(LifeSiteNews) — For years LGBT activists brazenly lied to the public, claiming that all they were asking for was tolerance, acceptance, and a live-and-let-live attitude. A few may even have believed it—most did not. We are now seeing this everywhere. This fact is highlighted by recent clashes in Canada between parents who do not want their children inculcated with LGBT ideology and activists who insist having their values taught to other people’s children is their human right.
An ongoing fight between LGBT activists and the Toronto District School Board showcases this fight. According to the Toronto Star, some parents and school staff are “demanding that the Toronto District School Board stop allowing students to opt out of drag queen storytime events.” The activists behind the push, Toronto Pflag and the board’s 2SLGBTQ+ Community Advisory Committee. ”have been advocating unsuccessfully for weeks since the issue over attendance and consent arose at a Pride celebration at Bruce Public School in early June. They say the opt-out violates the Ontario Human Rights Code and are calling for an apology for the harm caused by the decision. The board, they add, has not been particularly responsive.”
Remember when people raised concerns about these events and were told “if you don’t like them, don’t go?” Yeah, that brushoff was for suckers. The plan was always to make every aspect of LGBT education mandatory—even having drag queens read to your kids. As the National Post’s Jonathan Kay put it on Twitter: “This is where we are in Canada: Allowing parents to opt their kids out of ‘drag queen storytime activities’ would apparently create ‘hate.’”
For now, the TDSB is staying firm and permitting an opt-out for parents who wish to keep their children out of such events (although as I’ve noted before in this space, LGBT ideology has been integrated into every aspect of the curriculum and so it is impossible to opt out of everything—and that’s by design). Grace Lee, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Education, stated that “we expect school boards to respect parental decisions when it comes to their children”—but the board has already stated that it will consult with human rights specialists and “the community” to “determine a path forward.”
To me, that sounds like they’re preparing to cave—and even that isn’t good enough for LGBT activists, who cited the recent protests across the country as a key reason for school boards to double down and force children to attend the events. The board told the Star that “we have heard from the community and staff members that this approach was deeply hurtful and not respectful of the human rights of 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Their concerns are being taken very seriously … We should have spent more time in consultation with the community and our students and staff prior to providing this guidance and for that we apologize.”
READ: Drag queens parade around New York City chanting, ‘We’re coming for your children’
You’ll notice that they don’t even bother to acknowledge that the op-out was provided to the community at the request of parents in the community. There is no human right to force kids to attend a drag queen event and it is ridiculous to say so. But of course, Ontario’s LGBT activists do say so. From the Star:
“This policy is outrageous,” Toronto Pflag president Michael Ain wrote to TDSB director of education Colleen Russell-Rawlins in the wake of a storytime event at Bruce Public School, in Leslieville, where permission forms triggered a public backlash that ended with the board dropping the requirement but offering an opt-out to students.
“(The storytime opt-out policy) panders to the dangerous and wrong-headed belief that a drag queen reading a story hurts children,” Ain wrote in his June 15 letter. “It is dangerous as it ‘others’ 2SLGBTQ+ people, including the storyteller, and almost certainly some of the students and staff.” Since then, the 2SLGBTQ+ Community Advisory Committee (CAC), which had already wrapped up its meetings for the academic year, has reconvened twice to discuss the issue.
“A communication providing parents the ability to opt out of drag queen storytime activities at school, while based on guidance from the Ministry of Education, rightfully raised concerns about emboldening environments and acts of hate,” said TDSB trustee Debbie King, who is the CAC co-chair. At the emergency meetings, staff and community members, as well as administrators, voiced their concerns to some of the TDSB’s senior team, including the director, and were told, according to attendees, that a letter of apology and retraction would be forthcoming, but neither came.
LGBT activists are furious that the issue wasn’t “dealt with before the school year was over,” and are claiming that the parental opt-out caused real harm and set the school board back in its LGBT advocacy. As LGBT activist and gay teacher Rico Rodriguez stated: “All the work that I have done myself personally and that others did before me has been destroyed, just by that statement that you can opt out, and that’s not right.” That’s a pretty revealing admission—Rodriguez , who also performs as a drag queen, is admitting that all of his work has been oriented towards creating mandatory LGBT education that parents are required to send their children to.
Drag queen story hour, meanwhile, has been hosted in several Toronto elementary schools reading books like ‘Twas the Night Before Pride and Auntie Uncle: Drag Queen Hero.
The TDSB posted a statement on June 30 that indicates, in my view, that the parental opt-out will eventually be removed: “TDSB has a duty to create spaces which reflect the lived experiences, histories and perspectives of 2SLGBTQ+ communities. This work is particularly important at this time given the increasing levels of homophobia, transphobia and biphobia that we are seeing in our communities and schools. Harassment, discrimination and hate have no place in TDSB.”
Ten years ago, if you had said that LGBT activists wanted to make drag queens reading LGBT books to children mandatory, you would have been laughed at and called a homophobe and a paranoiac. Yet, here we are. Here we are.
READ: Illinois library postpones drag queen event for teens after public backlash
