A Toronto District Faculty Board (TDSB) college hosted a efficiency by a drag star, main protesters and counterprotesters to collect exterior.
The efficiency was a part of an meeting at York Mills Collegiate Institute on April 12 for Pink Shirt Day, a day to lift consciousness about bullying. Some have taken the day as an event to give attention to bullying in opposition to LGBTQ+ folks particularly.
Icesis Couture, the 2021 winner of “Canada’s Drag Race,” gave a efficiency to the highschool college students. Couture was wearing a short-cut yellow costume with an enormous bow on the neck and danced to the tune, “Mom,” by Meghan Trainor.
Scholar emcees defined that Couture has been touring and talking with colleges throughout Canada.
Save Canada, which describes itself as a company that promotes Christian values, called for protesters to collect exterior the varsity to “finish grooming.”
Save Canada activist 17-year-old Josh Alexander posted on Twitter a picture of himself and several other different youth praying exterior York Mills CI. The put up included the phrases, “You tried to indoctrinate us. You tried to confuse us. … You’ve got waged struggle on our religion and our lifestyle. … The youth are rising up.”
York Mills CI and TDSB didn’t reply to The Epoch Occasions inquiry as of publication.
The varsity’s meeting additionally included a chat from homosexual rights activist Martin Boyce.
“Individuals who categorical completely different views aren’t allowed inside,” a younger man standing exterior the varsity who recognized himself as a York Mills CI pupil said in a video posted to Twitter.
“They’re not going to indicate you some other aspect,” he mentioned, including that the varsity’s Pink Shirt Day has concerned “largely LGBTQ propaganda; I didn’t see something about bullying.”
TDSB colleges broadly mentioned LGBTQ points with college students for Pink Shirt Day. Rawlinson Group Faculty held assemblies for college kids from kindergarten to Grade 8 hosted by the Increase Your Flag Membership, a LGBTQ pleasure membership on the college.
Earl Haig Secondary School held an meeting “displaying solidarity with the 2SLGBTQIA+” and got here up with a pledge to “decide to standing up and talking in opposition to hate, intolerance and oppression.”
The varsity board’s skilled library directed lecturers to assets for educating college students on these points for Pink Shirt Day. Books really helpful for major and junior grades embody “Born Prepared: the True Story of a Boy Named Penelope” a few five-year-old woman who identifies as a boy.
Pink Shirt Day began in Nova Scotia when a grade 9 boy was bullied for carrying a pink shirt. Two different boys on the college and their associates distributed pink shirts for everybody to put on as a approach of supporting him.
