Right-wing Canadian group accused of transphobia for ‘confusion’ ad
A right-wing Canadian group claims that school equality policies are “corrupting children”.
The Institute for Canadian Values ran an ad in the National Post this week urging adults to stop “confusing children” by teaching them about gay and transgender people.
The ad, which shows a little girl, says: “Please! Don’t confuse me. Don’t teach me to question if I’m a boy, transexual, transgendered, intersexed or two spirited.”
Appealing to the leaders of the three major Ontario parties, it continues: “Please tell me you will stop telling teachers to confuse me. I face enough in the world already.”
The ad serves to revive last year’s ‘Stop Corrupting Children’ campaign.
According to gay newspaper Xtra!, the ad wrongly claims that optional sex education lessons are mandatory.
The National Post’s manager of advertising sales, Enzo Loschiavo, told Xtra! that the newspaper had received plenty of complaints and would probably not run the ad in future.
He said: “We obviously don’t want to offend anyone, but we also understand that everyone has a freedom of speech.”
Transgender activist Chase Joynt has created a spoof ad in response, which says: “Please! Don’t insult me. Teach me to question everything!”
He said: “I thought it was manipulative to use the face of a small child.
“Where the ad is doing the most damage is in not only presenting trans identities in any form as invalid and shameful, but also to rely on the education system to disseminate these lies.”
