School District Of Burnaby Gay-Positive Policy

students protesting in support of the draft

Hundreds of students and parents gathered in protest on May 24th in front of the Burnaby school district's monthly board meeting. The school district is drafting a pro-gay policy to introduce learning materials into classrooms, to educate students on the LGBTQ community, and to introduce rules to specifically protect the LGBTQ population. This draft policy known as policy 5.45 it is not an anti homophobia policy, it is a pro LGBTQ policy.You can read this draft policy here .

I would like to start off by saying that there are a lot of good points in this policy. Anything that helps protect the rights of students and teachers is a good thing. However, protection for minority groups is already worked into the school code of conduct. A policy like this is only going to estrange this specific minority from the rest. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect. If the school district puts this policy into effect are they saying that the LGBTQ population is more important than the other minorities. What is next? The school district is going to have to introduce policies to support nerds and kids with glasses too.