Catholic schools ban gay-straight alliance groups

Liking Gay’s to Nazi’s

With the world’s spotlight on the It Gets Better campaign and gay teen suicides, the urgency for schools to create gay-straight alliance (GSA) groups seems obvious, uniting the two to a better understanding of each other.  However,  things are not going that way in part of Canada,    some say bringing shame on the county.

Now,  the Ontario Ministry of Education thinks such things as Gay-Straight Alliances are of great important, the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) takes a very  different view.

The see it as harmful if gay and straight people talk together to get a better understanding of each others views, situations and experiences.   The HCDSB feels so much so  that they have issued a ban on GSAs altogether.

In defence of the ban they proudly proclaim “We don’t have Nazi groups either,” rationalizes board chair Alice Anne LeMay. “Gay-straight alliances are banned because they are not within the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

“If a gay student requests a gay-straight alliance they would be denied,” she says flatly.      “It’s not in accordance with the teachings of the church. If they wanted to have a club outside of school, fine, just not in school.”

It’s bans like this that send out a message to the wider world that the catholic faith is so hateful that it wont even talk to gay people, to modernise, to engage in discussion or dialog for the greater good of humanity.   Whilst it’s obvious to some, this is not the view of many other catholic people,  those facts get lost in media reporting and the overall message given off is how utterly homophobic and hateful it is.

See more  on this story ban gay-straight alliance groups  Xtra

As of 2011, all Ontario school boards have equity and inclusive education policies that help schools provide safe and positive environments for students of all races, religions and sexual orientations. The policies, which encourage GSAs, give schools the tools to deal with discrimination.

“Schools that have GSAs are a lot more open, caring, welcoming and a whole lot safer,” says Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, who has been involved in the fight against homophobia and transphobia in schools for the past two years. She is quick to point out that many other Catholic schools in Ontario have GSA groups.

Michael Pautler is the education director of the HCDSB, a board responsible for 40 elementary schools and eight secondary schools, a total of about 29,000 students. He tries to explain the ban to Xtra, saying the amendment was made to the equity and inclusive education policy after one trustee took issue with the language before the policy was approved in November.


“Anybody can have input into the process as the policy is being developed, but ultimately the language at the end of the process is approved collectively,” he says.