‘Family values’ fuel #MeToo

Re Time for Tories to face facts, Editorial, Feb. 19 If I understand the social-conservative “family values” perspective on sex education correctly — as advocated by Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership candidate Tanya Granic Allen, with Christine Elliott and Doug Ford promising to reopen debate and Caroline Mulroney hedging her bets with talk of future consultations — there is thought to be popular support for the notion that parents are in the best position to educate their children in ways that respect their particular religious and moral values. More specifically, proponents would prevent innocent children from being exposed to “sex talk” too early, and to be informed about LGBTQ issues, well, never.

I was raised with these traditional, social-conservative family values. I was taught to respect and defer to adults. Aside from the typical “don’t talk to strangers,” I had zero direct/detailed information about boundaries, where the nebulous line in the sand was or exactly what behaviour was prohibited.

In truth, this fog continued through my teen years and persisted long into adulthood. Far from shielding me from sexual realities, not only did I not understand the rules I did not even know what game we were playing.

There is a direct line between my upbringing and my induction into the #MeToo club. It’s hard to expect that a revival of this obviously defective model would result in anything other then another generation of victims. Melanie Rogers, Kingston