Religious leaders have been penning letters in opposition to the changes.
Alberta has taken major steps to ensure schools are inclusive of diverse sexual and gender identities. However, some religious leaders have concerns with the new guidelines.
Government of Alberta / Via education.alberta.ca
The province's 61 school boards — including publicly-funded Catholic schools — have until the end of March to create policies based on the guidelines.
Three bishops have now publicly stated their opposition to the guidelines, the most scathing of which came from Calgary Bishop Fred Henry. He titled his letter "Totalitarianism in Alberta":
The Alberta Government "Guidelines" issued on January 13th show no evidence of consultation with or sensitivity to the Catholic community. They breathe pure secularism.
This approach and directive smack of the madness of relativism and the forceful imposition of a particular narrow-minded anti-Catholic ideology.
Henry also said gay-straight alliance clubs are "highly politicized ideological clubs"
and the "view of sexuality that they espouse is not Catholic."
Gerrard Pettipas, the archbishop for Grouard-McLennan in Northern Alberta, also chimed in:
The Church teaches, under an authority that is greater than herself, that humans are created "in the image and likeness of God … male and female he created them". The Church believes that one's physiological gender is not arbitrary, but determines the identity that we grow into. This process of growth in identity must be respected.
Conservative media outlets and trustees for Alberta's Catholic school boards have also voiced opposition to LGBT accommodations.
1. Let kids choose how they identify and who they want to be out to.
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