If you have been on Facebook in the last 24 hours you have undoubtedly by now come across numerous posts about this transphobic ad in the National Post. Sponsored by the ‘National Think-Tank’ promoting Christian-Judeo values, The Institute for Canadian Values, the ad pictured above, asks teachers in Toronto to not confuse children into questioning their gender identity after the Toronto District School Board made the curriculum resource ‘Challenging Homophobia and Heterosexism’ mandatory.
The campaign ‘stopcorruptingchildren.com’, is aimed at challenging its implementation as well as stopping schools from embracing the gay agenda! (They really don’t know what they’re missing. We have tons of fun.) It is also aimed at asking the three major Ontario parties to think twice before allowing this to be part of their election platform.
The National Post‘s manager of advertising sales Enzo Loschiavo affirms that there have been hundreds of complaints about the ad, and is reconsidering running it again. He is still unsure of how the ad got in the newspaper in the first place. “The Post wouldn’t generally run this,” Loschiavo says. “We’ll probably take a stance on not running it again.”
“We obviously don’t want to offend anyone, but we also understand that everyone has a freedom of speech,” he says.
Trans-Activist Chase Joynt has created his own ad mocking the original one. He is adamant that the LGBTQ resource is necessary in schools. “What’s crucial about any curriculum in regard to identity politics is that it’s providing a breadth of options and potentially the inclusion of LGBT rights in any curriculum at any level is that it affords another opinion,” he says. “ While I think there is opportunity to speak to things such as when is age appropriate, the ability to learn about those identities is integral to our success as educators.” Numerous other parodies of the ad continue to surface.
Lucas Silviera, trans-identified lead singer of the Cliks, is also publicly acknowledging his dissatisfaction with the ad. He has written an open letter to the National Post asking that the Ontario Human Rights Commision pursue a hate propaganda investigation against the National Post and the Institute for Canadian Values over the ad.
Via @ Xtra.ca
In the headlines
McLeod, Kimberly, GLAAD.org. Ebony Magazine Spotlights Black Same-Sex Couples Raising Kids in the South, (September 28, 2011).
Gieseke, William. The Advocate. Euro Parliament Doesn’t Want Trans People Classified as Mentally Ill, (September 29, 2011).
The Advocate. Elton Sues Banker Who Reneged on Donation to AIDS Charity, (September 29, 2011).
About the Author
Good Job Dallas! I hate this “for the children” crap. Children are not allowed to participate in political discourse so I find it ethically reprehensible when they are used as emotionally-manipulative mouthpieces for the political rhetoric of idealogues.
Plus it makes the kids all look like dicks.
The National Post put out an apology, sure.. But as a society we still have so far to go. Most people don’t even know what intersexed persons are.. Let alone how they identify or represent themselves.
I also think we should removed children from advertising. Surely this child has no idea what political misrepresentation she currently represents.
Let’s teach tolerance!