far-right extremists can be very noisy and provocative, but they don’t speak for parents as a whole, and their ideology is built on lies.

In our last video we’ll get into more recent incidents in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Alberta that you might be hearing about in the news, so tune in soon.

Gurpreet Singh-Rai, Teacher: Last year Saskatchewan and New Brunswick introduced laws forcing teachers to ‘out’ trans and nonbinary students — These changes invade people’s privacy and take away their agency. My job is to teach students while keeping them ALL safe and healthy, not to enforce strict gender roles. As a teacher you have a responsibility, an obligation to check your biases at the door.

Anne Creighton, PFLAG: 2SLGBTQ+ people are coming out younger and younger. They often look for a safe friend, sibling, or trusted adult to come out to first. They honour these people by trusting them. Messing with that and forcing teachers to report to parents is dangerous and unnecessary. Children will tell their parents when they are ready and feel safe doing so. Many young parents are stepping up, but we know every home will not be welcoming, and 2SLGBTQ+ kids in these families need support in schools they attend.

Aeryn Pfaff, The 519: The ideas that some parents aren’t safe for 2SLGBTQ+ people to come out to and that outing people is the wrong thing to do are things we’ve all known for a very long time. We’re seeing a movement of people pretending they don’t already know this stuff, but everybody knows that. This isn’t new information.

In January, Alberta’s government announced their intention to take away the rights of some trans people. Danielle Smith’s proposed policies will force some trans youth back into the closet and take away choices away from them and their families. It ignores the expertise of doctors, and it will force some trans youth to go through bodily changes some of them don’t want, that are difficult and expensive to reverse the effects of as adults like birth-sex puberty.

Here’s the bottom line: We’re everywhere, we always have been, we will always be, and we’re not going anywhere. No law or policy can turn someone 2SLGBTQ+, it doesn’t work like that, and no law or policy can stop anyone being who they are. It doesn’t work like that either.

Gurpreet Singh-Rai, Teacher: Childhood and teenage years are all about discovering who you are, your style, and what you’re good at. Everyone deserves freedom to figure those things out without the government reaching in and telling them who they’re allowed to be. Denying kids the chance to be kids, including gender nonconforming kids, will actively harm, not only their education, but their health and safety, and everyone deserves access to education without discrimination.

Anne Creighton, PFLAG: All kids deserve to go to school without dealing with hate, and all kids deserves to be taught the health information they need to stay safe and healthy like everyone else, and you can bet parents and grandparents across the country who believe in equality are going to keep fighting for their children, just like I do.