A guide for LGBTQ+ students, parents, and educators in B.C.
I grew up in British Columbia’s public-school system during the 1990s and early 2000s.
I was queer. I was transgender. But I did not have those words yet.
There were no trans adults standing at the front of my classroom. There were no stories that explained why I felt so disconnected from the future everyone seemed to have planned for me.
Queer people were rarely discussed, and when we were, it was usually through silence, shame, rumour, or tragedy.
Nobody had to directly tell me that people like me did not belong. The absence did that work for them.
Today, I am an openly transgender man, a coming out coach, and an elected school trustee.
For the last four years, I’ve sat inside the very system that once failed to show me that a life like mine was possible.
That experience taught me that rights on paper are pivotal.
People still need to know those rights exist. Schools still need to follow them. Leaders still need the courage to defend them. And communities still need to understand that LGBTQ+ inclusion is not a special favour being granted to a controversial group. It is part of the basic promise of public education in Canada.
That promise is simple: You should not have to hide who you are to receive an education, support your child, teach a class, or participate in public life.
Are LGBTQ+ rights human rights?
Yes. LGBTQ+ people are protected by the same human-rights laws that protect everyone else from discrimination, harassment, and unequal treatment.
Canada has come a long way in a relatively short period of time.
For most of Canadian history, queer and trans people were criminalized, censored, fired, institutionalized, surveilled, and treated as threats to public morality.
Our relationships were denied legal recognition. Our families were treated as less legitimate. Our teachers could lose their jobs for being honest about who they were.
Change did not happen because governments suddenly decided to be kind.
Queer people organized. We challenged discriminatory laws. We filed human-rights complaints. We went to court. We created families the law refused to recognize. We taught, loved, protested, voted, and came out anyway.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms became one of the tools used in that struggle.
In the 1995 case Egan v. Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized sexual orientation as a protected ground under the Charter’s equality guarantee.
In Vriend v. Alberta in 1998, the Court ruled that Alberta could not deliberately leave sexual orientation out of its human-rights legislation.
In 2005, Parliament passed the Civil Marriage Act, defining civil marriage as “the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others.” Same-sex couples could finally marry across Canada under the same civil law as everyone else.
But what’s important about this milestone is the what marriage equality means in the every day lived reality of queer people.
It means a child with two mothers can talk openly about their family at school.
It means a gay teacher can talk about his husband the exact same way a straight teacher can talk about his wife.
It means public institutions cannot recognize heterosexual relationships as normal while treating queer relationships as political, inappropriate, or too controversial for children to know about.
That legal recognition changed the ground beneath Canadian schools.
Here is the important takeaway:
Once the law recognized queer people as equal citizens, public schools cannot reasonably behave as though our existence and belonging is optional.
Is LGBTQ+ inclusion part of B.C.’s education curriculum?
Yes. LGBTQ+ inclusion is built into B.C.’s human-rights laws, education policies, curriculum expectations, and professional standards for educators.
British Columbia’s public schools do not operate according to the personal beliefs of whichever parent, trustee, politician, or community group happens to be the loudest.
They operate within a legal framework.
The BC Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in areas that include services and employment.
Public education is a service. Working in a school is employment.
The BC School Act also requires public schools to operate on “strictly secular and non-sectarian principles.”
That means public-school decisions cannot be governed by one religion’s teachings.
The province’s current Diversity in B.C. Schools policy says differences among learners should not prevent them from participating in school, learning, or becoming contributing members of society.
Provincial safe-school policy also directs boards and schools to build safe, caring, and inclusive learning environments.
Professional standards require BC educators to create positive, safe, and inclusive environments that respond to the diverse needs of students.
The BC curriculum itself includes learning about identity, gender, sexual orientation, discrimination, stereotyping, and the social and cultural contexts that shape people’s lives.
None of this means every school will always get everything right.
It does mean that LGBTQ+ inclusion is not outside the purpose of BC education.
It belongs inside it.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission has affirmed that children and youth have the right to live and learn without discrimination, and specifies that discrimination connected to sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and other protected characteristics are prohibited.
It has also emphasized that children themselves are rights-holders, with interests in autonomy, development, education, and self-expression.
This means that governments, school boards, administrators, and educators must take equality seriously when making decisions.
What can an LGBTQ+ student expect from a B.C. public school?
They should expect to be treated with dignity, protected from discrimination and harassment, and included in school life without being treated as a political controversy.
No school can promise that a student will never experience ignorance, conflict, bullying, or discomfort.
What a public school should promise is that it will not join in, and will take every reasonable measure to protect students through curriculum, programming and supports.
An LGBTQ+ student should reasonably expect:
- to receive a full education without discrimination
- to be treated with dignity by staff
- to have bullying and harassment taken seriously
- to see different people and families represented in ordinary school life
- to participate in learning without being told their identity is inherently shameful
- to have school rules applied consistently
- to have their safety considered when decisions are made
- to have reasonable accommodation needs assessed rather than automatically dismissed
- to be recognized as a student, not reduced to a political debate
In British Columbia, the Human Rights Code protects people from discrimination in services and employment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
B.C. law also recognizes that homophobic harassment can be discrimination even when the student being targeted does not identify as gay.
In School District No. 44 v. Jubran, a student experienced years of homophobic insults and harassment. The B.C. Court of Appeal upheld the finding of discrimination even though the student did not identify as gay and the students harassing him claimed they did not believe he was gay.
The lesson is here is that homophobic bullying affects everyone.
Schools cannot dismiss homophobic or transphobic harassment as harmless joking.
The harm comes from using queerness as a weapon.
Do queer families belong in B.C. schools?
Absolutely. Queer parents, caregivers, and families are part of the school community and should be recognized and treated like every other family.
That includes ordinary recognition in:
- registration and emergency-contact forms
- school newsletters
- classroom materials
- family assignments
- parent-teacher meetings
- school ceremonies
- parent advisory councils
- volunteer opportunities
- communication from staff
- discussions about the student’s needs
Schools should not assume every child has a mother and a father.
That assumption does not only exclude queer families.
It can also exclude children being raised by grandparents, relatives, foster parents, adoptive parents, guardians, single parents, or other caregivers.
Inclusive language is not about abolishing the words “mother” and “father.”
People can still be mothers and fathers.
It is about making room for families that use different words.
A form that says “Parent or Caregiver” does not erase anyone’s motherhood.
It allows more children to accurately name the people caring for them.
What about names, pronouns, and student privacy?
Names and pronouns are part of how students are recognized, while privacy decisions should be handled carefully, lawfully, and with the student’s safety in mind.
Names and pronouns have become one of the most politically contested areas of Canadian education. But the underlying human issue is not complicated.
A name is how we recognize someone. Pronouns are part of how we speak about them.
Human-rights bodies have recognized that deliberately refusing to use a trans person’s name or appropriate pronouns can amount to discrimination in areas covered by human-rights law, including education and employment.
That does not mean every accidental mistake is a human-rights offence. People misspeak. Habits take time to change. Context, persistence, impact, and intent all matter.
There is a meaningful difference between:
“I’m sorry, I made a mistake.”
and:
“I know who you are asking me to recognize, and I am refusing because I do not believe people like you should be recognized.”
The second statement is not merely a grammatical disagreement. It can become the government giving it’s citizens unequal treatment, depending on who is saying it and why.
Persistent and intentional refusal may become discriminatory when it creates an adverse impact connected to gender identity or expression.
Schools need to respond thoughtfully, according to the Human Rights Code, student safety, privacy law, district policy, and the individual circumstances involved.
They should not assume every family situation is safe for a student to come out to.
They should not promise absolute secrecy they may not legally be able to maintain.
They also should not casually disclose sensitive information without considering the foreseeable effect on the student.
For some young people, talking with family may lead to love, support, and relief.
For others, disclosure may expose them to punishment, coercion, homelessness, abuse, or attempts to change their identity.
Each student’s circumstances are individual, and no less important. One on one care and consideration is what everyone deserves.
Children are not possessions. They are developing human beings with rights, relationships, needs, and increasing capacity to understand themselves.
What rights do students have around washrooms / change rooms?
Students should be able to access facilities with dignity, privacy, and safety, without being isolated or treated as a threat because of their gender identity.
Every student needs to use a washroom. Every student deserves privacy. Every student deserves to move through the school day without being treated as a threat.
Schools can support students through private stalls, individual changing areas, universal washrooms, thoughtful supervision, and access arrangements that respond to a student’s gender identity and individual needs.
Universal or single-user washrooms are valuable because they create more options for the entire student body.
They should not become a place where transgender students are sent against their will because other people are uncomfortable sharing public space with them.
The goal should be to expand privacy for everyone, not isolate one child.
B.C.’s approach to gender diversity places student rights within the Human Rights Code and identifies freedom from discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression as part of the province’s school-safety framework.
Schools may need to consider competing privacy, safety, accessibility, cultural, or disability-related needs.
That is what accommodation is for.
Accommodation does not mean one person automatically gets everything they request.
It means institutions must make a serious, individualized effort to remove discriminatory barriers unless doing so would create undue hardship.
What is SOGI 123?
SOGI 123 is a collection of tools and resources that helps B.C. schools respond to bullying, include different families, and support students of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
SOGI stands for sexual orientation and gender identity. Everyone has both.
Straight people have a sexual orientation. Cisgender people have a gender identity. SOGI is not another word for “gay and transgender people.”
It is an inclusive way of talking about aspects of identity that exist across the human population.
SOGI 123 is not a separate mandatory curriculum.
It is a collection of policies, practices, professional supports, and teaching resources that helps educators make schools safer and more inclusive for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
Its work generally focuses on three areas:
- Inclusive policies and procedures
- Inclusive school environments
- Inclusive teaching resources
SOGI 123 can help educators respond to bullying, select representative resources, use inclusive language, support student clubs, understand human-rights responsibilities, and answer questions in age-appropriate ways.
It does not tell students that they must be gay or transgender.
It is not sexual-health curriculum.
It does not require educators to diagnose a child’s identity.
It does not remove parents from their children’s lives.
It gives schools tools for dealing with a reality that already exists.
LGBTQ+ students attend B.C. schools.
Queer families are part of B.C. communities.
Transgender and non-binary people exist.
The question is whether educators have the tools they need to respond with knowledge, dignity, and care, or leave vulnerable students to navigate it alone.
Do students have a right to LGBTQ+ books?
Students do not have an unlimited right to every specific book, but schools cannot treat queer identities and families as inherently inappropriate while accepting comparable heterosexual stories.
No one has an unlimited legal right to demand that every particular book be placed in every classroom or school library.
Schools make legitimate decisions about:
- reading level
- age suitability
- educational purpose
- explicit content
- collection balance
- duplication
- cost
- curriculum relevance
- the needs of the students using the collection
But schools cannot reasonably treat the existence of queer people as inappropriate while allowing equivalent heterosexual representation.
The most important Canadian case on this issue is Chamberlain v. Surrey School District No. 36.
A Surrey school board refused to approve three books for Kindergarten and Grade 1 classrooms because the books showed families with same-sex parents.
The Supreme Court of Canada found the board’s decision unreasonable.
The Court did not rule that every requested book must be approved. It ruled that a public-school board could not allow the religious objections of some parents to control a secular public-school decision while failing to properly consider the diverse families served by the school system.
That principle is the backbone of inclusion in schools today.
Religious families belong in public schools. Queer families also belong in public schools.
A secular public-school system should not force a religious child to personally approve of a same-sex relationship. It also should not force the child of same-sex parents to disappear so that another family never encounters a life different from its own.
There is room for people to hold different beliefs.
There is not room for one group’s belief to erase another group’s family from public life.
What does a fair book-review process look like?
A fair review examines the entire book, uses clear and consistent criteria, considers professional input, and applies the same standards to queer and non-queer material.
Parents and community members should be able to raise concerns about school resources. But raising a concern does not mean the concern is automatically correct.
A fair review should ask:
- Has the person making the complaint read the entire book?
- What is the actual content?
- What age group can access it?
- Is the book assigned, recommended, displayed, or simply available in a library?
- Does it contain explicit sexual material, or does it merely contain an LGBTQ+ character?
- Would the same objection be made if the characters were heterosexual?
- What educational or literary value does the complete work have?
- Have teachers, librarians, and other trained professionals reviewed it?
- Is there a less restrictive option than removing it for everyone?
- What effect would removal have on the students and families represented in the work?
A screenshot circulating on Facebook is not a professional resource review.
A petition is not evidence that a book is harmful.
And describing every queer book as pornography does not make it so.
Schools should review actual materials according to clear criteria, not according to which group can generate the loudest outrage.
Is inclusive education sexual?
No. Teaching that different people and families exist is not the same as talking about sexual activity.
One of the most persistent pieces of misinformation about LGBTQ+ inclusion is that mentioning queer or trans people is automatically sexual.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
A picture book showing a mother, a father, and their child is generally understood as a book about a family. A picture book showing two mothers and their child is also a book about a family.
Look, I get it. There’s the word “sexual” in “sexual orientation” and that might be confusing if you’ve never had to take a look at your own identity. Sexual orientation is about identity. It’s about love. It’s about families. It’s about health and consent and all the important things we need to learn about ourselves to grow up healthy and happy in this world, and to know who we are as individuals.
Calling a book about two moms or two dads “sexual” is a personal bias. The difference is not based on what the book actually shows. It is based on the belief that heterosexuality is neutral while queerness is somehow inherently sexual. It’s not.
The same double standard appears when teachers talk about their lives.
A male teacher who mentions his wife is considered friendly and relatable. A male teacher who mentions his husband may be accused of discussing his sexuality with children.
Both teachers revealed exactly the same information: they are married.
The sexualization is not coming from the queer person. It is coming from the person who cannot hear about a same-sex relationship without imagining sex.
Inclusive education does not require telling every child everything at once.
Age-appropriate education begins with simple truths:
- Every family is different.
- Some children have one parent. Some have two. Some are raised by grandparents, foster parents, relatives, or chosen family.
- Some children have two mothers or two fathers.
- Some people are boys. Some are girls. Some understand themselves differently.
- People deserve respect even when their lives are not the same as yours.
Some people like to call this indoctrination. But public schools call it preparation for living in a diverse community, like Canada.
What rights do queer teachers and school employees have?
Queer and transgender employees have the right to work without discrimination, harassment, forced invisibility, or a poisoned workplace.
Queer and transgender educators do not surrender their identities when they walk into a school.
The BC Human Rights Code protects employees against discrimination connected to sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
Those protections can apply to hiring, dismissal, assignments, benefits, workplace harassment, poisoned work environments, and other adverse treatment.
An openly gay teacher can mention their spouse.
A transgender teacher can use their name and pronouns.
A queer employee can share a family photograph.
An educator can support an LGBTQ+ student club.
A teacher can select appropriate materials reflecting the families and identities within the community.
None of that is the same thing as discussing private sexual activity with students.
Queer teachers have the same professional responsibilities as every other educator.
They must maintain appropriate boundaries, follow curriculum and policy, protect confidentiality, act ethically, and avoid using their authority to exploit or coerce students.
But professionalism cannot become a coded demand for queer silence.
If heterosexual and cisgender educators are allowed to speak naturally about their lives, queer and transgender staff cannot reasonably be required to pretend they have no identities, relationships, or families.
What about teachers responsibilities?
Every educator must follow professional standards, maintain appropriate boundaries, protect student dignity, and provide public education without discrimination.
Teachers have rights, but they also occupy positions of trust.
An educator may belong to a religion with particular beliefs about sexuality or gender.
An educator may personally disagree with same-sex marriage or gender expression.
An educator may struggle to understand changes in language.
Canadian and B.C. human-rights law generally distinguish between holding a belief and acting in a discriminatory way.
A teacher does not need to change their theology to treat a gay student fairly.
A teacher does not need to understand every part of gender diversity to intervene in bullying.
A teacher does not need to “agree” with someone’s a family structure to educate that family’s child with dignity.
Freedom of religion protects belief and religious practice. It does not create a right to deny equal public services through a professional role.
The same standard applies in every direction.
Queer teachers are not exempt from professional boundaries because they are queer.
Religious teachers are not exempt from human-rights responsibilities because they are religious.
Public education asks people with different identities and beliefs to serve the same diverse community. That is the duty and mandate of public servants.
What rights do parents have?
Parents have important rights to information, participation, advocacy, and appeal, but those rights do not include controlling other students, families, or the entire public-school system.
Parents have important rights and responsibilities in BC education.
They are entitled to receive information about their child’s attendance, behaviour, progress, and educational program. They can speak with teachers and administrators, belong to parent advisory councils, raise concerns, review district policies, advocate for changes, and appeal certain decisions.
Parents can teach their religious and moral beliefs at home. They can tell their children what they believe about marriage, sexuality, family, faith, and gender.
But parental rights are not unlimited.
A parent does not own the school system.
A parent does not own their child’s classmates.
A parent does not gain authority over another family simply because that family’s existence conflicts with their beliefs.
Public schools must serve the whole public.
That includes religious students.
It also includes queer students, transgender students, LGBTQ+ educators, and children being raised by queer families.
Are public schools anti-religious?
No. B.C. public schools are secular, which means they must respect religious diversity without allowing one religion’s beliefs to govern everyone else.
The BC School Act requires public schools to operate according to secular and non-sectarian principles.
Secular does not mean anti-Christian, anti-Muslim, anti-Sikh, anti-Jewish, anti-Hindu, anti-Indigenous spirituality, or anti-religion.
It means the public institution cannot be governed by one religious doctrine.
Students may learn about religion.
They may speak about their beliefs.
Schools may recognize that religion is an important part of history, culture, identity, art, politics, and community.
But a school board cannot make one faith’s teachings the rule everyone must live under.
A board cannot reasonably remove a family book merely because one religious group believes the family shown inside it is sinful.
A school cannot make queer students disappear so other students never encounter a life different from the one taught at home.
Exposure to one anothers differences builds a sense of respect and dignity, teaching students how to navigate an increasingly diverse world.
Knowing and respecting that another person is different from you is not the same as being forced to be like them.
What rights apply in independent and religious schools?
Independent and religious schools have more freedom to follow their educational or faith-based purpose, but they are still regulated and do not exist outside human-rights, safety, employment, and education law.
In British Columbia, what people often call private schools are generally regulated as independent schools.
Independent does not mean unregulated. BC independent schools operate under the Independent School Act and provincial oversight.
Depending on their classification, they may receive public funding and must meet provincial requirements involving educational standards, inspections, student safety, teacher certification, and other areas.
The province states that independent schools are expected to develop positive and inclusive school cultures, and it identifies the BC Human Rights Code as part of the legal framework applying to them. Independent schools must also comply with employment and other applicable laws.
Independent schools may have more freedom than public schools to organize themselves around a religious or philosophical purpose.
Religious organizations may also rely on limited provisions in the Human Rights Code that permit certain organizations to prefer members of the group they exist to serve in particular circumstances.
That does not create a blank cheque to discriminate in every situation.
Whether an independent school’s conduct is legally protected can depend on:
- the school’s purpose
- the particular service or job involved
- its relationship to the religious mission
- the nature of the restriction
- the effect on the student or employee
- the wording of the Human Rights Code
- the school’s policies and contracts
- the individual facts
Families and employees should not assume either extreme.
It is not accurate to say a religious school must operate exactly like a public school.
It is also not accurate to say students and employees lose all human rights the moment they enter an independent school.
What can school trustees and boards of education actually do?
Boards set policy, approve budgets, oversee the superintendent, and make decisions collectively, while individual trustees cannot personally direct teachers, principals, or school staff, nor override provincial laws and mandates.
School trustees are governors. They’re not superintendents, principals, teachers, or individual school managers.
Trustees form a board of education. The board sets policy, establishes strategic direction, approves budgets, hires and oversees the superintendent, and makes decisions through properly constituted board processes.
Individual trustees do not have personal authority to order a teacher to change a lesson, direct a principal, remove a library book, discipline an employee, or overturn a student decision.
Authority belongs to the board acting collectively within the School Act and provincial policy.
This is important when controversy breaks out.
A trustee can ask questions.
A trustee can bring forward a motion.
A trustee can advocate for a policy.
A trustee can vote.
But a trustee is not the personal boss of every teacher in the district.
Good governance means creating fair, lawful processes and then allowing qualified staff to do their work.
It does not mean using elected office to personally police every book, poster, pronoun, or classroom conversation.
What should you do when something happens?
Document what occurred, ask for the relevant policy and decision in writing, follow the school district’s complaint or appeal process, and seek outside support when needed.
Not every mistake requires a lawsuit or public campaign.
Sometimes a conversation resolves the problem.
Sometimes a teacher needs more information.
Sometimes a principal does not know what has been happening.
Sometimes a policy is being misunderstood or inconsistently applied.
Start by documenting the concern.
Write down:
- what happened
- when and where it happened
- who was involved
- what was said or done
- whether it has happened before
- how the student or employee was affected
- what action was requested
- what response was received
Save relevant emails, letters, screenshots, policies, and meeting notes.
Ask for decisions and reasons in writing.
For a public-school concern, the usual path may include:
- Speaking with the teacher or staff member
- Contacting the principal OR file an anonymous report through the ERASE website
- Contacting district administration
- Reviewing the district’s complaint and appeal policies
- Filing a formal board appeal where the School Act applies
- Contacting a union or professional association
- Seeking help from an advocacy or legal organization
- Filing a BC Human Rights Tribunal complaint
- Obtaining legal advice
Section 11 of the School Act allows a student or parent to appeal to the board when a decision, including a failure to make a decision, significantly affects the student’s education, health, or safety. Every board must have an appeal procedure. Some board decisions can now be appealed further to the provincial superintendent of appeals in the circumstances set out by legislation and regulation.
Human-rights complaints follow a separate process through the BC Human Rights Tribunal. A complaint generally needs facts showing a protected characteristic, a negative effect, and a connection between the two.
For students, safety comes first.
A child should not have to conduct a constitutional battle while also trying to pass math, keep friends, and survive adolescence.
Adults must carry more of that responsibility.
What Chilliwack taught B.C. about queer teachers
This issue is personal for me.
For years, LGBTQ+ educators in Chilliwack worked under the shadow of public statements from a sitting trustee who portrayed SOGI-inclusive education, transgender people, and the educators supporting students as threats to children.
In February 2026, the BC Human Rights Tribunal released its decision in Chilliwack Teachers’ Association v. Neufeld.
The Tribunal found that the former trustee’s publications violated parts of the Human Rights Code and that his conduct contributed to a poisoned work environment for LGBTQ+ teachers. He was ordered to personally pay $750,000 in compensation for injury to their dignity, feelings, and self-respect, along with other remedies.
The Tribunal found that his role as a trustee gave him power and influence within the school system, even when he was speaking on social media, at rallies, or outside formal board meetings.
This is why freedom of expression cannot be separated from power and responsibility.
When someone in public office uses their platform to target the employees and communities they are supposed to serve, the harm does not remain online. It enters classrooms, staff rooms, public meetings, and workplaces. It can also create serious legal and financial risk, pulling time and resources away from the work public institutions are supposed to be doing for students.
When a trustee repeatedly portrays queer educators as dangerous to children, those educators still have to walk into work. They still have to meet with parents. They still have to teach students. They still have to wonder whether the institution employing them sees them as people worth protecting.
Freedom of expression is a fundamental right in Canada, but it is not a licence to discriminate, spread hate, or poison someone’s workplace.
Human-rights law can place limits on expression when it exposes protected groups to hatred, signals an intention to discriminate, or causes discriminatory harm in employment.
Had similar conduct been legally attributed to a board or carried out on its behalf, public resources could also be put at risk. That is precisely why trustees and other public officials must understand that their words are not disconnected from the institutions they govern or the people whose workplaces they help shape.
The law is the floor, not the dream
As a school trustee, I care deeply about policy.
Policies tell people what an institution promises to do.
Budgets show whether those promises are real.
Codes of conduct establish expectations.
Human-rights laws give people a path forward when institutions fail.
But I do not want queer and transgender children to grow up believing the best they can hope for is a technically lawful school.
I want them to experience true belonging.
I want the child with two fathers to see their family in a story before another student teaches them it is something to be ashamed of.
I want the transgender student to spend less time planning how to safely use a washroom and more time thinking about art, science, sports, friendship, and whatever ridiculous thing teenagers are laughing about that week.
I want queer teachers to be remembered for the lives they changed, not forced to spend their careers proving that they are not dangerous.
I want religious students to practise their faith without being taught that religious freedom requires control over everyone else.
I want parents to feel like partners in education without being promised ownership over children who are becoming people in their own right.
And I want school trustees to understand that leadership is not about deciding which children are politically convenient to defend.
The test of public education is whether it remains public when a marginalized person walks through the door.
Queer and trans people are students, educators, parents, principals, librarians, counsellors, education assistants, coaches, trustees, and community members.
We have always been here.
The difference is that more of us are coming out of the boxes we were placed in.
The law has begun to recognize us. Our schools must do the same.
Nobody should have to disappear in order to belong.
Nobody’s freedom should depend on remaining invisible enough to keep other people comfortable.
And our goal cannot stop at surviving these systems.
We need to understand them.
We need to vote in elections.
We need to challenge failures.
We need to write policies.
We need to sit at board tables.
We need to run them.
This article provides general information about British Columbia education and human-rights law. It is not legal advice for a specific student, family, employee, school, or complaint.
