LETTER: Local queer youth at a 'contradictory crossroads'

OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to the article 'Pride flag at Orillia school doing 'more harm than good'

As a graduate from Orillia Secondary School, I felt impassioned to respond to the June 6 article “Pride flag at Orillia school doing 'more harm than good.'”

Despite its good intentions to bring voice to LGBTQ+ students and their concerns about heightened tensions around the raising of the Progressive Pride flag, it was disappointing to read that queer students are feeling that this display of solidarity from the Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB) is endangering them.

However, the suggestion that Pride Month is an “inundation” of an imaginary belief system (see: the “gay agenda” myth) troubles me, and hearing it come from a student is especially bone-chilling.

As a transgender writer, I find myself gravitating towards writing and commenting upon this culture war with people like myself and my loved ones at its centre: What I garnered from these students tells me that queer youth are at a contradictory crossroads because of this and how public institutions like schools influence how LGBTQ+ people view themselves.

They are not only being taught to love themselves and discover who they are, but to also live in shame at the same time and apologize to their tormentors for making them uncomfortable.

My experience at OSS does not differ too much from that of these students: I remember frequently being bullied by students, and experience reprimand from faculty and parents for being openly queer and defending that fact of my life.

When adults chastise youth for being LGBTQ+ in multiple public settings, it teaches other students that it is permissible to treat people differently on not only the basis of queerness, but forms of self-expression that differ from the status quo.

The role of adults in cultivating this culture of fear should be emphasized here: it is my belief that students are not at fault for repeating what trusted authority figures have regurgitated to them. Bullying largely stems from what youth hear from adults, and what we say around them should be reflected upon before we solely blame individuals for a systemic issue.

This is beyond the scope of what the article in question could do, yet I feel the need to encourage critical thinking about the point reemphasized by these students that Pride festivities are exercises in indoctrination, and the Canadian flag as a symbol is exempt from similar critique because it simply “includes everyone.”

As evidenced from what these students have talked about, queer people — especially transgender people — are a social category treated horrifically in Canadian society, and the continued existence of Pride Month is a testament to that.

It is unfortunately up to us to defend ourselves without apology, regardless of how others feel about it.

David King
Orillia