IN-DEPTH: Gender Ideology: What Canadian Schools Are Teaching on LGBT Topics

A file photo of children arriving at a school in Milton, Ont., on Nov. 4, 2022. (Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press)

News Analysis

LGBT issues, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender topics, are being presented in classrooms across Canada—from kindergarten on—in ways that have shocked some parents who were unaware until their children started questioning their gender and sexual orientation.

In many cases, if these topics are discussed as “equity” lessons, parents do not have to be informed.

For example, gender identity isn’t officially discussed in Ontario’s sex-education curriculum until Grade 8, and parents may opt out. But multiple Ontario school boards have strongly encouraged teachers to weave gender and sexual identity into lessons outside of sex-ed. And many of these lessons have no requirement to tell parents.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau brought into question what exactly is being taught about LGBT in Canadian classrooms when he spoke with concerned Muslim parents in Calgary in July. He claimed misinformation was fuelling the concerns.

“People on social media, particularly fuelled by the American right-wing, are spreading a lot of untruths about what’s actually in the provincial curriculums,” he said. “If you look at the various curriculums, you'll see that there is not what is being said out there about aggressive teaching or conversion of kids to being LGBT.”

The curriculums don’t necessarily tell all, with LGBT issues figuring prominently in Canadian schools’ rapidly expanding equity and anti-bullying programs. It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly is being taught, because each province, school board, school, and teacher may have a different approach.

But The Epoch Times has collected many specific examples to give an idea of how LGBT issues are being taught in classrooms across the country, and also looked at the impact these lessons have had on some students.

British Columbia

Heather Salivaras of Castlegar, B.C., says her son, who began kindergarten last year, became confused and distressed after he was told at school he could become a girl. He asked her why he would want to do that and if he should do that.

He said he was told at school that he should marry whomever he has the most fun with, whether boy or girl, and that led him to question if he is supposed to marry his best friend (a boy) when he grows up. He started talking about drag queens and was under the impression he had been told to wear a dress.

Ms. Salivaras later learned that his teacher had shown the class a video of a drag queen reading the book “Worm Loves Worm.” An official description of the book reads: “They get married! But their friends want to know—who will wear the dress? And who will wear the tux? The answer is: It doesn’t matter. Because worm loves worm.”

Ms. Salivaras told The Epoch Times she is supportive of people with different gender identities and sexual orientations, but she is concerned parents were not informed before these topics were introduced to students.

In an open letter Ms. Salivaras shared with The Epoch Times and also published via the advocacy group Moms Against the Norm, she described the response she got from the school on the issue.

The school, Castlegar Primary in District 20, told her the video was age-appropriate and more of this content is to be expected in the future as part of province-wide Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) policies.

The Epoch Times reached out to the school and school board to confirm its reaction. Superintendent Katherine Shearer confirmed the video was shown to the kindergarten class but did not comment on its age-appropriateness.

Drag queens have entered other schools across the country. In April, a drag queen gave a dance performance to high school students at York Mills Collegiate Institute within the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). The drag performer had been touring schools across Canada, according to the student emcees of the event.

Also in April, TDSB’s Rawlinson Community School held an assembly for students grades 4–8 that included a drag queen speaking on a projected video.

In a New Brunswick school, students in grades 6–8 were selectively invited to a drag show based on whether teachers thought their parents would complain, according to an internal email leaked by Chanel Pfahl.

Ms. Pfahl is a former Ontario teacher who actively monitors gender-related issues in schools and publishes documentation sent to her by parents and teachers. She told The Epoch Times many teachers on X, formerly known as Twitter, share about the LGBT books, classroom and school displays, and lessons they weave into the school days.

“Because discrimination based on gender identity is now a protected ground, teachers are now allowed to teach all about it starting in kindergarten,” Ms. Pfahl said via email.

The B.C. government describes province-wide SOGI school policies as promoting “inclusive and safe spaces.” It gives recommended “SOGI 123” teaching resources. Moms Against the Norm has published multiple open letters by parents concerned about these resources.

One mother, who preferred to remain anonymous due to the controversial nature of SOGI, expressed concerns in an open letter about a teacher at her children’s school, Brent Kennedy Elementary in Crescent Valley, B.C. The teacher read a book called “Melissa,” about a transgender youth, to Grade 5 students.

The mother took issue with a chapter called “Secrets,” saying, “Are they encouraging secrets?” The book also features a child ashamed of his body parts and contains a reference to “dirty magazines.” This introduces the idea of pornography, she said, adding “I am a proponent of child innocence.”

The Epoch Times asked the school’s principal, Jenn Kooznetsoff, to comment on the mother’s concerns.

“Teachers support human rights issues and promote the diversity of students within the classroom,” Ms. Kooznetsoff said via email. “Parents are welcome to reach out to teachers anytime with their questions and/or concerns.”

Emily Duggan of Moms Against the Norm hosts an online “story time” during which she reads books available at school libraries in the province. She’s aiming the stories not at kids but at their parents, to raise awareness of the content.

One that she has read, called “My Body Is Growing, a Guide for Children Ages 4–8,” contains a detailed description of sexual intercourse.

Many such controversial books can be found in school libraries across the country, including some with illustrations of sexual acts. Parents who have raised concerns at school board and city council meetings in B.C., Manitoba, and Ontario have focused on their age-inappropriateness.

The Prairies

A teacher in Medicine Hat, Alberta, recently contacted Ms. Pfahl about what she said has been “a lonely few years” resisting a push to bring LGBT issues into her classroom in ways she finds inappropriate.

“The pressure to conform is no joke. One slight misstep and your reputation at work is done. You know it. You will be ostracized and you could very well lose your livelihood, too,” Ms. Pfahl said in a substack post about the teacher’s experience, and speaking to her own past experience as well.

The teacher sent Ms. Pfahl materials from a mandatory “2SLBGBTQ+ Inclusive Education” workshop for all staff at the Medicine Hat Public School Division. It was held by the University of Alberta’s Fyrefly Institute for Gender and Sexual Diversity, which has been providing student workshops for many years. Its annual reports say it provided 144 school workshops in Calgary and Edmonton in 2014–2015, according to Ms. Pfahl.

Ms. Pfahl pored over the content of the workshop, which includes diagrams about fluid gender identity, says it’s harmful to “misgender” people by calling them by the wrong pronouns, and suggests that all washrooms should be gender-neutral.

This idea of making all washrooms gender-neutral is a reality in one elementary school in Toronto and one elementary school in Burnaby, B.C.—with a plan for all Burnaby schools to eventually follow suit, according to local publication Burnaby Now.

Ontario’s York District Regional School Board (YDRSB) gender guidelines also list “the existence of gendered bathrooms” as an institutional means of perpetuating “cisnormativity.” The YDRSB, along with many other school boards in Canada and third-party institutions such as Fyrefly, speak at length against cisnormativity and heteronormativity.

Cisnormativity is the assumption that everyone identifies as their birth gender, or biological sex, while heteronormativity is the belief that heterosexuality is what’s normal and natural.

In Saskatchewan, third-party presentations on LGBT to schools have been banned following a scandal in which Planned Parenthood brought sexually explicit materials to a school that included detailed descriptions of many fetishes.

An incident in Saskatoon shows how LGBT may also be encountered on school field trips.

In May, Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools (GSCS) Superintendent Tom Hickey advised schools that students should not be allowed to visit a “Rainbow Tent” at a local children’s festival. The GSCS told The Epoch Times via email that the tent included a drag queen story time and “inclusive dress-up performances.”

About 100 people subsequently rallied outside Mr. Hickey’s office in downtown Saskatoon against the messaging in his email.

People gather in front of the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools Board office before a pride rally in Saskatoon, Sask., on June 1, 2023. (Heywood Yu/The Canadian Press)

“The message recommended that class field trips not include the Rainbow Tent – From Drag Queen Storytime to Inclusive Dress up Performances at the Children’s Festival,” the GSCS said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times. “Families who send their children to Catholic schools have a reasonable expectation that the education their children receive is consistent with Catholic teachings and is age-appropriate.”

However, Catholic schools often have LGBT policies and teachings similar to those in the public schools. For example, a Catholic elementary school teacher in Toronto named Paolo De Buono regularly posts on X about LGBT lessons in his class.

Josh Alexander, a student at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Renfrew, Ontario, rose to fame last year for not being allowed on school property for most of the school year due to his expressed beliefs that gender is binary.

Court documents of Alexander’s legal fight against the school detail classroom interactions with teachers. Teachers allegedly contested his belief on multiple occasions, including calling him a “transphobe” and upholding the practice of male-born parents “chest-feeding” babies.

The Renfrew County Catholic District School Board’s gender policies say that “a person’s self-identification is the sole measure of gender” and strongly encourage teachers to affirm different identities.

Videos, Kids’ Workshops in Ontario

Parents in Ottawa have told The Epoch Times that teachers have presented books and videos to their kindergarten and Grade 1 classes about gender identity and sexual preference.

For example, Pamela Buffone’s daughter was shown a video in her Grade 1 class called “He, She, and They” by “Queer Kid Stuff.”

In the video, a woman with short hair and a tie speaks with a teddy bear who asks if boys can wear dresses. The woman replies that boys can if that’s what makes them happy. Teddy says “I still don’t know if I’m a boy or a girl.” The woman responds, “Well, Teddy, did you know that some people aren’t boys or girls?”

Her daughter’s teacher gave similar talks to the class, as Ms. Buffone found out when her daughter told her “there is no such thing as boys and girls.” Her daughter also said she didn’t want to be a “mommy” when she grows up and would own a dog instead. And she knew she could go to a doctor to change her body.

That was back in 2018, and when Ms. Buffone mentioned it to people, they would say it must have been a “rogue” teacher, she recalled. Now, when she talks to parents, they are more aware that this is common and institutional, she said.

Her school board, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB), is one of the boards in Ontario that has said LGBT lessons should be embedded in the learning environment for all ages and subjects. Peel District School Board made a similar statement in May in a memo to all staff.

The OCDSB also strongly suggested in an email to teachers that they begin this school year by referring to all students by they/them pronouns until students identify their preferred pronouns.

Ms. Buffone has been documenting experiences similar to those of her daughter’s through her organization, Gender Report. She gave the example of posters put up around Ontario schools by LGBT-advocacy group Egale. They show different ways to identify gender, including an illustration of a shirtless young girl with her breasts flattened by a wrapping.

Two other examples she gave are of third-party workshops given to grades 5–8 students in Ontario.

One was in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in 2021 and was given by LGBT-advocacy group Pflag. Ms. Buffone published a parent’s account of events and correspondence with the board.

A video used in this workshop includes an exchange between children and an elderly uncle. “Back in your day, most people understood the world in terms of boys or girls, but now we know that gender is more complex than that,“ the uncle is told. ”There’s a clear message that the uncle doesn’t understand gender at all,” the parent’s account states.

A similar workshop for grades 5–8 students was given by the Canadian Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity (CCSGD) in a York Region District School Board school in February this year, as documented on the Canadian Gender Report website. A parent at that school also shared photos of a display outside her daughter’s Grade 2 classroom.

The CCSGD has also given workshops in at least one school district in Newfoundland.

The Maritimes

The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District has advertised LGBT workshops for students in grades 7–12. What exactly is taught is not clear and the board did not reply to an Epoch Times inquiry, but the CCSGD includes in its resources “The Queer History Colouring Book.” The book contains a page about the raid of a women’s bathhouse in Toronto in 2000 and has an image of the club whose name includes a sexual term. It also has a page about the 2016 Black Lives Matter Trans March in Toronto.

An elementary school in the district, St. Matthew’s, had a drag queen perform for students during Pride Month in June, wearing a very short rainbow skirt.

New Brunswick has been the centre of attention this year for its school policy changes that say parents should be informed if their children are changing genders at school.

The province’s public safety minister, Kris Austin, spoke to the legislature in June about an incident he looked into that proves, in his opinion, why this policy change was necessary.

A child had been diagnosed with ADHD and other conditions when she started having suicidal thoughts at the age of 8. When she entered middle school, she had a plan in place for her mental health, including coping mechanisms that worked for her.

However, her mother told Mr. Austin that the school did not implement the plan but rather directed her into transitioning genders. This was before the recent policy changes, and so the school kept this transitioning secret, but the mother found out through another student at the school.

Using her previous strategies for coping with her mental health conditions, the student is now happy with her birth sex and thriving, Mr. Austin said. The mother told him the school’s handling of LGBT issues “actively contributed” to her daughter’s mental health emergency.

School counsellors and other mental health supports for children are increasingly taking the stance that children should be affirmed in any preferences they have regarding gender identity.

Kids Help Phone released an advertisement in May featuring drag queens “Fay and Fluffy.”

This drag duo also appeared at an administration retreat for the Halton District School Board in Ontario in August. They are the stars of “The Fabulous Show with Fay and Fluffy” aired on Family Jr.

Many school boards are increasingly hiring senior-level staff dedicated solely to equity and inclusion, so we may see more such staff and student events and workshops, along with policy guidelines and teaching guides focused on LGBT issues.

Update: This article has been changed to clarify a quote from Heather Salivaras about her family’s experience with her son’s school.