In my home province of Alberta, Canada, teachers are encouraged to cover their walls with pride flags and other symbols. As a lesbian woman, I am so thankful this wasn’t the case when I was coming out of the closet as a teen.
When people try to tell me that Alberta is a socially conservative, homophobic, transphobic place, I laugh, and I almost want to say, “I wish.” We could actually use a bit of that rumored social conservatism.
Instead, we have a province that enthusiastically adopted the SOGI 1 2 3 program which teaches kids that everyone has a sexual orientation and gender identity, including children.
“SOGI” stands for “sexual orientation and gender identity” and “1 2 3” stands for the steps to implement “SOGI-inclusive education.” According to the SOGI-Inclusive Classroom Checklist, this should involve making sure that “the posters and visual representations on classroom walls reflect diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.”
In other words: put up a bunch of pride flags …
