Dear editor,
The disturbing anti-SOGI protests, and the vitriolic othering from LGBTQ+ groups and unions have only been productive in further blurring the concerns on both sides of this truly convoluted debate.
The right screaming 鈥済roomer鈥� and the left screaming 鈥渉ateful bigot鈥� doesn鈥檛 help.
What has been lost in the incessant bleating are the underlying assumptions at play from both groups. The parent and religious groups should have every right to know what is being taught in their children鈥檚 schools, and be presented with some formal mechanism to protect their individual liberties.
Per the BC School Act, 鈥淎ll schools and provincial schools must be conducted on strictly secular and non-sectarian principles.鈥� Non-sectarian, by definition, means not involving or relating to a specific religious sect OR political group; a very blurry line given the current discourse.
It is also reasonable to question the age appropriateness of parts of the SOGI-123 curriculum, where children in kindergarten can be introduced to appropriate pronoun usage prior to being taught how a pronoun even functions correctly in a sentence (bc.sogieducation.org). These seemingly reasonable concerns have not been adequately communicated to parents and require urgent clarification and resolution. Parents wanting to be more involved in their children鈥檚 education should be encouraged, not vilified. Parents need to be educated, not othered.
On the other side of the argument, we can all agree there is 鈥渘o place for hate鈥� in our schools; differences should be embraced, and inclusivity encouraged. There should be no debate over this. But this statement has been weaponized, in a stunning twist of irony, to further propagate an 鈥淯S vs. THEM鈥� narrative that leaves no room for finding a common middle ground on otherwise reasonable questions and concerns on parental rights and religious inclusivity (or accommodation) in schools.
For the sake of our children, we need to dial down the rhetoric from the extreme ends of both groups, and come up with a workable solution to encourage diversity and inclusion that respects LGBTQ2+ rights, religious freedoms and minority rights. This will not be an easy task, but unless we lower the temperature on these conversations, there will be no way to find a truly 鈥渘on-sectarian鈥� middle ground that accommodates the broad diversity of our population in our public school system. Inclusivity works both ways.
Brennan Day,
Comox Valley
