UPDATED: York Board Faces Backlash

 

The recent refusal of the York Catholic School Board to raise the Pride flag has generated a great deal of controversy. The childish and intolerant behaviour demonstrated by board officials, prelates and parents cries out for redress. Happily, Toronto Star readers are keen to provide some solid suggestions, the best being that it's time to stop funding the Catholic School system and its inherent bigotry:

Pride flag vote sparks outrage in York, May 30

Once again, proof that Ontario needs to jump into the 21st century and put an end to taxpayer-funded religious indoctrination.

Andrew Elrick, Whitby

 Despite the fact that Minister of Education Stephen Lecce and Ford have mandated all kinds of things with little or no input by the boards of education, both have suddenly developed a hands-off policy in dealing with the York District Catholic School Board.

When asked if he planned to intervene in the board’s decision not to fly the pride flag, Lecce answered with a bunch of political gobbly-gook.

Ford has “no comment,” obviously afraid to alienate his right-wing base. But it really comes as no surprise. Let’s remember when the Premier’s brother was mayor of Toronto and refused to fly the pride flag at city hall and also refused to appear in the pride parade because he spent that weekend at his cottage. Big brother Doug who was the mayor’s right hand man in all things apparently didn’t dissuade him to do the right thing.

The YDCSB’s refusal to protect a vulnerable group of students is reason in itself to eliminate provincial funding for Catholic education. It is long past the time to have a single system of education. As a taxpayer, I don’t want to be supporting bigotry.

Happy Pride Everyone!

Stephen Bloom, Toronto 

Somewhere in the Bible it says that God only loves heterosexuals?

I guess I missed that part.

Archie Gillis, Toronto 

 The York Catholic School Board is running scared. When will religion stop this persecution against LGBQT people? Be brave enough to fly the pride flag supporting the LGBQT community, especially our youth.

Fear is an insidious emotion that requires inner strength to overcome. Help our youth regardless of sex, sexual leaning, race, colour and religion. It shouldn’t matter one iota what a person identifies themselves as.

David Bell, Etobicoke

As a Catholic, I have to admit to being left in total confusion by the decision of the York Catholic District School Board under the guise of so-called “Catholicity.”

It is painfully obvious that their understanding of their church does not align with the principles and fundamental teachings of Jesus, its founder, because he stated quite categorically through Matthew’s Gospel (in KJV) Ch18: v5-6 “ … whoso shall offend one of these little ones … it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

His directive is as clear as the decision of the YCDSB to not fly the LGBTQ banner in support of a minority and fringe group of students who they gladly have in their classes while taking tax dollars, donations and other financial support for their education.

If they were really honest, they should not accept any students into their schools who see the rainbow flag as a symbol of solidarity, unity, diversity and hard-fought acceptance. Through their decision not to fly this flag, they have not only offended these young people but have clearly taken a stance of rejecting them as full members of our human family.

 Matthew Marosszeky, retired Catholic school administrator), Aurora

Good letters to the editor have one thing in common: solid, informed opinion that is able to break through the miasma of prejudice hobbling so many people. 

Of course, I expect the words of the above writers to have no impact whatsoever. 

UPDATE:  The following is a good example of the childish hectoring the so-called religious like to engage in. My guess is that this warrior for Jesus has yet to crack open the New Testament.

My apologies to the above warrior. I had no idea he was capable of multitasking. Here he is with his 'freedom-loving' brethren:

 

 

 

UPDATED: No Pride In York

 

Although I make no claim to psychic powers, I can pretty safely predict someone who will soon lose her job. Her name is Dina Mayr, a teacher in the York Catholic District School Board.

Ms. Mayr, a 23-year employee of the board, has taken public exception to York's refusal to allow the Pride flag to be raised at any buildings within their jurisdiction. She

is the parent of a transgender child, who went to a school she taught at. She feels “utterly ashamed” to be a part of a system that made this decision.

“It seems to be a worldwide movement of hatred that has just infiltrated school boards, including our own,” she said. While her son has now graduated, Mayr used to feel like he was safe with her advocating behind the scenes.

“I can’t believe that a Catholic school, a Catholic system can stand by and allow that to continue to happen.”

Apparently, in the minds of some, raising the Pride flag is tantamount to surrendering to an 'agenda' that runs contrary to the Catholic faith. 

[B]oard chair Frank Alexander told reporters that trustees were advised by two archbishops that the flags don’t “align with our Catholic values.” 

"That’s fundamentally why I voted against it,” he said, noting schools that fly the flag would face consequences.

Apparently, the message of love, acceptance and compassion that permeates the New Testament means nothing to the powers-that-be, who seem more in tune with the Old Testament Yahweh, who was known to get His celestial nose out of joint on occasion, resulting in much smiting and tribulation.

But, I suppose, we must respect the doctrinal 'purity' of York's decision:

At York Catholic, Alexander was asked why the YCDSB is one of a few remaining boards that won’t fly the flag, and he said “what’s different about us is that we stand for our faith, we stand for Christ.”

The committee’s report, however, said “our Catholicity calls us to be inclusive, compassionate, and empathetic. Pope Francis continues to urge all of us to welcome LGBTQ members into the church, to demonstrate ‘tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us.’”

A political response riddled with hypocrisy, if there ever was one.

Getting back to vocal critic Dina Mayr and my prediction of a truncated career with York, allow me to tell you a story from my teaching days demonstrating that publicly opposing your employer, while perhaps principled, is never tolerated. 

In my final year or two of teaching, I had a terrible principal, one I regarded as a psychopath. My vice-principal was sane, but he was an overly sensitive man who saw those of us in the West Wing of the school  (the farthest geographic point from the administrators) as constantly conspiring against him and his ilk. (It wasn't true. We only occasionally conspired against him.) Anyway, he redeemed himself completely in my eyes after he left our school to become principal of a vocational school within our board. By all accounts, he did an excellent job for the students, so much so that he publicly railed against the board's decision to close his school.

Ultimately, his efforts failed, and he was slated to become the principal of a vocational school elsewhere when the board announced it had changed its mind and appointed someone else, on the pretext that in the closing days of his old school, an act of  vandalism under his watch. While they refused to comment on his fate, I later learned the board fired him. The same fate awaits Ms. Mayr, perhaps, for example, for something as trivial as unauthorized used of the photocopier. 

The lesson to be learned, a hard one, is this:

"Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord [and the board].

UPDATE: Here is Michael Coren's take on the issue.

 

 

Gay Pride: A Proviso

Yesterday I wrote about the considerable pride that we should all take in the progress we are making as a society, World Pride in Toronto being a sterling example. However, as Star letter-writer Blair Bigham of Toronto points out in today's edition, there is still room for improvement:

Political stripes aside, Ontario (population 13.5 million) elected the first gay premier in Canada. Other than Iceland (population 300,000), no other people has elected a gay leader.

The fact that Kathleen Wynne’s sexuality was not even an issue throughout the campaign speaks to the equity and inclusivity Ontario offers. What a place for gay people to grow up in.

And yet, despite living in one of the most gay-friendly places on earth, I learned being gay was wrong long before I learned it wasn’t. Still today slurs are thrown my way by strangers, words are chosen carefully in new social settings, and there is the perpetual evaluation of every person I come in contact with, a super-subconscious Gestalt judgment about how welcoming they would be if they “could tell.” Like the annoying buzz-hum of a wonky fluorescent bulb, barely noticeable, but oh so persistent.

The constant stress that we face here, rarely acknowledged because it shames us that we can’t just accept ourselves, cannot compare to what people feel elsewhere. Minority stress affects me, and surely as an Ontarian I have it better than nearly everyone else.

So while I offer Ms Wynne and all of Ontario accolades for making history and demonstrable progress, I pause to think of the rest of the world, and check my privilege. If anything, it recommits me to spread the amazing agency I have as a gay person in Ontario with those elsewhere and take nothing for granted.

World Pride: Our Pride

While it is never good to feel smug or self-satisfied (we've seen where that takes the right wing), there are things about which we should feel very good. Although I do not live in Toronto, as I was watching the news last night covering the opening of the 10-day World Pride Festival being hosted in that city, I said to my wife that it really is something that we should all feel proud about. The fact that Toronto, and indeed Canada as a whole, is looked upon as a place where diversity is embraced is a measure of our potential for growth as a species.

I was struck by the essential truth in the words of Mr. Gay World, Christopher Olwage, who said, "It should just be a matter of being human and respecting that fact."

As well, those of Christopher Wee, Mr. Gay Canada: “It shows how progressive we are in Canada and in Toronto about our human rights direction and the LGBT direction.”



No one would dispute that we are deeply flawed. A recent trip to The Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta reminded me once again of what an incredibly small space we occupy on the timeline of earth's evolution. So many species came before us, and so many will continue after we are gone. Yet there are days when I think that were our world not so environmentally imperiled, making our own continuation very questionable, we really could evolve into something quite special.

Contrasting Pictures

This post could perhaps more aptly be entitled A Tale of Two Centuries. The top picture, from yesterday's Dyke March in Toronto, represents some of the best of the twenty-first century as people increasingy accept and welcome the diversity that is humanity. It is hard not to feel a measure of pride in a country that, while still beset with a myriad of problems, has been one of the world's forerunners in promoting equality regardless of sexual orientation. Both the Dyke Parade and today's Pride Parade are ample testaments to that progressiveness.

The second picture, taken from yesterday's Pride Parade in St. Petersburg, could just as easily have been taken in the nineteenth century or earlier, as protesters clashed with paraders who were taking a brave stance in a city where it is illegal to demonstrate on behalf of equal rights for LGBT people; by publicly doing so, they broke a city bylaw that is about to become national law.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon sign into law a bill that bans “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.”

Under Russia’s new law, people who promote homosexuality through any media, including online, can be charged up to $3,200. The fines are tenfold for organizations, which can also be shuttered for 90 days.

According to state-owned pollster Vtsiom, 88 per cent of Russians support the ban. A survey by independent pollster Levada last year found that half of Russians believe homosexuals should be forcibly given medical or psychological treatment.

Changing people's attitudes and perspectives is among the most difficult of challenges. The fact that such challenges can be met is epitomized in twenty-first century Toronto in particular and North America in general.

In a world beset by runaway climate change, choking pollution, government surveillance of its citizens and a relentless and unforgiving corporate agenda that gleefully exploits an increasingly desperate workforce, surely it is time to turn our attention to matters more important than who people spend their time and their lives with.

The Ongoing Failure Of Toronto's Chief Magistrate

Admittedly, the ideological girth of Toronto's chief magistrate makes him an easy target. Always outspoken, heedless of who he offends, with the political instincts of a brawler, Rob Ford has made it abundantly clear to most that he is incapable of growing in the job.

But in my view, his problems go beyond his obvious limitations as a leader. There is also a maliciousness about him when it comes to gay people, his refusal to attend the gay pride flag-raising event only the latest symptom.

In her column today, Rosie DiManno skewers Ford's oft-repeated excuse that the Pride parade conflicts with his family's long-standing tradition of gathering at the cottage on the Canada Day weekend, and suggests that if the rumour that he is uncomfortable around the exhibitionism that is a feature of the parade is true, arrangements could easily be made to put the mayor far from “offending’’ participants.

However, I suspect his barely-concealed contempt for the gay populace of Toronto was unwittingly or perhaps intentionally revealed on the final radio show of the season that he shares with brother Doug.

During the program, Doug Ford made the following suggestion:

“We should be as patriotic as anything,” said Councillor Ford. “We should be having a Canada Day parade. We should have the troops going down with us waving the flags,” he said.

Mayor Ford piped in. “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

His brother pledged back, “Next year, let’s make it happen.”

Of course, not a word was said about how such a parade would conflict with the aforementioned family tradition.

A powerful and negative message from Toronto's chief magistrate.

Mayor Rob Ford Won’t Attend Gay Outreach Event

But then again, would anyone really want this clown to attend their function?