While we're celebrating all things bisexual this month at Donuts & Desires, a Catholic school board very close to home has spread its anti-Queer wings and crapped all over its students...and at an anti-Homophobia event, no less!
According to Xtra, in this story picked up by Yahoo News, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic School board prevented students from displaying rainbows at the aforementioned event. Why? Well, of course, rainbows represent the visual iconography of Pride. Apparently being Catholic and showing Pride is not permitted. This great group of kids even held a bake sale to raise money for LGBT Youthline (the very organization I donate royalties to during the 4th quarter every year!) and were told by school officials they were not permitted to give to that charity.
Why am I surprised by all this? Because this is Canada. I always tell myself, obviously foolishly, that we're above this infuriatingly hateful behaviour--especially from our publicly-funded institutions! Yes, Catholic school are still funded by public dollars, even though no other religious schools here receive those dollars.
My question to myself, when I read this news piece, was: what can we do? The first thing that came to mind was to fulfill the intention of those Catholic student bake salers, and donate to LGBT Youthline.
Any other ideas?
Hugs,
Giselle
"not permitted to give to that charity"
ReplyDeleteUm, hello? It's giving . . . it's charity . . . it's voluntary . . . it's polite . . . it's human.
Ask me (politely) not to do it in your back yard, and I'll reluctantly move a few inches outside it. Tell me not to do it, and I'm far more likely to strip naked, paint myself with rainbows, and then publicly donate the money in your name.
Shame on a SCHOOL board for being so proudly prejudicial, and shame on us for continuing to subsidize such idiocy.