Barry Neufeld, Chilliwack school trustee, compares gender transitioning to ‘child abuse’

Last month, Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld wrote a Facebook post in which he said allowing kids to choose their gender was “child abuse.”

Two days later, he issued an apology to “those who felt hurt” by his opinion.

On Tuesday night, Neufeld made similar remarks to a roomful of people at Chilliwack’s Evergreen Hall, where he said that rushing into gender reassignment treatments such as hormone therapy is “child abuse.”

WATCH: Chilliwack trustee rallies against LGBTQ program

0:56 Chilliwack school trustee compares gender transitioning to child abuse

Neufeld’s remarks came as part of an event organized by Culture Guard, a group that works to end what it calls the “political tyranny of politically-correct idiotology.”

The event was a rally aimed at stopping the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) program, an educational resource that is aimed at supporting “marginalized LGBTQ students.”

“SOGI in my opinion is an institutionalization of co-dependency, encouraging and enabling dysfunctional behaviour and thinking patterns,” Neufeld said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "SOGI in my opinion is an institutionalization of co-dependency, encouraging and enabling dysfunctional behaviour and thinking patterns," Neufeld said.

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He then said that students in Chilliwack schools are coping with various problems such as addiction — an issue that has to be treated “assertively.”

Neufeld then called gender confusion a “sexual addiction.”

WATCH: Backlash after school trustee criticizes LGBTQ program

9:18 Backlash after school trustee criticizes LGBTQ program

“Instead of coddling and encouraging what I regard as the sexual addiction of gender confusion, I believe children should be gently encouraged to be comfortable with their bodies,” he said to applause and cheers.

Neufeld subsequently referred to SOGI as a “subtle but powerful suggestion that perhaps there is something wrong with the child. That all children should consider rejecting their own gender identity.”

Here’s a full video of Neufeld’s speech, posted to Facebook by Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, another speaker at the rally:

He cited Red: A Crayon’s Story, a book about a red crayon who discovers that he’s actually blue. It’s recommended as a book about gender identity in a SOGI lesson plan.

“This is gaslighting, the attack on the foundation of a child’s being, which is child abuse.

“Furthermore, I consider that the rushing into the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender reassignment is child abuse.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Furthermore, I consider that the rushing into the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender reassignment is child abuse."

But not everyone at the rally was there to support what Neufeld was saying.

Also present at the Evergreen Hall were people who support the SOGI curriculum.

One of them was Morgane Oger, a former BC NDP candidate who narrowly lost to BC Liberal MLA Sam Sullivan in the riding of Vancouver-False Creek during May’s provincial election.

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Oger said people at the rally were putting forward an image of SOGI that is “not based on fact.”

“The fact of the matter is the SOGI curriculum, the issue at hand here, is an extension of the law,” she said.

“The Human Rights Code requires that this material be taught, it’s the same material we have for anti-racism, protection of newcomers, First Nations, anti-sexism.

“It’s a standard curriculum that all children learn, it’s a requirement based on our Human Rights Code.”