A St. Albert family is disappointed by the province's recent bill on gay-straight alliances, and says it should get on with supporting them unconditionally.
After a hectic week that saw even members of his own party turn against the bill, Premier Jim Prentice hit the brakes on a proposed bill on gay-straight alliances (GSAs) in schools. Instead of heading to third reading next week as planned, the province will hold off on a final vote until next year to allow for more consultation with Albertans.
The Progressive Conservatives introduced Bill 10 earlier this week to counter Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman's Bill 202, which would have required schools to let students form a gay-straight alliance on request.
A gay-straight alliance is a group that promotes safe, caring, bully-free learning environments for students regardless of their sexual or gender orientation.
Research by groups such as the University of B.C. has found that these groups reduce risk of suicidal thoughts in sexual minority students by more than half and the suicide risk amongst heterosexual boys by half.
The groups have proved controversial, as some schools, particularly Catholic ones, have opposed their creation.
Heated debate
Bill 10 originally would have required students to appeal to their local school board and then to a provincial judge if their school opposed such a group – a process that's expensive and can take years.
After a barrage of criticism, the province revised the bill Wednesday so that the education minister would now step in directly to "facilitate and support the establishment of the organization" if a board refused to do so without need for the courts.
But the bill would not overturn the board's refusal, and would not guarantee that the club would actually be on school grounds.
Opposition MLAs pounced on this.
"If the GSA is meeting across the street in the 7-Eleven parking lot, it is being treated differently than other school clubs," said NDP MLA Rachel Notley in the legislature.
This amendment was "backstopping discrimination" by potentially segregating GSAs off school grounds, Blakeman said in the legislature.
"It is backstopping that discrimination by saying: OK, we won't make you do anything here, we'll go off somewhere else and segregate these children and take them somewhere else."
The bill also still requires a student to appeal a school's decision to disallow a GSA to the school board – something a kid who's already under stress about their gender or sexual identity is unlikely to have the courage to do, Blakeman said in an interview.
"If you're a queer kid in a public school, you're going to get a GSA, but if you're a queer kid in a Catholic school, you're not."
PC MLA and St. Albert resident Thomas Lukaszuk ripped into the bill in the legislature.
"This is the fact: we have children among us who require help. These kids commit suicide. These kids are homeless. These kids can't go home and be embraced by their family in many cases," he said.
"How many children do we allow to die until the other side becomes more comfortable with this concept?"
St. Albert MLA Stephen Khan, who supported the amendment, said in an interview that the intent of the bill is to have GSAs in schools and that this intent would come through in the regulations.
"School boards are very adamant about maintaining their autonomy," he said, when asked why the bill would let a board's refusal to allow a GSA stand. Trustees should reflect the will of their electorate, and he was confident that these groups would find a place in all St. Albert schools.
Although there are some in St. Albert's public schools, there are no GSAs in this city's Catholic schools.
None of the 90-plus GSAs in Alberta are in Catholic schools, and it is Catholic school boards, under pressure from Catholic bishops, that are blocking their formation, said Kristopher Wells, St. Albert resident and director with the University of Alberta's Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services.
"Religion can't be used as a shield to prevent students from having their freedoms of expression and assembly recognized in a school environment."
Thumbs-down from students
About 10 members of St. Albert's OutLoud group (a support group for gay, lesbian, transgendered and queer youth) discussed Bill 10 Wednesday as part of their monthly meeting.
One member said she knew of a transgendered cousin whose efforts to form a GSA were stopped by her Catholic school board. Another thought that these groups would help people understand that gender identity was neither a choice nor a sin.
Parent Natalie Soetaert, who helps run OutLoud with her husband, Terry and daughter, Mia, says Catholic students have told her that they feel different because they can't have GSAs in their schools.
"They feel like everyone else in the school is more important than them – that it's not acceptable to be who they are."
One of the key messages she's heard from students in OutLoud is that there aren't enough opportunities for them to connect with students who share their experiences.
"That's why GSAs are needed in schools."
Mia, who attends Bellerose Composite, says it seems to be school trustees, not teachers, who have a problem with these groups.
"The whole thing makes me very mad," she said.
"Schools are supposed to be about inclusiveness."
Terry said the province was just dancing around the issue by delaying Bill 10 instead of rewriting it to unconditionally support GSAs in schools.
All these kids want is a safe place to go, Terry said.
"I don't know why we can't give that to them in our schools."
