CHARBONNEAU – Transgender is where homosexuality was decades ago

PEOPLE HAVE FINALLY REALIZED that homosexuals do not choose attraction to the same sex. It’s something innate.

Now parents are worried that schools are encouraging kids to choose a gender opposite to their sex. Or, in an attempt to trivialize the matter, that schools are supporting children who identify as cats.

Decades ago, conversion therapy was used to convert homosexuals. The therapy was used to “cure” or “repair” a person’s attraction to the same sex. Therapy providers humiliated and abused heterosexuals into becoming “straight.”

Not only was conversion therapy unsuccessful but it often led to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness and suicide.

Like gay movements of the past, transgender children have become politicized.

The issue is whether teachers should address their students by preferred pronouns without the consent of parents.

As a former public school teacher, I am extremely sensitive to the wishes of parents. However, children are not always comfortable in revealing their gender to their parents. Sometimes students need to be protected from their parents.

Conservative governments in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick want to make it mandatory for schools to get parental consent before using the chosen names and pronouns of students under 16 in the classroom.

In B.C., people are up in arms against a program called SOGI, or Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.

SOGI was introduced in 2016 by the B.C. Liberal party — now B.C. United. The current B.C. NDP government continues to support the program, as does B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon.

Angry protestors claim that SOGI encourages children to change genders or undergo gender-affirming surgery. Others say it goes against religious values.

But SOGI is a program, not a curriculum. SOGI talks about different families: foster families, families with two dads, families with a single mom. In Grades 5 to 7, there is a lesson on gender stereotypes and bullying. The SOGI program allows students to consider how traditional gender expectations can limit a person’s potential and self-expression. It also explores the harm, stigma and bullying that people who challenge gender expectations can face.

Despite having broad political support in B.C., the Angry People of Freedom Kamloops are against SOGI. In an ugly confrontation on Sept. 20 at the Kamloops Pride Drag Queen Reading Hour, “anti-pride” protesters carrying signs yelled insults at people entering the North Kamloops Library.

Joseph Jack, known locally as Joey Jack, attended the library event. He reported some of the bizarre comments he received in a letter to CFJC Today.

“One of the protestors at the drag queen story hour said to another Kamloops media outlet that the trans movement was a ‘fad.’ She said it was part of a wide-ranging plot by the World Economic Forum (Klaus Schwab) to reduce the world’s population. She believed it was a spiritual battle between good and evil. She also didn’t believe COVID-19 was real and that 5G networks are poisoning people ‘electromagnetically.’”

In an apparent reference to cat identity, one protestor said that kids are using litter boxes in schools and that kids are learning about anal sex.

The same angry rhetoric that attempted to demonize gay people is now being used against transgender children. It’s time they were allowed out of the closet.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.