A Teacher Blogs

...was about an hour ago . I  wasn't doing anything particularly queer at the time -- unless you count deadheading marigolds while wearing a shirt with a rainbow coloured heart that reads  Kill it with Kindness  across the front. Oh, and I had on that Egale Human Rights Trust rainbow wristband. And the shirt. And, of course, I was gardening. I used to hear that word all the time -- daily in fact -- a little over forty years ago in an all-boys Catholic middle school. That word and "queer," "fairy," and "gay boy," pretty much everyday for two years. It was mostly because I stood out: soft spoken, polite to teachers, Protestant (in name only), good at drama and music, and bad at sports.  The last one was a killer: Not only was I bad at hockey and football in a school that was as passionate about sports as it was about Catholicism; I had the temerity not to particularly care.  That's right. A red-blooded Ca...

On the eve of the 2015 celebration of the International Day of Pink , many -- myself included -- were startled to find that Laureen Harper had been named an ambassador of the event. Ms Harper's letter of support appeared on the front page of the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity (CCGSD) , formerly known as Jer's Vision for its founder Jeremy Dias . Sparks flew briefly, and we went on about our business. CBC reported on both the controversy and the successes of the day: LGBT activists boycott #DayOfPink over Laureen Harper's involvement . Well, sort of. But not really. There were no disruptions of the event, per se. Ariel Troster posted an essay on Storify which elucidated the concerns of many: Why I won't be wearing pink tomorrow: How the #DayofPink just sold out trans youth . While the Harper Conservatives have been trying to paint themselves as gay-friendly, the party is stacked with vicious homophobes who said absolutely atrocious things during...

S. Bear Bergman is a writer, activist, storyteller, and a publisher . He's celebrated for his creative efforts and living his life openly as a trans man. I've read some of his children's books and other writings, and I really enjoy his work. His writing can be funny and sweet, and it can also be edgy and irreverent. Bear wrote a lovely piece for HuffPo called, I Have Come to Indoctrinate Your Children Into My LGBTQ Agenda (And I'm Not a Bit Sorry) . And unless you are a person devoid of humour and imagination, you know that title is a playful bait-and-switch, along the lines of Harvey Milk's I want to recruit you speeches.  This is the indoctrination of which Bear wrote: I am here to tell you: All that time I said I wasn't indoctrinating anyone with my beliefs about gay and lesbian and bi and trans and queer people? That was a lie. All 25 years of my career as an LGBTQ activist, since the very first time as a 16-year-old I went and stood shaking a...

Over the last few years, I've been tracking some of the commentary of Phil Lees , a retired educator, former leader of the moribund The Family Coalition Party of Ontario , and self-described parent rights activist. Mr Lees has spoken extensively about Bill 13 -- The Accepting Schools Act of Ontario (2012) , the 2010/2015 Ontario Ministry of Education Health and Physical Education Curriculum , and the impact of same-sex marriage in Canada, as he sees it. He is particularly fond of telling an anecdote about mock same-sex wedding ceremonies performed in grade three classrooms, and that will be the subject of this open letter to Mr Lees. April 5, 2015 Mr Phil Lees Director Public Education Advocates for Christian Equity 2621 Hwy 56 P.O. Box 306 Binbrook, ON L0R 1C0 Dear Mr Lees, I am writing to you to enquire about comments you've made several times regarding the conducting of mock same-sex wedding ceremonies in Ontario grade three classrooms. You've alluded to this in se...

Source: Morocco World News Anyone who devotes time, as I do, to tracking the progress of equity, particularly as it pertains to gender and sexuality, in public education notices familiar patterns in the language of its detractors. Whether the discussion is about the Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy (2009) , The Accepting Schools Act of Ontario (2012) , or the 2015 updates to Ontario's  Health and Physical Education Curriculum (shelved since 2010), the peculiar phrase  normalizing homosexuality repeats itself. In my secular existence, it all seems very strange to me. Talk of normalizing homosexuality -- acknowledging sexual diversity, as I would have it -- sounds like normalizing gravity. Some examples below, emphasis mine: Charles McVety “This is part of a militant homosexual agenda to normalize homosexuality in everyone’s mind and thereby promote homosexuality,” he told the National Post last April. “If we teach our child...

Back in April 2010, most Ontarians probably didn't know the name Benjamin Levin, who had been the Provincial Deputy Minister of Education during the development of the 2010 Health curriculum. Before that, Dr Levin served as Deputy Minister of Advanced Education and also of Education, Training and Youth from 1999 through 2002 in Manitoba. The OISE -- University of Toronto professor would go on to work on Kathleen Wynne's transition team when she became Premier. That changed in July of 2013, when Levin was arrested by Toronto Police Services, following investigations in London, Ontario and New Zealand. All tolled, Mr Levin was finally charged with seven counts of child exploitation, including charges of possessing and accessing child pornography. Before I proceed, let's be clear. There is indeed a place for moral outrage in this story, and that has to do with Ben Levin's conduct. The charges against Mr Levin are serious and disturbing to anyone with a grain of dece...