I wish to respond to the letter “Ex-trustee’s opinion ‘deeply harmful’ in The Progress March 17, 2023. I was astounded to read that Wilbur Turner considers the exposure of children to explicit pictorial descriptions of homosexual sex acts in books like Gender Queer to be an “important aspect of our education system” in Chilliwack. Certainly not according to the Criminal Code section 16.
(Editor’s note: The RCMP investigated this claim and determined the books in question do “not constitute child pornography.” READ MORE: Chilliwack RCMP determines books in schools do not meet the definition of child pornography)
Turner’s misconstrued rant confuses LGBTQ people with their sexual practices and preferences. I support the right of LGBTQ persons to prefer whatever sexual practices they want, but it is not their right to promote those practices to teachers, students or staff in any school system. Since when should any employee in a school district get to promote their sexual preferences to students via sexually graphic library materials?
“Inclusive resources” does not – and should not ever – extend to explicit descriptions of the sexual acts of LGBTQ persons, or any teacher, staff member in the district. It is morally repugnant for Turner to demand that the definition of “inclusivity” be massaged to include the exposure and/or promotion of sexual practices to students as part of a “wholesome education.”
Indeed, it is Turner’s view that is “deeply harmful,” not mine. Inclusivity does not extend to sexual practices and preferences. It is also not in the prescribed curriculum of the Ministry of Education to promote any sexual practices. What teachers, staff or LGBTQ students do in their own private residences is their own business. It is not the business of the education system to describe in detail what is sexually normal, or morally acceptable under some flawed ideological definition of “inclusivity.”
Sexual education is the responsibility of parents, not ideological activists like Turner.
Darrell Furgason
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