Please Click Here to find recent news, events and information from CUPE Ontario.
Board put gay-straight alliances on the same footing as Nazi groups, Sodom and Gomorrah and sex clubs
In November, trustees from the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) voted to ban gay-straight alliances from schools in the board, citing their incompatibility with Catholic teachings on homosexuality. The outgoing board voted for the ban during their lame-duck session, before the new board was sworn in following last October’s school board elections.
Gay-straight alliances, or GSAs, have become a fixture in some North American schools during the past 20 years, a product of students acting to create a more positive learning environment for all.
Where adults once feared to tread, students have shown remarkable courage across Canada and the United States, recognizing that their classmates shouldn’t have to fear being victimized at school for their real or perceived sexual orientation.
And studies show they work. Last year, Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE) surveyed 1,700 students across the country. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer (LGBTQ) students who believed their schools had anti-homophobia policies were much less likely to feel unsafe at school, or to have been verbally or physically harassed.
What sorts of messages has Halton’s Catholic school board sent to students and families in the region? There was the rhetoric of some trustees, one of whom justified the ban by saying the board also didn’t allow Nazi groups. (She later apologized for the reference.) Another invoked the biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet another dismissed GSAs as some sort of sex club.
Put yourself in the shoes of a student struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, struggling with the bullying and harassment of kids who are either gay or perceived to be gay. That’s hard enough on its own without having to wonder what the trustees who set policies that govern your learning environment mean when they place GSAs on the same footing as Nazi groups, Sodom and Gomorrah and sex clubs.
I wish a gay-straight alliance existed when I was in school.
Adolescence is never easy, and as a gay kid growing up in rural Ontario, I can attest to just how tough it can be. Even now, more than 25 years after graduating, the memories of the isolation and fear are strong.
For many of us, we thought that part of our lives would never end, and neither would the bullying and abuse.
For some, it never ended. Studies consistently show lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth are two to three times more likely to commit suicide than their straight peers.
What message has the board sent to the broader school community? In Canada, we have made tremendous strides in the struggle for LGBTQ people, but bullying and homophobia still happen in our schools. It didn’t stop when I graduated.
Bullying particularly homophobic and transphobic bullying continues to be a challenge schools need to confront. It’s blamed for a rash of student suicides in recent months here in Canada and also in the United States.
When Halton Catholic trustees say it’s not OK for straight and gay students to work together to create an environment free of homophobia and bullying, what message does that send to the bullies? Simply put, adults set examples for our kids to follow, whether they realize it or not.
By law, school staff are required to report bullying and homophobia to the appropriate school authorities when they encounter it. That’s a position our union has always supported and that the 50,000 CUPE members who work in Ontario’s school boards are committed to.
The board’s policy development committee recently voted to recommend that the ban be rescinded. This is a positive development.
In the midst of all this, there are other important issues that the adults responsible for educating Ontario’s children need to consider. The fact that the outgoing board’s decision to ban GSAs flies in the face of the Ministry of Education, whose official policy is to support such organizations, is a major problem. Another important question that comes to mind is what role, if any, should unelected bishops and clergy have in the development of education policy?
And yet, it is hard not to also be encouraged by the events of the past week. We know many other Catholic schools in the province have GSA groups. In Ottawa, the Catholic school board spoke out in favour of an inclusive environment for all students, gay or straight. We have seen courageous students who have shown leadership to their peers and set an example we should all be proud of, by speaking out against injustice. We’ve also seen the newly-elected HCDSB take the first steps towards the ban’s repeal.
Everyone deserves an environment free of bullying and homophobia, whatever your faith. That goes for all Ontarians. When students identify a problem and organize to find ways of solving it, they should be encouraged, not shut down.
Fred Hahn is President of CUPE Ontario. He is also the first openly gay labour leader in Ontario.
