Well, they don’t allow Nazi groups either! Seriously, oh my god:
And while the Ontario Ministry of Education also thinks GSAs are pretty important too, the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) takes a different view.
The board feels the groups are harmful and has issued a ban on GSAs altogether.“We don’t have Nazi groups either,” rationalizes board chair Alice Anne LeMay. “Gay-straight alliances are banned because they are not within the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
“If a gay student requests a gay-straight alliance they would be denied,” she says flatly.
“It’s not in accordance with the teachings of the church. If they wanted to have a club outside of school, fine, just not in school.”
Alice Anne LeMay should not be charged with overseeing anything where children are involved.
Dan Savage points out the obvious:
The Catholic Church, of course, has demonstrated a willingness to work with Nazi groups in the past.
Ouch.
I wonder if they’d allow a chapter of NAMBLA….
Wayne,
The Mike you have posting on your Facebook account is rather disrespectful and unprofessional. He just called me a b***h because of this comment to a post of a Canadian Catholic church not allowing Gay Straight Alliances…..”Why is this news? Catholic Schools are NO place for LGBT youth. Period. We need to protect our children not throw them to the wolves.” Didn’t see this coming from TWO…
Pati
OH…surprise the post calling me a b***h is gone…who’s the b***h now, Mike?
Pati,
The Catholic schools in Ontario are 100% taxpayer-funded. They have no legal right to discriminate against LGBT’s. That’s why the story is news.
By the way, since you referred to LGBT people as “wolves”, why are you upset that someone responded by
calling you a “b***h”? Don’t complain about others
being “disrespectful and unprofessional” when you behave that way yourself.
Pati said “Catholic Schools are NO place for LGBT youth. Period. We need to protect our children not throw them to the wolves.”.
Your idiocy is stunning. Any place that’s acceptible for straight children to go is acceptable for LGBT children to go. LGBT children need protection and you’re advocating denying that to them altogether you bloody hypocrite. You are a wolf in wolve’s clothing.
Ken a few years ago, there was a movie based on a true story, about a gay boy who wanted to take his bf to the prom at a catholic school in Canada. They sued the school on the basis that since they received tax money from the Canadian government, they couldn’t discriminate. The boy and his family won and he took his male date to the prom. He had mostly support from his classmates. Why can’t they do the same thing here?
I’ve been wondering the same thing, Gary.
Hey Ken in Canada: I was calling the Catholic schools the wolf. Lgbt children are abused by the very essence of being in a place that believes they are sinners if they act upon their natural instinct to love and be loved by someone of the same gender. We cannot force the Catholic church to be OK with us because they just are not…that said ALL public funding absolutely should be pulled from this district. They can preach what they want but government should not subsidize discrimination. We cannot force GSAs on religious institutions, duh.
Priya, Priya, Priya…my idiocy? Puh-lease. You don’t know me and you OBVIOUSLY misunderstood my statement. Separation of church and state works both ways. The Catholic church has made no secret of where they stand on gay issues so why would anyone send their children to this type of school is beyond me. However, if in fact this is the only safe choice for parents then it is their responsibility to subsidize the education with actual facts about the church’s bigotry. I am a former Catholic and a mother of 3 young children whom I will NEVER allow to be indoctrinated with that crap. They are taught that people come in all ways and should be treated equally. I do not believe the Catholic church is capable of treating LGBT students with the respect and dignity we all deserve because of their current beliefs and I don’t see this changing any time in the near future. I am not a hypocrite but thanks for sharing your venom.
Pati, you’re not as big an idiot as I thought, but you’re still an idiot. The catholic schools exist on public funding and as such they are obligated to serve all members of the public, LGBTs included. No way should any religious organization be given special license to discriminate.
Wow Priya, are you even capable of having a respectful intelligent discussion without the insults? One of two things is going on here…either you are young and immature or old and bitter. Either way, I disagree with your opinion of me as would people that actually know me. Back to the topic at hand. Religious institutions are allowed to preach/teach whatever they want as long as it is in line with their beliefs. Government on the other hand cannot as they represent all people and not just members of that particular religion. If in fact so much public funding is given to this particular school district, taxpayers should be outraged and reassess the tax-laws that allow this. I know I would be but you still can’t force a Catholic school to have a GSA as that goes against their “sinner” mentality against us. Lighten up and stop being so insulting. There is a lot to be learned from people when you don’t jump to such offensive incorrect conclusions. That said, I can play that game too but I choose not to. Have a good day. PEACE
Ken,
I apologize for the duh at the end of my comment to you as I refuse to be as rude as some of you were but you also obviously misunderstood my original comment. I hope everything works out up there and all public funding is pulled from this district as they do not deserve the money to enforce their bigoted ways agaist any child. PEACE
Pati, you started the disrespect with advocating allowing Catholic schools to discrminate. As to me, I’m middle aged and extremely happy.
Religious institutions are allowed to preach/teach whatever they want in their churchs, they are not allowed absolute power in the public sphere. Catholics schools most certainly can and should be forced to respect LGBT school-children. Not too long ago a catholic school was successfully sued because it refused to allow a student to take a same sex date to the prom. The court ruled that Catholic schools must abide by Canadian anti-discrmination laws and the exact same thing is going to happen here if, and hopefully when, someone sues them for their heinous policies.
Gary, I think that this case is similar in principle to the Marc Hall case that you mention. The School Board is publicly funded, so they don’t have a right to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Hopefully this would be upheld in court, but it would require that a student do what Marc did, and take the Board to court. As a follow-up, a gay man has recently been elected to this very School Board, so hopefully he can help to get the policy reversed without going through the courts.
Pati, sorry that I misunderstood your original comment. As I’ve indicated above, there are ways to get the policy changed, rather than cutting the Board’s funding (which is unlikely, for political reasons).