By Any Other Name

Perhaps it is because I experienced a small amount of peer-bullying as a student. Perhaps it is because I experienced a large amount of both physical and psychological abuse from my teachers, as did many of my fellow students. It was, after all, the Catholic school system, where mistreatment was frequently substituted for the message of love found in the Gospels. Whatever the reason, I ultimately emerged as an adult with much empathy for people being treated badly.

Today's post is about the recent disgraceful behaviour of adults claiming to be parents at a meeting of the York Catholic District School Board on the issue of range the Pride Flag. Here is a brief video  capturing some of the disruption that occurred:

This kind of ugly behaviour has no place in our society, and I am hardly alone in that sentiment. Today, I am taking what is for me the unprecedented step of reproducing in toto a Toronto Star editorial whose points I think most would find a hard time disagreeing with. That will be followed by two pieces expressing letter-writers' views on rabid homophobia. 

Make of all of it what you will:

A shameful scene unfolded recently outside a meeting of the York Catholic District School Board when adults purporting to protect Ontario’s children proved instead to be a direct threat to their well-being.

How else to describe a group of adults, many of them presumably parents of school-aged children, who turned up at the meeting to loudly oppose the possibility that the board will fly the rainbow flag in support of LGBTQ students in June?

How else to describe adults who appeared to hurl insults at those in favour of flying the flag? In a video clip shared widely by various news outlets, shouts of “shame” and “devil incarnate” were hurled at an advocate on the pro side of the flag debate. The scene became so tense police were called and security reportedly escorted some of the spectators away.

Some of these spectators may argue that their objection wasn’t specifically to the Pride flag itself but to what they believe it stands for: in their minds, the corrupting of children who are allegedly too young to learn in school about the diversity of gender and sexuality.

To this odious notion we say: no one is too young to learn that gay, transgender and non binary people exist, just as no one is too young to learn that cisgender, heterosexual people exist. Queer people are not by their mere existence sexually explicit.

 To meet a queer person, to learn what transgender means, to be read a picture book by a drag performer is in no way being exposed to the intimate details of a person’s sex life. This belief is not only nonsensical; it is derivative of hateful, age-old myths about queer people as a perverse influence on children.

It is also derivative of a certain brand of anti-LGBTQ politics we commonly associate with the United States. But if last week’s events at the Catholic school board in York Region teach us anything, let it be that Canada is not immune to public displays of hateful rhetoric. These displays may be less common here but even in small doses they are potent. And it is up to all of us — Catholic school board officials and community members alike not to be complacent in the face of them.

It seems a reminder is in order about why Pride celebrations are necessary in schools. Flying the Pride flag isn’t a hollow act of virtue signalling; it is an official declaration of support for marginalized kids who desperately need it.

 

Dispute at Catholic board meeting over Pride flag, April 27

The group of taxpayers of the York Region Catholic School Board, whose homophobic words and gestures reduced a group of LGBTQ students at the board meeting to tears, have surely provided a very good argument for defunding Catholic schools in the province.

Surely the promotion of such vicious and harmful hatred under the protection of acceptable religious teaching in Catholic schools should have no place in a publicly-funded school system in Ontario.

Joanna Manning, Toronto

When I read this article it reminded me of many of the vitriolic rants in American media that I have seen, directed at advocates of peaceful, progressive change.

What kind of adults would bully and belittle young students, especially those who have most likely experienced serious harangues for parts of their lives?

Because this was a Catholic school board I’m assuming these people consider themselves “Christian.” Outrage and horrible behaviour over the raising of a flag to show acceptance and respect for young people does clearly not reflect Christian beliefs.

These people should remember that Catholic education is paid for by all taxpayers and governments that condemn. this behaviour.

John Morton, Toronto

Hatred, intolerance and bigotry, by any other name, are still hatred, intolerance and bigoty.