LETTER: Government of New Brunswick revokes support for Pride in Education

Editor’s note: A rally for Policy 713 and Pride in Education is taking place at the Legislative Assembly on Saturday, May 13, at 1 p.m.

Re: GNB rescinding support for Pride In Education

Dear Minister Hogan,

As a queer New Brunswicker, community archivist, and former educator, I am appalled and dismayed to hear that you have chosen to rescind the department’s support for Pride In Education (PIE).

When I was growing up through our education system, the only thing that I knew about queer people was that they were apparently perverts, and that you could be fired if you were a gay person. Even after 1994 when employment and housing protections were expanded to include LBG people, queer teachers at my school remained in the closet for fear of losing their jobs. This, coupled with a lack of queer inclusive health and sex education created an environment where queer people were acknowledged only through harassment, bullying and slurs.

When I graduated, I took my boyfriend to prom, which was a fight in its own right in order to convince the school to allow me to do so. The night of our prom, I was physically attacked by a group of locals, including members of my graduating class.

Queerphobia has real world consequences. I know because I’ve lived through them. Despite my experiences with queerphobic violence in NB I have chosen to dedicate time and energy to try and improve the quality of life for queer New Brunswickers so that queer youth don’t have to go through what I went through in our schools. I founded the Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick, a community archive which collects and preserves important documents and records relating to 2SLGBTQ+ history in the province. For this work, and for co-authoring the first queer history book about New Brunswick (Len & Cub: a queer history, published by Goose Lane Editions), I was awarded the QEII Platinum Jubilee medal for my service to our province.

When I got this award, I was honoured and hopeful that New Brunswick might be dragging itself out of its queerphobic past. Your decision to rescind support for PIE, which the department has been supporting for nearly a decade, is a step in the wrong direction. It shows that your government has no interest in supporting queer youth, or in continuing inclusive education training and resources for teachers who feel underequipped to adequately speak about queer issues. Your actions put queer youth at risk. If our government can’t stand up and support the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, then teachers won’t feel comfortable discussing queer issues, and queer kids will again be forced into the margins of our society and our schools.

Finally, by rescinding support for PIE in the face of ridiculous claims by protesters — like that schools are putting out litter boxes for kids who identify as cats (a baseless rumour circulating in far-right conspiracy circles for years) — you are showing support for those people who showed up to harass and protest a day of continuing education for public educators. You are failing to protect your staff and create a safe work environment for them by walking back your support of PIE, and you are failing to address the safety and education of students in the province by treating queer issues, realities, and history as a matter of debate, instead of a matter of fact.

I am disappointed in your actions. Please continue to uphold the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by supporting educators who are literally asking for these resources to better manage their classes. Twenty-thousand dollars is nothing in the face of our province’s massive (nearly billion dollar) surplus. Do the right thing. Please support educators how they say they need to be supported. And please, please stop fuelling a culture war which targets the handful of transgender children under your care in New Brunswick. Trans kids already face high levels of mental health issues and suicidality because of the lack of social acceptance. By walking back supports and resources for queer-inclusive education, the department is fuelling the idea that trans peoples’ lives are up for debate. They are not.

Dusty Green (he/they) grew up in northwest New Brunswick and holds degrees from St. Thomas University and the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. He/they is the co-author of Len & Cub: A Queer History.