School’s back, and so are the “gender ideology” warriors

September 2022 – In late August, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal dismissed a complaint made by parents of a six-year-old girl that an Ottawa elementary school had discriminated against her daughter based on her sex and gender identity because of remarks made by her teacher. The teacher had initially said there was no difference between a boy and girl before correcting herself and drawing a spectrum with boys on one end and girls on the other with points between. She considered it a teachable moment about gender identity in response to a class member being teased.

During the hearing, the mother of the girl described the discussions around gender identity at the school as “cultural colonization” and a method of “reprogramming a child’s identity.” She reported that her daughter found the lessons “very upsetting”. The tribunal noted, however, that neither parent was able to explain how they came to the conclusion that their daughter was upset by the lessons.

Not surprisingly, the mother also runs a website and Twitter account that criticizes education and legal matters on child gender identities, particularly policies around transgender and gender-diverse rights.

I was thinking of this mother recently when a nonbinary youth around 12 years old came into the Ottawa Trans Library. They were eager to show their two girlfriends the library and some of their favourite books. The parents of the girls were obviously aware that their daughters had a nonbinary friend and didn’t have a problem with it. The girls themselves were friendly and weren’t at all upset by a visit to a trans library. On the contrary, they were walking around with big grins on their faces. One of them even complimented me on my shoes! All of which led me to conclude that if the daughter of this complaining parent was indeed upset, then she learned it from her mother.

There’s an old maxim that says kids aren’t born racist; they learn it from their parents. We can substitute transphobic in that expression and it would still be true.