By Colin Matthew, President, OSSTF District 15 for local public high school teachers
On Saturday, November 17, the Ontario PC Party voted to advance a policy motion suggesting that gender identity, gender expression, and transgender rights were somehow political ideology, and that any discussion of such should be removed from Ontario schools and the curriculum.
As local educators, we must express our dismay with the PC party’s attempt to politicize its own transphobia. Transgendered persons are real. They exist. They exist in our communities, and they exist in our schools. For educators, they are our students. They are not theories, they are not ideologies, and they deserve to be treated respectfully and as the diverse individuals they are.
Educators watch the statistics play themselves out in our schools every day. Three in four trans students have been targets of mockery or bullying. One in five have been physically or sexually assaulted because of their gender identity/expression. Nearly half of transgender teens have attempted suicide, a shocking statistic that drops to less than 5 per cent when they get support from family members.
Since 2014, the Ontario Human Rights Code has prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity or gender expression. To our trans students I say, we see you. We stand in solidarity with you, and we demand that our local MPP Norm Miller, Minister of Education Lisa Thompson, and Premier of Ontario Doug Ford disavow and denounce this hateful policy and that they work with partners in the education sector to ensure that all students receive the safe and caring public education to which they are entitled.
Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here.
Bill, the PC leader can’t unilaterally override the will of a convention. I’m sure leadership and steering will work to make sure this doesn’t come back, but it did come, it did pass and it hurts people.
Premier Ford is absolutely correct.
Bill Beatty is right. Both the Premier and the Minister of Education repudiated the motion and said it would never be included in Government policy and they said it before this article was written. Too bad that could not have been included. Further, the mover of the motion was fired as a candidate by the Premier for her extreme views. Having said that, the motion was disgraceful and it is sad that it got as much attention as it did.
Sex education should be about teaching the youth how their bodies will be changing. How a male voice goes through a squeaky transition while getting deeper. How a male body carries the sperm outside the body as cooler temperature is required and that the sperm can create a life when introduced to a female’s egg. How a female carries the eggs to create life in her body in her ovaries and releases one a month and how the body recognizes that it is not carrying a life sluffs off the womb, hence menstruation. Sex education should be about mutual consent and recognizing consent. Sex education should be about how age is a factor and how and what the many contraceptives are available and how to use them properly so as to not create a life. Teach them not to be embarrassed to demand a condom etc. Teach them about sexting and personal pictures and to have respect for their bodies and for themselves. The male and female body works this way regardless of your gender identity so I don’t see why gender identity has to even enter into it. Tolerance and acceptance is being taught already and I haven’t seen any kind of bullying taken care of regardless of what type of bullying it is. It seems like the schools can’t do anything about it from what I have seen and read about. I won’t be surprised if this one decision will pray on some people’s minds and they will not see all the other work being done or promised to be done by the PC party. You can’t condemn the party and disregard them over one thing. I didn’t see this much outrage when the Liberals starting taking away our Charter of Rights. No funding if you wouldn’t sign that you agree with LGBTQ and abortion. I have a right to agree or disagree without the repercussion of having my funding withdrawn especially when the opinion had no relevance in what the funding was being requested for. It looks to me like the minority has been ruling for a while. And the vast majority of conservative are in agreement with this decision. Just because you don’t agree with something doesn’t make you have a phobia about it. My opinion for what it is worth.
” Fiddle Duddle “….”Let Them freeze in the dark ” !A kinder gentler time ? Selective Memory Rob ?
I agree with Rob. What has happened is that a small group of hateful, crass, narrow thinking people have pushed and shoved their twisted old-time ideas on to the front burner and like-minded sheep jumped to agree.
What has happened to this political party can happen to others. just look south!
Let’s fight this back to the future “white and straight is right” theme all the way.
I think the PC Leader made it very clear that there would be no further action on the motion….His response was absolutely correct and the woman who brought it forward finished well down in the leadership race which is a good indication of her popularity and standing in the Party…..Freedom of Speech often brings out the worst ! Please don’t suggest for a moment that this is the fee!ing of the vast majority of Conservatives or is any part of Party policy !!!!
Relax … just because you disagree does not make you right .. relax!
This is absolutely disgraceful; a new low even for a Ford government, which has already cancelled the sex education course instituted by the Liberals. People do not choose their identity: Their identity chooses them. To pigeonhole trans individuals as political ideologues; strip their right of gender expression; and consequently ghettoize them; is to promote the stigmatization that they already experience. Talk about Big Brother (Big Government): Here come the thought police. I remember fondly a kinder, gentler time, when our Prime Minister (Mr. Trudeau Sr.) opined that: “government has no place in the bedrooms of the nation”. Truer words etc.