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Vol. 18, No. 44, Wednesday, September 27, 2023 www.LamontLeader.com
Protest billed as anti-2SLGBTQ+ by EIPS carries strikingly different message according to protestors BY JANA SEMENIUK An email from Elk Island Public Schools was sent to families around Sherwood Park on Sept. 19, warning them of an anti-2SLGBTQ+ protest planned for the following day. “As some of you may be aware, there is a group planning an anti2SLGBTQ+ march on Wed. Sept. 20 in several communities across Canadaincluding Sherwood Park,” read the email. “At this point there is no indication of any related events in other communities served by EIPS, but the Division is prepared should this occur.” The email went on to explain that EIPS was working closely with the RCMP to ensure safety for school grounds and for the school day to proceed uninterrupted. The following day, however, hundreds of grandparents, parents and children gathered behind the Sherwood Park Mall for the 1-Million March-4-Children in protest of the SOGI123 (sexual orientation and gender identity) program used in 61 school divisions in B.C. and six Alberta school divisions including Elk Island Public Schools, Edmonton Public School Board, Sturgeon School Division, St. Albert Public Schools, Aspen View School Division and Fort McMurray Public Schools. The weather was chilly and rainy, but the crowd gathered and numbers swelled to between 300-400. Their signs included slogans such as ‘Stop SOGI123’ and ‘Let Kids Be Kids’. According to their website, the SOGI123 program is in its fifth year of operation and supports an inclusive environment which encompasses several 2SLGBTQ+ themes by way of using toolkits for classrooms, 2SLGBTQ+ themed books and celebrating different 2SLGBTQ+ days
Former Bruderheim resident and 1 Million March 4 Children organizer, Willie Ferguson, 74, addresses the large crowd of protestors in Sherwood Park on Sept. 20. Photo: Jana Semeniuk throughout the year. The program also promotes different policies such as allowing students to use the bathroom or changeroom that coincides with their gender identity in addition to privacy policies that, for some schools, exclude a parent from being informed if their child changes their pronoun or preferred name at school. The website says the program is used for kindergarten children up to grade 12. In addition to the SOGI123 protesters, up to 50 others gathered at the opposite end of the parking lot to counter protest. Their signs included slogans such as ‘Hate Has No Home Here’ and ‘Good People Don’t Harass Marginalized Communities’. Counter protest organizer Brandie Harrop said that what the protesters are worried about, sexualization of children, is not happening in schools. “I have volunteered in my kid’s classroom. I know what they think is happening is not happening at all in any way, shape or form,” she said. “We're here (counter protesting) because our LGBTQ2+ community
deserves to have a safe place. They deserve to feel safe at their school. They deserve to be themselves.” The other counter protestors declined to be interviewed for this article. Meanwhile, protest organizer and former Bruderheim resident, Willie Ferguson, 74, spoke to the crowd on a PA system that sat snug in the back of an SUV. She told those who gathered to remain peaceful and not to engage with the counter protestors. An RCMP officer came by to reassure Ferguson that he spoke to the counter protestors who agreed to stay on their side of the parking lot, however their chants could be heard loud and clear; ‘Hey Hey, Ho Ho, All This Hate Has Got To Go…’. One woman stood up and used Ferguson’s microphone to read a book titled ‘I Identify’, a children’s book about kids who identified with their characteristics such as brave, or friendly. All ten copies of the book sold instantly. Ferguson said that she was a teacher for a number of years and does not like
where the education system is going. She said she felt the need to speak out. “I'm organizing this because I've been a teacher for 34 years, and now I'm seeing stuff being taught in schools that is just not appropriate,” she said. “I see the erosion of parent control over what their kids can be taught in school. We don't like the agenda in the school, where our kids are being taught this stuff without the parents’ knowledge. That is not appropriate in my eyes.” Several Sikh families also joined the protest. Most could not speak English and had their children translate for them, indicating they did not feel that SOGI123 respected their religious identity. “We just don’t believe that. God gave us two genders,” said one 11year-old child of a Sikh family. “And if we change it then that’s being disrespectful to God.” Sherwood Park parent Leah Carch said she worries about her four children at school after several disturbing incidents. “School doesn’t feel safe anymore. At school they are learning about sexuality and it doesn’t feel ok for a sixyear-old,” she said. “My daughter and her friends wanted to do a friendly competition at school, boys against the girls, and the teacher said ‘there’s no such thing as boys and girls. Gender is fluid and we will not be dividing.’ This isn’t antiLGBTQ, it’s not anti. It’s just let kids be kids.” RCMP and local Peace Officers blocked streets so the protestors could march unimpeded. They played music such as Tom Petty’s ‘I won’t back down’ and the 80s U.S.A. for Africa song ‘We are the world’. Continued on Page 15