NDP to protect GSA members
A LBERTA GOV’T TO BRING IN LEGISLATION FOR GAYSTRAIGHT CLUBS
Alberta’s education minister says he plans to change the law to prevent conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney from outing gay children. David Eggen says the province has been working for years on gay-straight alliances in schools and he says he won’t let that process be undermined.
“This whole idea (of) Jason Kenney outing students that join a GSA, we’ll make that against the law,” Eggen said Thursday. “Students make choices and this is obviously a very significant choice around gay-straight alliances.
“It’s sensitive, and what is very insensitive is to suggest that you would out students who chose to join a gay-straight alliance.”
The alliances are peersupport groups set up by students to provide mutual support and prevent bullying of LGBTQ students. Advocates say outing kids before they are ready puts them at risk of family ostracism or worse. They also argue the move would effectively kill the alliances because kids won’t feel safe.
Kenney, a former federal Conservative cabinet minister who is running for the leadership of Alberta’s new United Conservative Party, has faced criticism for saying it’s best in some cases to tell parents their kids have joined a gay-straight alliance. He has said school officials are in the best position to make the decision.
Kenney declined to comment immediately, citing preparation for Thursday night’s leadership debate in Edmonton.
In an emailed statement, his campaign said “it’s unfortunate to see the NDP is using children as political props, yet again, in order to distract from their disastrous economic plan.”
Eggen said the province will also bring in changes compelling every school that receives public money establish codes of conduct against discrimination, adopt policies to protect LGBTQ students, and affirm the existing legal right for students to set up a gay-straight alliance if they wish.
He said many schools have been working with the province already to set up these rules, but said 20 of them, mostly private schools, are resisting.
Private schools get 70 per cent of funding from the government, the highest such ratio in Canada, Eggen said.
“If you are receiving public money then the law should apply to those schools just the same as any other school,” he said, noting he has the power to pull accreditation and funding for non-compliance.
Kenney won the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives in March and is now one of four candidates vying to become the leader of the United Conservative Party, created when the PCs and the Wildrose party voted in July to merge.
PC member Richard Starke refused to join the party after the merger, citing in part his disagreement with Kenney’s stance on the alliances.