Cheers as Brandon School Division rejects call to remove library books on sexuality, gender identity
CBC
WARNING: This story contains descriptions of bullying and mentions suicide.
Loud cheers erupted inside a packed high school gymnasium after the Brandon School Division rejected to a call to remove books dealing with sexuality and gender identity from libraries.
Hundreds of people in Manitoba's second-largest city showed up for the marathon school division meeting, which ran into the early morning hours.
The trustees ultimately voted 6-1 to reject a proposal to create a committee of trustees and parents to review books available in division schools.
The school division was inundated with calls, letters and emails after a delegation at its May 8 meeting, led by former school trustee and grandmother Lorraine Hackenschmidt, called on the division to set up a committee to review the content of books available in school libraries, and remove titles deemed inappropriate, including "any books that caused our kids to question whether they are in the wrong body."
Before the vote, board chair Linda Ross said there were many "errors and untruths" in Hackenschmidt's presentation.
Ross said that by denying the possibility that people could feel like they are born in the wrong body, "you are denying the reality of others. Because it is not your experience does not mean that it is not the reality of others."
Tuesday's board of trustees meeting was held in Vincent Massey High School in the southwestern Manitoba city, where it had been relocated to accommodate the number of people expected to attend.
More than 30 people — but not Hackenschmidt herself — registered to speak at the meeting before school trustees voted on the proposal brought forward on May 8.
A large number of people in the audience held up signs supporting LGBTQ people, while others held signs declaring their one-word response to the proposal: "Don't."
First to speak was Jason Foster, a student at Vincent Massey High School who identified himself as transgender.
Foster started by thanking everyone in attendance, "no matter your opinion, no matter your stance."
He went on to describe his experiences as a transgender youth, saying he has been told to kill himself, and telling the trustees that being trans is not a choice.
"If it were, then people would not choose it," he said. "I have been told that the only way I would make my parents proud is if they found me hanging in my living room because I am transgender."
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