AINST HATE AINST HA


2SLGBTQ+ INCLUSION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS


BY MELISSA SKY I


’m writing this article in the immedi- ate aſtermath of the hate-motivated attack on students and a professor in a gender studies class at the University of Waterloo in early July. UW is my


alma mater, a place where I first came out and learned to embrace my identity as a queer woman. I cannot imagine the trauma those students experienced that day, just as I strug- gle to imagine the dehumanizing hatred that motivated the perpetrator. I’ve been engaged in rainbow rights activism for three decades, and I never thought we’d slide backwards, yet I see it happening now. I’m not just watching, however. I’m also fighting back, and I implore all of you to fight to prevent this dangerous backward slide, too. When I first came to UW, I joined their


coming out discussion group, which was run by Jim Parrott, a gay rights activist and local icon who continues to spearhead 2SL- GBTQ+ initiatives, even though he’s now in his 80s. Jim warned us, “Vigilance is the price of freedom. Rights can be won but they can be taken away too.” I was skeptical at the time, for I was young and had an optimis- tic view of history as steady progress toward equality. Clearly, I should have listened to my “village elder,” for we are currently witness- ing an explosion of overt hate. Inflammatory language and bigoted vitriol


are creeping north from the United States. Te religious right is well-organized and has learned to manipulate both social media and political networks to spread their messaging. Hundreds of anti-trans and anti-gay bills have been introduced in the US, and we’re seeing legislative pushback to 2SLGBTQ+ equality beginning to happen in Canada as well, most notably in New Brunswick, where a contro- versial new policy bans teachers from using a student’s preferred name and pronouns with-


ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 13 ➔


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