McMurray Musings
A Letter from the Intrepid Junior Blogger
Dear Minister Scott,
I am writing to you to express my support of Gay-Straight
Alliances in Albertan schools. As a founding member of my school’s GSA I think
there is a lot of misunderstanding about what a GSA is and does for students.
I am a Grade Ten student in Fort
McMurray. I have been involved in many extracurricular activities including
drama, robotics and student council. A GSA is a student group that is in almost
every way no different than every other student group I have been involved in.
We meet on a weekly basis, we plan activities and we share ideas and thoughts
on making our school a safe place for all students.
As a young woman in your community I think that if students
wanted to start a group to end bullying or support multiculturalism there would
be no debate or question that the school boards would be asked to support a
group of that kind, so I am not sure why a GSA would be any different. The
students in our schools, regardless of their religion, race, colour or sexual
orientation deserve the support of our school boards to found and develop a
group that encourages understanding between students, encourages interaction
with our peers and helps us to ensure all students feel welcome in their
school. The goal of the GSA is fundamentally to do exactly that, and I think it
is a goal all people can and should support.
I am also a politically involved student. I worked on your
campaign in 2012 and I intend to continue to work on campaigns as well as run for election myself one day. I believe the role of politicians is to
represent their constituents, and I believe your constituents, at least the
ones who currently attend schools in this province, are very clearly showing
their support of GSAs. In my school there is no debate or concern regarding our
new group and it seems most of the concern comes from adults outside of the
school system who are significantly older than my age group and who attended
school in a different era that may not have been as open or welcoming of
students who are lesbian, bisexual, gay or transgender.
Fifty years ago I imagine a debate similar to this one took
place about whether or not to support alliances between students of different
colour. Since research has shown us that sexual orientation is no more a choice
than skin colour is I find it sad that we even feel the need to debate this
issue today, long after we moved into a more progressive society dedicated to
the concepts of diversity and inclusion. This is an opportunity to vote based
not on what was in the past but how society is today and will be in the future
and to truly be progressive in leading us into a new era of acceptance and
inclusion.
My mom has something she says a lot: it is easier to talk
the talk than walk it. It is very easy to talk about diversity, inclusion and
acceptance but a lot more difficult to walk that talk by making decisions that
may not be popular with everyone. You have a chance to walk the talk of
diversity, inclusion and acceptance. You have a real chance to not only change
what happens today, but change the future.
I am concerned Bill 10 does not go nearly far enough to
ensure students have the ability to form a GSA. The bill your government has
proposed will not make it any easier for students like myself to form GSAs and
may discourage us from doing so. I hope you and your colleagues will defeat Bill 10 and start
again with consultations with the youth of this province. I believe if you do
so you will not only be supporting GSAs but supporting students such as myself
who simply want the ability to found groups designed to support other students.
I would appreciate your support of youth like myself who hope to one day be the
leaders of this province and country and who will be faced with tough choices,
but who will make them based on what is best for the future and not on thoughts
or beliefs rooted in a past that is no longer reflective of who we are.
Sincerely,
Sam
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