Bishop slams province's 'totalitarian' guidelines for transgender students
原始发布日期： 2016-01-14 发布者：李方字变大 字变小
beltlineColleen De Neve / Edmonton Journal 
FAIRVIEWGavin Young / Edmonton Journal 
Saturday, May 9, 2009 Page A19 sw / Monday May 2, 2005 Page A1 Edmonton - May 1/2005 Calgary Catholic Bishop Fred Henry 2000-2500 people came out to a pro-marriage rally in Mill Woods at Millwoods Park, southeast by the lake, 66 St. and 28 They marched around the park and then listened to numerous speakers. Calgary Catholic Bishop Fred Henry was one of the speakers. ( Bruce Edwards /Edmonton Journal).Bruce Edwards / Edmonton Journal Calgary’s Catholic bishop says Alberta Education’s new guidelines for transgender policies are “totalitarian” and based on “narrow-minded anti-Catholic ideology” that suggest “all forms of consensual sexual expression are legitimate.” In a letter sent to media, Bishop Frederick Henry said the government created the guidelines without consulting with and with no sensitivity to the Catholic community. “Our teaching is rather simple and direct,” Henry wrote. “In (God’s) plan, men and women should respect and accept their sexual identity.” On Wednesday, Education Minister David Eggen released to Alberta’s 61 school boards a guideline that states school policies should allow gender-diverse students and teachers to use gender-neutral pronouns such as ze instead of she or he, participate on gender-segregated sports teams that reflect their gender identity, and choose bathrooms that also reflect their gender expressions. School boards have until March 31 to submit their policies to the education department for review. The policies must explicitly protect diversity in schools and provide safe places for all students. Eggen said a special team will help boards if their policies don’t go far enough. “Social change is not easy and you need to push forward with ongoing conversation with all affected parties,” Eggen said, but he said he didn’t expect much pushback. “Sometimes this can be ugly and we’ve seen some of the discussions around this at different boards, but we have a larger responsibility to have that dialogue and create a better outcome.” Henry said the guidelines, as well as the ministerial directive that policies support the inclusion of gay-straight alliances in schools, don’t reflect Catholic teachings. “This approach and directive smack of the madness of relativism and the forceful imposition of a particular narrow-minded anti-Catholic ideology,” Henry wrote. “Such a totalitarian approach is not in accordance with the Supreme Court of Canada opinion (Loyola) delivered on March 19, 2015 and must be rejected.” The Supreme Court ruled that Quebec infringed on the religious freedom of a Jesuit-run school in Montreal by requiring it to teach a program on religious culture and ethics. The school wanted to teach the course from a Catholic perspective. Henry said Catholic teachings say God created humans as male and female who can choose the virtue of chastity to integrate the physical and spiritual aspects of their sexuality. “(Gay-straight alliances) and (queer-straight alliances) are highly politicized ideological clubs which seek to cure society of ‘homophobia’ and ‘heterosexism,’ and which accept the idea that all forms of consensual sexual expression are legitimate,” Henry wrote. “The view of sexuality that they espouse is not Catholic.” Marilyn Bergstra, chairwoman of Edmonton Catholic school board, said she would like her board to accept all 12 suggestions in the guideline document. jsinnema@postmedia.com twitter.com/jodiesinnema Calgary Herald |