Student: Gay-straight alliances are NOT a safe place for me
I am a Christian kid and I wrote this reflection when I was in
grade 10 a couple years ago. With everything that is going on, I have to speak up.
But first, here is what Buzzfeed has to say about the new “Gender
Policy” that has been released in Alberta:
The end goal of all this? To make sure everyone feels
safe, welcome, and valued at school.”
Let me get this through your head: I DO NOT FEEL SAFE.
This idea that Gay Straight Alliances make a safe space for
everyone, is false.
Here is what YOU need to know about this movement, because it’s
fruits have made even Catholic schools a petrifying and socially isolating
place for me – and many others like me who are to petrified to speak up.
Some Key Points:
a) I am shamed by others because I uphold that it is a
biological reality that a male and a female can have a baby together, and that
because of that, not
all “marriages” are equal. They teach this in biology class,
but if I connect it to faith, I am nearly stoned to death.
b) I am labeled as backwards and old-fashioned, because I think
virtue is something special, and that sexual experimentation will not “do me
well” in my preparation for marriage one day. Sexual experimentation to “figure
out” if you are gay or not, happens more than most adults would care to know.
Kids like me have been lied to by teachers and this whole movement in that we
are told that if it “feels good” it means you are gay or whatever. What better
way to get more people to consider that they may be bi or gay, than to teach
sex ed in a way that teaches sexual exploration?
c)) I am labeled as a homophobe because I continuously speak
about attractions
experienced and identity
embraced, instead of just saying people “are gay.”
d) I am scorned by many people who know that I would not attend
a gay wedding (or any other wedding in which people were choosing to be closed
to the transmission of new life). Not because of “hatred” which they accuse me
of, but rather because it is a celebration of the commitment of two people to
engage in unholy sexuality – unholy because there is an intrinsic closedness to
completing the function of sexuality as it was designed. Again, a biological
fact.
I don’t understand how we are taught
to tell the truth, every waking moment of our lives… until it comes to
sexuality. Then, anything goes.
And if I come across a bit scared and or irritated,
you should see the actual gay Christian kids that want to live holy lives for
Christ. THEY are the ones who feel 1000 times more unsafe than I. They undergo
all of this, AND are told to their faces that they are liars, they are
deceiving themselves, they are suppressed, and that they should leave the
church because they are brainwashed…. all because they want to honor sexuality
in the way it was created.
One more time: in Catholic schools, they are
fearfully hiding even more than I, because of their desire to see themselves
through the lens of Christ and their desire to live a holy life.
If you want to call this a safe space for
everyone, then I call bullcrap. My friends are paying the price for this
fantasy that safe-spaces are being created for all. It is simply not the case.
What drives me even more crazy is that NO ONE seems
to be open to hearing their voices.
So much for equality.
