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from Gay Activism in the Schools
Canadian Court Ruling May Expose Pre-School Children To Homosexual Literature
By Roy Waller
Schools cannot ban books with gay-friendly themes
from kindergarten classes, said Canada's Supreme
Court in a December 2002 ruling.
The ruling was the result of a lawsuit brought by
a gay kindergarten teacher who wanted to introduce
a book entitled "One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dads,
Blue Dads" to kindergarten and first-grade
students. The story appeared on Reuters news
service.
The school board of Surrey, Vancouver, British
Columbia, was criticized by a group of parents --
including Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Sikhs,
and Muslims -- who objected to the book's contents
on the moral grounds of their respective faiths.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly Mc Lachlin,
writing for the majority, acknowledged while
"religion is an integral aspect of people's lives,
and cannot be left at the (school) boardroom
door." However, she went on to say that "what
secularism does rule out, however, is any attempt
to use the religious views of one part of the
community to exclude from consideration the values
of other members of the community."
The Surrey School Board had argued that five- and
six-year old children are too young to be exposed
to literature dealing with sexual themes, to which
Mc Lachlin replied, "Tolerance is always
age-appropriate."
On the other side of the issue, Justice Charles
Gonthier noted that the books went beyond
expressing tolerance because they imply that all
relationships are morally equivalent.
Judge Gonthier added that Canadians should not be
banned from expressing moral disapproval of
homosexuality. He said that pluralism should not
transform tolerance into "mandated approval or
acceptance."
A group that argued on the side of the parents,
the Catholic Civil Rights League, maintained that
the ruling denies a voice to parents of
conservative, traditional moral values in shaping
what is essentially public policy.
Updated: 8 February 2008
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