Hands in his pockets, a boy walks onto the stage. He must be barely 10 years old. An organizer hands him the microphone. What would he like to say? “I would like to say that gays are psychopaths and we are not psychopaths,” the kid begins. In the crowd, a voice protests, many others cheer. The organizer smiles. The child raises his voice: “Gays are disgusting!” »
This video was captured in Calgary, where one of the anti-LGBTQ+ protests that shamed Canada took place on Wednesday. In several cities, from Montreal to Vancouver, we thought we had gone back 50 years, to a time when homosexuality was still considered a mental illness that had to be treated with electroshocks, or even lobotomy.
The organizers swore that no, really, it was nothing against gays, that it was simply a matter of protecting children against indoctrination at school, you had to be blind not to see the hatred that poured into the streets, from one end of the country to the other.
It was to be expected. The One Million March for Children movement was supported, among others, by ultra-conservative Muslims, by religious rightists and by supporters of the “freedom convoy”.
There was a happy mix of fundamentalists, fascists and conspiracy theorists, united in the uninhibited intolerance of the LGBTQ+ communities. Isn’t that beautiful?
In Montreal, the famous anti-vaccine activist François Amalega-Bitondo delivered a speech. He wasn’t going to miss this. The conspiracy of the hour, if you didn’t know it yet, is that gender theory is sneakily infiltrating our schools. Children are indoctrinated by teachers, who impose radical and completely stupid theories on them behind their parents’ backs.
Initially marginal, this fear slowly percolated within the population. So much so that many ordinary citizens are worried today about this ideology that would be imposed in schools, without public debate. Politicians hope to gain points by adding fuel to the fire. “Parents and protesters are right to be concerned,” wrote Éric Duhaime on X.
But what are we talking about, exactly?
A toilet renovation project in Abitibi that has nothing to do with transgender students? From one – ONE! – non-binary teacher who asks to be called Mx Martine in Montérégie? And what else ? What are we so afraid of?
I don’t know about you, but since the beginning of my children’s school career, I have never had the impression that someone was trying to indoctrinate them. Not the slightest teacher tried to convince them that sexes do not exist, to encourage them to explore their non-binary feelings or to scold them, tut-tut, that’s no longer said, a “man” and a ” female “…
Sometimes I wonder: is there a teacher, just one, who really teaches all this to his students, in Quebec? Or is it a parallel reality that only exists in the recurring columns of a handful of Montreal columnists?
I asked Julie Descheneaux the question. A professor in the sexology department at UQAM, she has just completed her doctorate on the practices of sexuality education in schools. In other words, she knows what she’s talking about, unlike the vast majority of us.
“When we go into the field, we hear all kinds of concerns… which have no link with the infiltration of gender theory,” notes Mme Descheneaux. Teachers complain about the lack of resources, the overload of work and the scarcity of sexologists. Never gender theory, an expression rarely used in academia.
And then, rest assured, in primary and secondary schools in Quebec, we do not teach children that sexes no longer exist. This absurd idea, at least, is not found anywhere in the sexuality education curriculum.
That said, students do talk about gender identity in class. “It is a curriculum that invites us to anchor ourselves in openness and tolerance, in order to respect the rights of everyone,” explains Julie Descheneaux. There is this openness to diversity and personal introspection. » It is about supporting the student in this introspection. “It is not done with a view to imposing an ideology. »
Those who fear that students could be encouraged to change gender by discussing these issues in class do not understand the full complexity of children’s psychosexual development, believes Ms.me Descheneaux. “Young people who have questions are supported by health professionals. It is not the teacher who decides anything; he is not trained in this type of individual intervention. »
For the specialist, it is obvious: “Psychosexual development is not contaminated by ideas that circulate in society. »
As the minister responsible for the fight against homophobia and transphobia, Martine Biron, pointed out on Thursday, gender dysphoria is not contagious.
Even if we abolish sexuality education programs in schools and adopt all the anti-LGBTQ+ policies in the world, it will not change the identity of trans children. They are there, they exist and will continue to exist.
After Wednesday’s sad slip-ups, it becomes clear that dad is not always right. And that we must trust the school, more than certain parents, to tell these children: they have the right to exist.
They have the right to respect. They are not a mistake. They don’t scare us.
They’re not disgusting.