GSAs, Homophobia, and the Alberta Election: Alberta Votes 2019, part 6

Warning: long rant. But please, read to the end. Important bit at the end...

The UCP will reverse Bill 24 if elected in Alberta April 16.

Bill 24 does a couple of things:
1) It makes it mandatory for any school to set up a GSA (Gay Straight Alliance Club) if students request one, and
2) It forbids school staff and administrators from notifying parents if their child joins the GSA.

Some Albertan parents are outraged about this. They feel it treads on their parental right to know what their child is doing at school. Which may sound legitimate on the surface. However, would these same parents really want a phone call from a teacher if their child joined the chess club, or the basketball team, or the yearbook committee? Probably not. No, the parents who are outraged by this appear to feel that there is something "dangerous" or maybe morally suspect about their child joining a group that supports LGBTQ youth. You don't have to be queer to join, btw. You can be a straight ally and join to be part of a supportive community. A community which is especially important to a kid who feels unsafe coming out to their own family.

Some schools (private religious and Catholic School Board schools) have objected to being forced to allow GSAs if students want them, and this bill forces them to provide one. If Bill 24 is rescinded these schools may very well decide to contact the parents of all students who have been involved in GSAs in their schools.

It is important to note that kids attending these schools are somewhat more likely to have parents who would reject them for being queer or friendly to queers.

30% of homeless youth in Canada are homeless because their parents either threw them out or made their life hell simply because they were LGBTQ. These kids (and they are just kids) then go into the terrifying world of life on the street. Some get involved in the sex trade to survive. Some get addicted to drugs. Some are beaten for who they are. Or any combination of the above.

There has been some considerable outrage about this UCP stance. Notably, conservative radio host, Charles Adler, took UCP leader Jason Kenney to task over this in an interview last week 

And yet, many Albertans now attack Adler as a "fake" conservative.

Albertans have been quoted in interviews and articles, like this one, saying they don't care about the LGBTQ community because it doesn't affect them.

I honestly don't know how to make people understand that they should care about their fellow humans. About kids who are struggling to survive, for goodness sake!

Who are these people? Where is their moral compass?

The UCP and its supporters argue that parents are kind and caring and need to be included in the discussion if their child thinks they might be gay/trans/etc. and Bill 24 forcibly and wrongfully excludes parents from this important issue in their child's life.

Well, NO. If a kid feels unsafe coming out to their parents, it is no one's business to out them and put them in danger. Even if the parents are prepared to be way more understanding and accepting than the child believes they will be, it is still no one's right but the child's to make that decision. Because children are not property. They are human beings.

Parents can surprise in their love and willingness to be accepting. But parents can also be cruel and judgmental and violent. No one has the right to make a kid face an uncertain and dangerous reaction against their will.

The child in question probably has a much better idea of how their parents will react than a teacher or school administrator. They could be wrong, but it should be their own decision to make.

I suspect, given how often I hear how "LGBTQ issues don't affect me, so why would that influence my vote?" and "parents are loving and caring and they should have full knowledge of their children's inner lives so they can help", that a significant number of Alberta voters don't know, or don't know they know, anyone from the queer community, so the issue becomes abstract in their minds. It is much easier to feel animosity or indifference to conceptual strangers than it does when one sees actual people with real names and faces. Here are 6 LGBTQ+ youth from NYC. And a request. If anyone out there reading this has a story to tell about GSAs or about coming out to their family or being outed, please, if you feel safe, put it out there. Let Albertans know that the LGBTQ+ community is real people facing tough issues, and as deserving of compassion and inclusion and protection as anyone else.

Literally, lives are depending on people understanding this and incorporating it into their voting decision.