“Kids Not Rights, is Their Craving”: Sex Education, Gay Rights, and the Threat of Gay Teachers

Abstract

In July 1977, the Ontario Humans Rights Commission recommended adding sexual orientation to the Code. This move was generally supported but Toronto newspapers and evangelists sought assurances that school boards could still dismiss homosexual teachers. They demanded children be shielded from gay teachers, who they accused of sexual predation. I historically link this to a reenergized fear of homosexuals which emerged during Toronto sex education debates in the 1970s. Later, influenced by Anita Bryant's Save the Children crusade, Toronto newspapers and evangelists argued gay teachers were the dangerous effect of gay rights. After the 1977 murder of Emanuel Jaques and the publication of Gerald Hannon's "Men Loving Boys, Loving Men" article, anti-gay sentiment in Toronto exploded, temporarily halting the progress of gay rights.

Educational Malpractice? Human Rights, Censorship, and the LGBTQ+ Community in Ontario’s Health and Physical Education Curriculum

“…Gay activists visited schools to speak on homosexuality as part of sex education classes, and these presentations were intended to reveal "the sheer ordinariness of gay people." 23 The visits from activists could provide information and help dispel the many myths surrounding homosexuality. Teaching children and adolescents about sexual orientation in schools could legitimize this information.…”

Religious and sexual orientation intersections in education and media: A Canadian perspective

“…(O'Dwyer, 2012: n.p. )Sex education as policy has been controversial since its introduction in Ontario in 1966 even though public opinion polls at the time showed the majority favoured sex education (Graydon, 2001: 317). Additionally, the sexual orientation of educators has received attention since the 1970s, when the Ontario Human Rights Code was first being drafted to include sexual orientation.…”

“…Additionally, the sexual orientation of educators has received attention since the 1970s, when the Ontario Human Rights Code was first being drafted to include sexual orientation. Gay teachers were seen primarily as predatory, newspaper editorials and particular religious communities expressed increasing concern about the Code, arguing that schools had the right to exclude predatory gay males from their teaching staff (Graydon, 2001). Sexuality within an education setting continues to elicit strong negative responses and concern; this can be evidenced in other controversies and policy modifications in Canada, including Alberta's Bill 44 (Dickey Young) and the Little Flowers controversy in British Columbia (CBC, 2010a).…”

“…‘In North America, schools and universities act as “primary vehicles of cultural continuity,” wherein teachers are expected to be role models’ (Graydon, 2001: 320). The space of education becomes synonymous with a space of cultural continuity; parents send their children to school to be educated ‘as’ Canadians (or Brits or Swedes), within a moral, cultural and normative framework.…”

“…Queer theorists, such as Puar, demonstrate the ways in which normalizing discourses continually place queerness as ‘other’. If an educational environment is to promote cultural continuity, argued for example by Graydon (2001) and Gleason (1999), integrating sexual diversity into that environment is seen by opponents as fracturing the line of continuity.…”