Kathryne Miller’s 14-year-old son Lance Miller made the choice to identify as a transgender male two years ago; a change she says was made easier due to the 2015 sex-ed curriculum.
“Coming into junior high school — I guess Grade 7 and 8 — what he was provided for was gender-neutral bathrooms, which was very important for him, and they were working on gender-neutral change rooms. He was listed in school under his chosen name of Lance — they respected that he identified himself as male and it was never a problem,” said mother Kathryne.
It’s something Miller fears will change, now that Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum will be reverting this fall to the previous one from 20 years ago.
READ MORE: Doug Ford reverting Ontario back to 1998 sex-ed curriculum is ‘dangers’ for kids, experts say
The sex-ed curriculum that will be taught, will not include topics such as same-sex marriage, online safety, consent, and gender identity — what many say is not a reflection of our current society.
“We’re going back to a curriculum where kids aren’t being kept safe, given the risks that are out there in terms of social media and I don’t want to play up the risk of predators, but we should have children be aware of what risks are in the community,” said Dr. Blair Niblett, assistant professor of the school of education at Trent University.
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Miller thinks the only avenue for change is when people stand up and make their voices heard.
READ MORE: Kathleen Wynne defends sex ed plan, says thousands of parents were consulted
The new curriculum was rolled out by the Liberals in 2015, and at the time was met with some opposition. During his campaign, Doug Ford said that many parents were not consulted.
However, many argued that this was, in fact, a piece of the curriculum which had the most consultation.
On Tuesday, former premier Kathleen Wynne spoke out saying about 4,000 parents and child-development professionals were given the chance to weigh in on the updated curriculum.
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