Manitoba Teachers’ Society votes to infuse ‘LGBTQ’ issues throughout provincial curricula
The Manitoba Teachers’ Society (MTS) passed a resolution on Saturday to lobby the provincial government to revamp its entire spectrum of existing curricula to include “LGBTQ” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) issues, people, and values.
About 90 percent of 290 delegates to MTS’s Annual General Meeting — representing 15,000 public school teachers — voted in favor of the resolution, according to MTS President Paul Olson. If the resolution is adopted, the government would require all schools receiving public funding, both public and private, to follow the reengineered curricula.
The new curricula must “explicitly speak to sensitive issues being addressed in the classroom” if it is to be an “aid in creating inclusive learning environments for all students and teachers,” according to an MTP press release.
For example, a math problem in the revised curricula “might include a mother and father, but can also include a single parent or parents of the same gender,” a delegate said at the meeting.
One writer to the Winnipeg Free Press ridiculed how far advocates for the gay agenda are willing to push their ideology: “What does it mean exactly when they say all curricula? How do you even do this? When did math, history, physics, chemistry, geography, English, second language skills, music, etc. have sexual components introduced into the curricula?”
“Seriously! How does this go... if Johnny had seven condoms and gave two condoms to Jane, how many minutes would Jane's lesbian partner have to drive at 60 k/ph to catch up to the train?”
The resolution comes on the heals of the NDP government's proposed anti-bullying law, Bill 18, which would force all publicly funded schools to accommodate homosexual student clubs. The controversial bill has been slammed by religious leaders, politicians, and private school principals who say it is a heavy-handed attack on educational and religious freedoms.
The MTS resolution also called on the government to “ensure” that “safe school legislation” would “specifically address homophobia and violence prevention.”
Olson told MetroNews that MTS not only supports Bill 18, but that the newly passed LGBTQ curricula resolution complements the proposed legislation. Responding to critics he said that Bill 18 together with the LGBTQ curricula resolution is “fundamentally talking about issues of inclusion—this isn’t anti-religion, this is pro-child.”
Olson called upon teachers in a letter earlier this month to “join in a rally at the Legislature May 16 in support of Bill 18,” organized by The Rainbow Resource Centre.
"It is very important that strong public support be voiced by one and all for the protections envisioned by Bill 18," he wrote. "It is time for teachers and their allies to send a clear, strong message."
At last year’s annual general meeting the MTS decided to lobby the government to prevent parents from “opt[ing] their children out of any portions of the Manitoba curriculum.”
