NB
Profs urge Tories to reverse stance on school gender policy

Story by The Canadian Press •1w

A large group of professors at the University of New Brunswick have signed a statement urging the Progressive Conservative government to go back to the original policy on gender and name changes at schools, arguing it made young students feel welcome and safe.

The 76 professors at the Fredericton campus belong to the faculty of arts and teach courses such as history, sociology and psychology.

“We stand with the educational experts, educators, parents, and child psychologists who helped to create the original version of Policy 713 based on their expertise,” the statement reads. “We insist that any changes to the policy be rooted in evidence-based research and not ideological positioning. Policy 713 does nothing more than ensure that New Brunswick’s education system creates a safe environment for all children and makes our children better citizens.”

But New Brunswick Education Minister Bill Hogan said Wednesday his government was not going to budge.

“Our government is, and always has been, dedicated to creating a safe and welcoming environment where all children are free to be themselves, while also respecting the role parents play in their child’s life and education,” he told Brunswick News in an email. “I am comfortable with the decisions made and the updated version of the policy.”

The Tory government announced last spring it was making the controversial reforms. Among them, transgender students under the age of 16 who want to informally use a different name or pronoun will no longer be allowed to do so in the classroom without a parent’s permission.

Sabine LeBel, who teaches in the culture and media studies program at UNB, said many of the professors felt like they had to speak out because the Tory government was going down a dangerous, divisive path.

“The powers-that-be are definitely doubling down,” the professor said. “As a university, we believe in evidence-based research and human rights. And when you look at how the original Policy 713 came into place, it was put in by the current government with a lot of consultation from parents, educators and students. And when there was talk of changing it in the spring, a lot of experts, such as child psychologists and educators were saying, ‘hey, the research states this is really important for LGBTQIA+ youth to have support in the school system, so they can actually learn.’”

LeBel, a lesbian, remembers what it was like when she was a kid in places like Montreal and Toronto and couldn’t tell people how she felt.

“There was none of this when I was growing up,” said LeBel, 50. “People didn’t come out until later in life when they left home. If they did come out early, the stories were pretty awful. I certainly would never have come out in any of my schools or to my parents, and it’s because there was out-and-out homophobia among teachers. It just wasn’t an option. People of my generation would have had a much better experience if we had had the right policies in the education system, like the original 713.”

She added that more people would be alive, as plenty of her friends have been lost to suicide because of the struggles they went through early in life, including a loved one who took her life a year ago to the day on Wednesday.

“She was a proud, out, queer person, and a community pillar,” LeBel said. “She was around my age and in spite of the love and support around her, she had these struggles.”

Organizations that support lesbian, gay and trans youth have condemned the Tory government's changes as trans and queer phobic, whereas parental rights groups argue teachers and school administrators should not decide whether it's OK for younger children to change their identities. Parents, they say, should be at the core of a child's upbringing.

When the reforms were announced in the spring, they created international headlines. Eight of 29 Tory MLAs expressed displeasure with the changes, and two cabinet ministers ultimately resigned, while Premier Blaine Higgs fired two others.

The change of the policy and other moves by the premier have led to a push among some party members to demand a leadership review.

The provincial governments in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have pledged to move ahead with similar reforms.

Sophie Lavoie, a UNB professor who spearheaded the drive to deliver the statement, said while not every academic signed it, the signatories were from every major department in the faculty of arts.

John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Daily Gleaner