The Canada-wide protests against LGBTQIA2S+ School Rights —
Transphobia isn’t about gender, racism isn’t about race, and sexism isn’t about sex. Right-wing hatred and intolerance are all about power — who gets to be a “person” and who does not.
Who gets to exist and take up space in our society?
If you walk past the Parliament buildings along Rideau Street in Ottawa, you will come to a set of 5 statues called “The Famous Five,” or “Women are Persons!” The statues celebrate the legal recognition in Canada in 1928 that women are, in fact, “persons” under the Law. So, white women in Canada have only been human for 92 years. Asian and Indigenous women had to wait until after WW2 to be “persons.” In modern times, most of us find the whole thing shocking and appalling. How could 52% of the population have ever NOT been persons? It’s amazing how we decide who fits in and who doesn’t, who exists and who doesn’t, who deserves space and who doesn’t.
We have come a long way, but some people still struggle for basic personhood, for the right to take up space and just “be.” Social power structures determine who gets to be a “person” and who gets bullied and oppressed. These days, LGBTQIA2S+ students are caught in a sick culture war and in danger of losing a fragile and hard-won right to exist.
The “good” old days
I went to high school in Canada in the 80s. Gay bashings were common, and gay students feared for their lives. Trans people were isolated from mainstream society. We used to speculate on which teachers were gay, but they kept it under tight wraps. Things are slowly improving, and it hasn’t harmed anyone, despite what a few right-wingers may think.
Intensive anti-bullying campaigns have reduced in-your-face homophobia, sexism, and racism in Canadian schools. We have developed language to talk about inclusion. We don’t glorify or shrug our shoulders at bullies like they did in the 80s. At my last IB training program in 2019, my teacher proudly showed pictures of his husband and children. Gay couples can attend prom together. School admins no longer shrug helplessly at verbal or physical assaults in school.
The Million March
Of course, there are members of society who are never happy sharing space. I am truly disgusted by the so-called parents' rights groups who are protesting in cities around Canada this week. They call themselves the 1 Million March for Children. As far as I could see on the news clips, they represent a demographic ranging from conservative religious types to garden-variety rednecks. The Million March website calls for “…the elimination of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum, pronouns, gender ideology and mixed bathrooms in schools.” Whether or not the protesters read or understood any of those things is debateable.
Like the 2021 Freedom Convoy protesters, these protesters seem to have borrowed heavily from the American extreme right. They somehow think they are the victims if marginalized groups are allowed to be “persons” too. Also, like the 2021 Freedom Convoy, the protest unintentionally attracted an unwholesome smorgasbord of right-wing agendas. Some of them are accusing teachers of grooming students to be gay (seriously?) and brainwashing them to get gender affirming surgery. Yes, that’s right…kids all over Canada will be running off to transition just because their teachers said it was OK? I can’t even get my students to stop using ChatGPT to write their papers. So — unlikely they will suddenly decide to transition simply because I use gender neutral language in class.
The Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) is an education resource that has been introduced in Canada. It is NOT a curriculum. It is simply a guide to help teachers and parents help young people. People who complain about the sexualization of the curriculum should just take that 5 minutes to read the SOGI. The focus is to make schools safe for everyone and minimize damage. The SOGI makes very gentle suggestions about things we don’t learn in teacher training. What do you do when a student trusts you enough to come out to you? How do you navigate homophobic and transphobic bullying in class?
Gender Neutral
The SOGI is not sexualizing school topics. Rather, it is almost doing the opposite. Why NOT use gender neutral language? For the 3 R’s traditionalists out there, does it REALLY matter what gender anyone is when we are studying Math? Both our official languages, English and French, are heavily gendered. It is good for our brains to stop thinking in a binary. What if we just read people’s words and actions without considering their gender? For those who complain of a sexualized curriculum, this is your opportunity!
Mixed Bathrooms
So, let’s get this in perspective. We move from flimsy stalls and urinals to fully separate floor-to-ceiling, lockable stalls with their own sinks. Isn’t that an improvement for your kids? I have lots of male friends who were bullied in the boys’ room. When I say bullied, I’m talking “80’s-boys-bullied” … like having your head dunked in the toilet bowl, being pissed on, and having your hands slammed in the stall doors. Then you got in trouble for messing around in the bathroom and being late to class. I think that we would all have really appreciated a private, lockable stall.
The good news:
In conclusion, I want to mention that the anti-LGBTQIA2S+ protestors are in the minority in Canada. Counter protesters supporting LGBTQIA2S+ students’ right to exist far outnumbered the much-less-than-1-million. Arrests were made for incidents of hate speech. Liberal and NDP politicians posted and turned out en masse in support of LGBTQIA2S+ students. Justin Trudeau posted on X that “…we stand united in support of 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians across the country — you are valid and you are valued.”
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