TORONTO, Ontario, July 28, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A grade 12 student in the Toronto District School Board says her school’s gay-straight alliance (GSA) gave her the support she needed to “transition” from female to male.
“I have really great teachers who have been incredibly supportive; I’m so lucky to have that,” the York Memorial Collegiate Institute student, who now goes by Ian de Rege, had said in April, according to Metro News. “Looking back on it now, I don’t know how I did it. I started telling people that I wanted to be called Ian … I was met with such positive responses that I hadn’t expected.”
The Toronto District School Board has been at the forefront of promoting the homosexual clubs, with at least 50 GSAs among the board’s high schools. In April, the board’s trustees unanimously voted to declare that the Toronto District School Board is itself a “gay-straight alliance.”
That move came in the midst of a major battle in Ontario over the Catholic separate schools’ refusal to allow clubs to operate under the name “gay-straight alliance.”
Homosexual activists have claimed the clubs, which were recommended as part of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s equity and inclusive education strategy, are needed to ensure “safe schools.” Pro-family leaders, on the other hand, say they promote a radical sexual agenda that embraces homosexuality and gender confusion as normal and healthy lifestyle choices.
Despite their refusal to allow GSAs, the Catholic school system – under the direction of the Ontario bishops – is complying with the government mandate to offer gay clubs by offering “anti-bullying” clubs for homosexual students that focus on sexual orientation.
Many Catholic parents and other pro-family supporters have expressed fear, however, that the groups will simply act as GSAs under another name. Their fears appeared to have been confirmed earlier this year by James Ryan, the former president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA), who said that the anti-bullying clubs are just gay-straight alliances with a “Catholic name.”
The underhanded approach of using gay clubs under any name but GSAs to promote homosexuality in Catholic schools has been openly promoted by Helen Kennedy, executive director of the leading homosexual lobby group Egale, which runs MyGSA.ca.
Catholic parents who oppose the province’s equity strategy have said that under the equity strategy Catholic schools will end up over time becoming places where confused youth are simply encouraged to “come out” and embrace the gay lifestyle.
In one case already, a Religious Education Course Profile for Grade 9 published by the Waterloo Region Catholic District School Board states: “The teacher should also be sensitive to the possibility that some students may choose to ‘come out’ as a result of this activity and therefore must ensure that appropriate support systems are available before beginning.”
Contact information:
Bishop Gerard Bergie, Chair of Ontario Bishops’ Education Commission
Tel: (905) 684-0154
Fax: (905) 684-7551
Email: [email protected]
Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario
President
Archbishop Thomas Collins,
(416) 934-0606
[email protected]
Chris Spence, Director of Education
Toronto District School Board
5050 Yonge Street – 5th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M2N5N8
Email: [email protected]
Hon. Leona Dombrowsky, Minister of Education
Mowat Block, 22nd Flr
900 Bay St
Toronto, ON M7A 1L2
Tel: 1-800-387-5514 (TTY 1-800-263-2892)
Fax: 416-325-6348
Email: [email protected]
Elizabeth Witmer, Education Critic
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
Rm 422, Main Legislative Building
Toronto ON M7A 1A8
Tel: 416-325-1306
Fax: 416-325-1329
E-mail: Use this form.