About 350 people came to a rally at the New Brunswick legislature to protest the government’s review of Policy 713. It protects LGBTQ students and provides them with safe and gender affirming spaces.
It helps guide teachers and school administrators with sexual orientation and gender identity. It requires them to respect pronouns and chosen names and requires gender-neutral bathrooms, among other protections.
However, last week it became public that the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development was reviewing the policy and had been for at least a couple of months.
Gail Costello, who is with Pride in Education who helped write policy 713, said it has been a difficult week. She said the minister’s response regarding the review – just a little more than two years since it was implemented – doesn’t make sense.
“So, each day he seems to give a different answer, but in the end we know that he wants to get at curriculum, it’s not really about policy 713, and we have to do everything we can to protect it,” Costello said in an interview on Saturday.
PIE had asked for funding for a professional development session on policy 713, which the government denied. It is funding Costello said was previously provided. It led the group to release the letter which highlighted the department’s review.
Education Minister Bill Hogan confirmed the review and told reporters last week it was about reconciling some confusion between the policy and curriculum, which he later clarified was the sexual education curriculum.
Costello said, at the end of the day, the department cannot do anything to the curriculum without changing or eliminating policy 713.
“Marginalized kids never had a safe space and this policy has been out for a year and half and we know it saves lives,” Costello said. “We know that with this policy changed or removed, we’re going to lose kids.”
Costello said the minister nor the department should allow a small minority of people, who Costello said is on the wrong side of history, to dictate policy decisions.
“Once you get some rights, it’s pretty hard to have someone take them away from you,” Costello said.
A small group of protestors circled the rally, trying to cause disruption, and a woman made her way into the centre of the crowd.
She was immediately surrounded by people attending the rally, while they chanted “no room for hate.” The woman was escorted off the lawn of the legislature by a police officer.
Alex Saunders, who is a drag king whose stage name is Justin Toodeep, said they were prepared for the hateful rhetoric taking hold in the United States, seeping into New Brunswick.
Their drag storytime was the subject of protests in Saint John.
“Ever since then, they’ve just gotten more and more intense, and it was only a matter of time before they started to come for the policies that keep our children safe,” Saunders said. “This is just one more step toward erasing us, like they want to do.”
Saunders said past feelings have turned to anger.
“They say they want to protect children, they don’t,” Saunders said. “They want to remove something they think is distasteful. It’s about their own prejudices they can’t get past.”
Both opposition parties were present for the rally, both speaking in support of policy 713.
Green Party leader David Coon said his fellow party member and MLA Kevin Arseneau has asked the legislative assembly to raise the pride flag next week International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.