in: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Push+develop+more+straight+alliances+Alberta+schools/7566864/story.html
Photograph by: Marta Gold , Edmonton Journal
About 60 students and teachers gathered Saturday in Edmonton to do what would have been unthinkable even a decade ago: hold a conference about starting, supporting and sustaining gay-straight alliance groups in schools across the province.
With the blessing of both the Alberta government and Edmonton’s public school board, the first Gay Straight Alliance Student Conference saw students from across the province join forces at the Bennett Centre to talk about gender identity, homophobia, advocacy, respect and creative self-expression.
“Just a few short years ago, within the span of your lives, this would be almost unthinkable,” deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk said in kicking off the conference, sponsored by the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (ISMSS) at the University of Alberta.
Alberta Culture Minister Heather Klimchuk, who also spoke to the students, likened their efforts to those of the Famous 5, who fought for the right of Canadian women to be appointed to the Senate and paved the way for women like her in politics, she said.
“We should not be defined by what we wear, how we look or who we love, and that’s very important to me,” she said.
“Never doubt that the gay-straight alliances you represent are anything but an instrument for change to make it better, fairer and more just.”
The featured speaker was Rae Spoon, a transgendered musician and author who grew up in an evangelical Christian home in southern Alberta. Delegates also talked a lot about gender identity and expression, said Kris Wells, associate director of the ISMSS. “It’s equated to where sexual orientation was 30 years ago – largely not understood; a lot of stereotypes and misinformation.”
The Edmonton public school board has a sexual orientation and gender identity policy. It has put forward a policy resolution to the Alberta School Boards Association that all Alberta boards do the same. The association will debate the resolution on Monday.
In Ontario, legislation has been passed mandating gay-straight alliances be supported in any school where students request one, even in Catholic schools, Wells said. Alberta doesn’t have such legislation.
In Edmonton, there are 13 gay-straight alliances at public high schools, he said.
Some have only recently been established, like the one at Centre High, where 18-year-old student Bryan Cooke was among those who challenged the school’s no-clubs policy and lobbied successfully to set up a gay-straight alliance, which met for the first time this past week. It’s small so far — only a few students, a counsellor and an openly gay teacher who helps out — but Cooke expects it to grow.
Earlier, as a student at McNally High School he came out as bisexual with the support of that school’s gay-straight alliance.
“I came out while I was on the football team and some of the guys were uncomfortable. But I said, ‘I don’t care if you don’t like it, I’m changing in here.’ ”
Most of his teammates were accepting. His coach was supportive, but one boy continued to bother him. Because of his behaviour, the boy was suspended from school for five days and from the football team, Cooke said.
Grade 12 student Kiana Chouinard heads the alliance at Scona High School, one of the two oldest gay-straight alliances in the city, established in 2000. The other is at Ross Sheppard High School.
The group hosts education and awareness events and has teamed with the school’s Christian club for a couple of events. “Everyone just assumes that we’re not going to get along … but they’re great,” Chouinard said.
Still, biases and misunderstanding about the club persist. “I’ve had parents call my school complaining about the ‘gay cult’ in our school, and saying ‘my kid is in the gay cult,’ and that’s ridiculous,” she said.
Younger kids in the club still come to her complaining of incidents of bullying and homophobia. She has intervened on their behalf.
A conference like this one is a great affirmation of the positive work that alliances do, she said. “I think it’s just great that we can be in a public place and advertise it on the Internet and it’s in the newspaper, and we can talk about it nobody is outside protesting and we can all just be ourselves.”
With the blessing of both the Alberta government and Edmonton’s public school board, the first Gay Straight Alliance Student Conference saw students from across the province join forces at the Bennett Centre to talk about gender identity, homophobia, advocacy, respect and creative self-expression.
“Just a few short years ago, within the span of your lives, this would be almost unthinkable,” deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk said in kicking off the conference, sponsored by the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (ISMSS) at the University of Alberta.
Alberta Culture Minister Heather Klimchuk, who also spoke to the students, likened their efforts to those of the Famous 5, who fought for the right of Canadian women to be appointed to the Senate and paved the way for women like her in politics, she said.
“We should not be defined by what we wear, how we look or who we love, and that’s very important to me,” she said.
“Never doubt that the gay-straight alliances you represent are anything but an instrument for change to make it better, fairer and more just.”
The featured speaker was Rae Spoon, a transgendered musician and author who grew up in an evangelical Christian home in southern Alberta. Delegates also talked a lot about gender identity and expression, said Kris Wells, associate director of the ISMSS. “It’s equated to where sexual orientation was 30 years ago – largely not understood; a lot of stereotypes and misinformation.”
The Edmonton public school board has a sexual orientation and gender identity policy. It has put forward a policy resolution to the Alberta School Boards Association that all Alberta boards do the same. The association will debate the resolution on Monday.
In Ontario, legislation has been passed mandating gay-straight alliances be supported in any school where students request one, even in Catholic schools, Wells said. Alberta doesn’t have such legislation.
In Edmonton, there are 13 gay-straight alliances at public high schools, he said.
Some have only recently been established, like the one at Centre High, where 18-year-old student Bryan Cooke was among those who challenged the school’s no-clubs policy and lobbied successfully to set up a gay-straight alliance, which met for the first time this past week. It’s small so far — only a few students, a counsellor and an openly gay teacher who helps out — but Cooke expects it to grow.
Earlier, as a student at McNally High School he came out as bisexual with the support of that school’s gay-straight alliance.
“I came out while I was on the football team and some of the guys were uncomfortable. But I said, ‘I don’t care if you don’t like it, I’m changing in here.’ ”
Most of his teammates were accepting. His coach was supportive, but one boy continued to bother him. Because of his behaviour, the boy was suspended from school for five days and from the football team, Cooke said.
Grade 12 student Kiana Chouinard heads the alliance at Scona High School, one of the two oldest gay-straight alliances in the city, established in 2000. The other is at Ross Sheppard High School.
The group hosts education and awareness events and has teamed with the school’s Christian club for a couple of events. “Everyone just assumes that we’re not going to get along … but they’re great,” Chouinard said.
Still, biases and misunderstanding about the club persist. “I’ve had parents call my school complaining about the ‘gay cult’ in our school, and saying ‘my kid is in the gay cult,’ and that’s ridiculous,” she said.
Younger kids in the club still come to her complaining of incidents of bullying and homophobia. She has intervened on their behalf.
A conference like this one is a great affirmation of the positive work that alliances do, she said. “I think it’s just great that we can be in a public place and advertise it on the Internet and it’s in the newspaper, and we can talk about it nobody is outside protesting and we can all just be ourselves.”
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Push+develop+more+straight+alliances+Alberta+schools/7566864/story.html
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