Editor:
Re: Peace Arch News online question of the week, Oct. 27- Nov. 2.
I found your online question of the week interesting.
You asked: Do you agree with critics of school districts’ LGBTQ-friendly programs that they “undermine social values?”
At any given time throughout history, ‘LGBTQ-friendly programs’ could be interchanged with ‘children’s rights,’ ‘women voting,’ ‘racial equality’… you get the idea.
I think a better question is: do they challenge social values?
Social values need to be challenged to move us forward as a society. To exclude a group of people because it makes us feel insecure is the basis of so many oppressive regimes, so many dictatorships.
Fear mongering keeps the wrong people in control – just look at what is happening in the world today, what started 78 years ago in the form of the Second World War.
Social values are what we make them, and I opt to make them healthier, less divisive and more inclusive.
How about you?
Margaret Shearman, Surrey
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Regarding last week’s question – Do you agree with critics of school districts’ LGBTQ-friendly programs that they “undermine societal values” – 56 per cent of those responding voted “yes”.
This begs the question – what are societal values and who decides such values?
Not all my societal values are the same values as my wife’s, thus leading to interesting and productive discussions. So how can a LGBTQ-friendly program undermine societal values?
In the Surrey School District Regulation: Safe and Caring Schools: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 1.5 it states “The District shall establish consistent and widely understood and maintained school based policies and practices to ensure that LGBTQ members of school communities and their families are welcomed, accepted and included in all aspects of education and school life.”
Surely, in 2017, acceptance and inclusion of persons regardless of their sexual orientation is a value that Canadians support.
Further, the regulations state: “The District shall build greater awareness of and responsiveness to the harmful effects of isolation resulting from homophobic and or transphobic discrimination.”
We are a society that denounces discrimination in all its forms. So how can a regulation stopping discrimination undermine societal values?
Canada’s society is varied and is made up of many different communities. We are all different and yet have so much in common.
To assert acceptance, inclusion and understanding of fellow Canadians in some way undermines societal values is disturbing and weakens our society and our country.
Ian Routledge, White Rock