Among the thousand reasons that make me proud to be a Quebecer is our early tolerance, then our resolute defense, of homosexuals. Don’t we say that, without us, Canada would have been much slower to legalize marriage for all?
This Quebec particularity emerged from a monologue delivered at a Just For Laughs gala by American comedian Sarah Silverman. I quote from memory: “In the United States, we use codes to designate our gay neighborhoods. The “District Castro” [San Francisco] or “Greenwich” [New York]. For what ? So that the rednecks, who are fools, do not know where to find them. But you, your gay village is called “the gay village”! Are you doing it on purpose or what? »
The adhesion of Quebecers to the gay cause was progressive, in society, culture, families. A process of acclimatization, adhesion, normalization. But now we are getting signals from our North American environment that we need to be concerned about. This is the injunction of solidarity. It is not enough to accept, but to show your support for the cause. Sometimes under threat of penalties.
Montreal celebrates gay pride in August, but this year, in the United States and Canada, the tradition of making June gay pride month has gained momentum, especially in schools. In Ontario, the (Conservative) Minister of Education issued a directive stating that “all school boards have a responsibility to ensure that all students — especially 2SLGBTQ+ students — feel supported, reflected in their schools. which is admirable. But he added: “That includes celebrating Pride Month. »
The nuance is crucial between acceptance and promotion, between education and proselytism. Our charters protect “freedom of conscience,” which includes the right to disagree with the norm, as long as no unlawful act is committed. On the school benches, we are certainly required to learn the standard and to respect it. But do we have to celebrate it? If Quebec’s National Day fell on June 1, would all children be forced to wear fleur-de-lis buttons and walk the streets, flag in hand? That’s what elementary school kids in Vancouver were asked last year for Pride Month.
This year, in Ontario, we have witnessed a massive refusal by Muslim parents to let their children participate in these celebrations. This has notably earned those in Ottawa a strict directive from the school authorities prohibiting the right of withdrawal for children. “Human rights are not open to debate or selective participation,” it says. In Nova Scotia, the recording of a teacher scolding a Muslim student who refused to participate in Pride activities caused a stir. She says that “we believe that people can marry whoever they want, it’s in the law, and if you don’t think it should be the law, you can’t be Canadian. You don’t belong here, and I’m serious.
Imam Sikander Hashmi reports in the National Post that “students at an Ottawa high school said staff guarded the doors during a Pride Month assembly to make sure no one left, while others patrolled the halls and Another even checked the parking lot to find students who refused to attend. A parent reported that his Grade 3 child at another school was told he couldn’t go to recess unless he drew a rainbow. I have been told by parents that other students have been threatened with expulsion if they do not participate in Pride Month activities”.
The imam is particularly angry with a booklet designed especially for his young flock entitled “I am a Muslim but I may not be straight”. No less than a third of primary school students in the city of London, with a strong Muslim concentration, were absent during a day dedicated to denouncing homophobia in May. Then, we saw a small group of Muslim mothers encouraging their children to step on small rainbow flags. A scene that can be summed up in two words: hatred and obscurantism.
Dear readers, you know that I am very critical of religions, especially for their misogyny and their homophobia. I am both in favor of stopping subsidies for schools with a religious vocation and I want, for the good of the children, that none should be exempted from common education. However, we cannot live together without respect for freedom of conscience. I therefore reject enlistment in causes, even if they are mine. Like religion, militancy must be displayed and practiced at times, not at school or in the state. The refusal to apply this principle is powerfully fueling the conservative backlash we are witnessing and which will soon arrive in a school near you.
In fact, it’s already there. In Quebec, committees made up of students and supported by teachers and voluntary administrators give themselves the mandate to apply gender theory, which I spoke about in a previous column, in the entire school. Requests for non-binary toilets in primary and secondary school are common, and sometimes supervisors who are more particular about respecting each other’s privacy are “called transphobes by 12-year-old children”, reports me. a teacher.
There are AGIS in several of our schools, for Alliance genres, identities, sexualities. Their creation is recommended by the Canadian government. They aim to transform the whole school into a “safe place”. The educational kits made available by the AGIS organization cover the themes and vocabulary used in gender theory. That’s great: students interested in setting up a committee can easily receive a $500 grant. Desjardins is also one of the sponsors of the initiative.
I have before me a letter sent this spring to parents by a Laval high school principal. He invites them to support the initiative aimed at “creating solidarity and mobilizing students and school staff to become allies”. The Autonomous Teachers’ Federation is organizing a “Allied People’s Challenge” for its teachers’ unions, which will deploy the rainbow flag, buttons and promotional kiosks in their schools. In both cases, we are not in the presence of the language of education, but of that of militancy.
Father, columnist and author, Jean-François Lisée led the PQ from 2016 to 2018.
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blog: jflisee.org