Parents, Yukon education department take aim at ‘homophobic’ lessons at Catholic school
March 07, 2024
» Continue to this story on Yukon News
CWN Editor's Note: Some parents at a Yukon Catholic school have taken aim at a 12th-grade teacher for having students read from a textbook that asserts that homosexual acts are immoral.
The teacher assigned his students a reading from Called to Happiness: Guiding Ethical Principles, by Sister Terese Auer, Ph.D., a Nashville Dominican sister. The textbook notes—in a passage that offended parents—that “we come to understand by means of natural law that masturbation, contraception and homosexual acts are disordered and that we ought not to do them if we want to act in accord with the will of God.”
The parents have complained that the lesson, and other assignments from the teacher, “go against the [Yukon] Department of Education’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity policy that is supposed to protect students of all genders ... Not only is this teacher using a homophobic textbook, but he’s focusing his teaching on some of the most hateful ideas in that text.”
The Yukon Education Department issued a statement in support of the parents.
“While Catholic schools have the right to provide religious education programs and lessons that teach Catholic values to their students, they do not have the right to provide teachings about sexual orientation or gender identity that are inconsistent with the Yukon’s laws and Department of Education policies,” the department said.
“There is no place for homophobic or transphobic teachings in our public school system,” the department added. “Catholic schools in Yukon are public schools, and Catholic educators are Yukon public servants. These schools and teachers must adhere to all Government of Yukon laws and policies.”
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