Why the hang up over SOGI
There are email and social media campaigns across B.C., as well as school trustee candidates in several parts of the province, including the Central Okanagan, that are trying to put a stop to the implementation of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) programs in schools.
The Canadian Council for Faith and Family is just one of the groups that has fired out emails to school board candidates demanding they do something to stop “children as young as four years of age (being taught) that they are ‘gender fluid’ and can be whatever sex they want based on their feelings.”
These groups are informing candidates that their members will decide who to vote for in the general election next Saturday based on their SOGI stance.
The problem is that the personal view of an individual school trustee on SOGI is irrelevant. SOGI is provincially mandated by the Ministry of Education, meaning it’s a mandatory part of the curriculum in every public and private school in the province. School board candidates appealing to voters for support because they are anti-SOGI is as ridiculous as a candidate campaigning to have Biblical creationism taught alongside evolution in science class.
And even if enough anti-SOGI school board candidates were elected to form a majority in a school district, it wouldn’t matter. The instant that school board would pass a vote to take SOGI out of their local schools, the education minister would fire the board and appoint new trustees. Yes, the provincial government has that authority and yes, both the Liberals and the NDP have done so in the past for various reasons.
The limited autonomy school boards have over SOGI is that they can choose to use the SOGI 123 classroom materials provided by the education ministry or they can substitute some or all of the modules with their own inhouse instruction, provided those materials are approved by the ministry and meet the overall SOGI goals. A number of private Christian schools in B.C. have come up with their own SOGI instruction that meets education ministry requirement while also accommodating religious beliefs. And it’s actually not that hard. At the primary and elementary school grades, it’s simply about teaching diversity among individuals and families, encouraging tolerance of individuals who look or act differently or hold different beliefs and discouraging discrimination. Teasing a girl about her short “boy hair” or a boy about acting “like a girl” or using phrases like “that’s gay” are all teachable moments about fairness and kindness.
In the higher elementary grades and moving into the secondary grades, the specifics of orientation and identity can be explored in more detail, working from that bedrock of acceptance and tolerance.
By this age, students are old enough to learn the specific words — bisexual, transgender, transsexual, intersex and so on — and their meanings, the harm caused by transphobia and homophobia, as well as how some young people find themselves questioning their gender and/or their orientation.