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With an Alberta election ahead next week, party leaders are declaring their positions. A topic that has captured headlines in recent weeks involves an unlikely focus — namely, school clubs that support students who identify as 

These school groups, commonly known as  offer a safe and collegial gathering place for any students who seek to improve a school’s climate for gender and sexual minority students.

It is important to know that GSAs have only existed in Alberta for less than two decades. In my past career as a high school teacher, I was honoured to help a small group of students found the .

In a relatively conservative social climate, courageous students convinced our principal and staff the group was needed to help students feel safer at school. At a memorable staff meeting, a few brave students stood in front of more than 100 adults. They talked candidly about growing up gay in Red Deer, about wishing to be like the cast members of the popular sitcom Friends, but knowing they were somehow different.

Their stories were unscripted and compelling — and they touched the hearts of all who listened. Our GSA held weekly meetings, made posters with inclusive messages, organized awareness events and offered support for all students.

Today the Alberta GSA network  and a  to  the formation and sustenance of these groups.

Legislated protection for GSAs under threat

A public debate around GSAs in schools and other issues around sexual orientation during the  may have bolstered the NDP’s success. The party fulfilled its election promise to support those students by enshrining their .

 

GSAs protect LGBTQ+ rights.denin lawley/unsplash, 

 

The . This act requires all publicly funded schools to create welcoming, caring and respectful policies and make the policies publicly available, and ensures principals help students create a GSA in a timely manner when one is requested.

Further, the act ensures schools comply with the law. Schools that do not put in place a relevant written policy and code of conduct, or who disallow the formation of a GSA, are subject to .

Today,  that the existence of a gay-straight alliance in a school will  for all of the students there, and particularly for . Safer schools benefit everyone.

In , LGBTQ+ students are more likely to be targets of bullying, to struggle with higher rates of absenteeism, self-harm, suicide and generally more . They are also able to  with appropriate adult and peer support in place.

But GSAs have come into United Conservative Party (UCP) leader Jason Kenney’s crosshairs. One of his  is to roll back GSA legislation: Kenney has proposed allowing school officials to  when their child joins a GSA. Such a move could jeopardize student safety.

A political candidate threatening to remove important protections for some of our province’s  may well turn off many voters.

I learned as a teacher that there are numerous reasons students may wish to join a GSA. Allowing schools to disclose membership to parents would put many students at additional risk.

 

Protesters denounce a court challenge of legislation protecting GSA clubs in Medicine Hat, Alta. on June 20, 2018.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lauren Krugel

 

Some of the students attending our GSA meetings did not enjoy supportive home environments, and there is no benefit to effectively  merely for attending a meeting. Some attendees are straight allies wishing to learn more about how to support their peers, or they may simply want to better understand the complex issues around sexual orientation and gender identity.

Narrow and unsuited?

Issues surrounding sexual orientation also came to the fore during the 2012 Alberta election, when the fledgling Wildrose Alliance Party attracted a number of candidates with extremist views. Candidate Allan Hunsperger wrote in a blog that homosexuals would , and Wildrose leader Danielle Smith’s  are .

Last November, UCP candidate and Calgary lawyer . During Carpay’s court challenges of the GSA law in 2018, court documents called GSAs “.”

Just last week, a 2013 recording surfaced in which UCP candidate Mark Smith came under scrutiny for comments appearing to . UCP leader Jason Kenney formally , risking alienating voters who may already be concerned by his own past anti-LGBTQ+ positions. Further, the NDP recently released a campaign attack video that draws attention to a decades-old video showing a younger Kenney discussing leading a petition against .

Put together with his promise to roll back protections for students wishing for the support of a GSA in their school, Kenney’s consistently  may signal to voters that he is unsuited to lead the province.

Today we are not living in the Alberta of earlier generations, and many signs point to a more accepting and open-minded population. The most recent  saw record-setting crowds numbered in the tens of thousands. As  than ever before support equality and human rights for all, GSA policies may well be a lightning rod issue that influences Alberta voters.

, Professor of Social Justice Education, 

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