When Jack Wants to be Jill

Brian Hutchinson , National Post Published: Tuesday, September 02, 2008

VANCOUVER – This is the week that all hell was to break loose in British Columbia classrooms. Thanks to an extraordinary agreement between two homosexual activists and the province’s Ministry of Education, controversial new “gay-friendly” curriculum and teaching resources were to be introduced today in public schools.

Education Minister Shirley Bond says B. C. is now a world leader in matters of diversity training. But raising the subject of sexual orientation in the classroom sends a chill up some spines.

Depending on one’s point of view, the launch of Social Justice 12, an elective course aimed at high school seniors, and “Making Space, Giving Voice,” a guide for teachers in all classroom levels, signals either that B. C. public schools are the most progressive and inclusive in the country, or that they permit the suppression of religious and parental rights by forcing schoolchildren to accept as “normal” gay, lesbian and transgender lifestyles. Conservative education critics have lambasted the province’s willingness to allow any same-sex discussion into B. C. classrooms. The prescribed curriculum – the first course in the country to explicitly endorse homosexuality and transsexualism, coupled with a new policy that gives teachers discretion to bring gay themes into their lessons – is unique in Canada and, perhaps, North America.

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