LETTER: Is It SOGI the B.C. Conservatives oppose, or LGBTQ acceptance?

Published 7:00 am Friday, October 9, 2026

Editor,

The BC Conservatives seem to be twisting themselves into knots to avoid saying what I suspect many already assume: they don’t like LGBTQ people being openly accepted and treated as normal in our schools.

They claim SOGI 123 is inappropriate and ideological. Yet where are the specific examples? What exactly is so objectionable about teaching children that LGBTQ people exist and deserve the same respect as everyone else?

I’d like someone like Surrey–White Rock MLA and former interim Conservative leader Trevor Halford to point to the exact SOGI 123 document, lesson plan, and page he believes is inappropriate. Not vague accusations. Show us the exact material.

On March 11 last year, Surrey North MLA Mandeep Dhaliwal told the legislature, “Surrey parents are contacting me daily with concern. Their children are seeing books that are inappropriate for their age. Parents want sexual imagery removed from schools.”

Okay. Which books? And what does any of that have to do with SOGI 123?

SOGI 123 isn’t a separate sex-education curriculum. It’s a collection of resources designed to help schools become safer and more inclusive for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities. So why do the Conservatives keep treating inclusion and sexually explicit material as though they’re the same thing?

We’ve had books dealing with mature and disturbing subjects in schools for generations. Lord of the Flies involves the violent killing of children. 1984 contains sex, prostitution and horrific torture. To Kill a Mockingbird deals with rape allegations and uses racist language. Romeo and Juliet features teenage sexuality and suicide.

Yet we don’t hear the same sustained Conservative campaign to remove these works from schools.

Why not?

If the real concern is sex, violence and age-appropriate material, shouldn’t the same standards apply to every book? Why does so much of the outrage seem to centre on LGBTQ identities?

And then there’s the argument that this is all about upset parents.

Seriously?

There are parents who believe vaccines cause autism. Should we stop teaching that vaccines are safe and effective? There are parents who reject evolution. Should we remove it from science classrooms? There are people who deny or minimize the documented harms of residential schools. Should we stop teaching that history because it makes them uncomfortable?

Of course not.

Education cannot be determined solely by which group of parents is most upset. Schools have a responsibility to teach facts, respect human rights and prepare students for the world they actually live in.

So why should teaching that LGBTQ people are a normal part of society be treated differently?

The Conservatives say they want to replace SOGI 123 with anti-bullying programs. Fine. But SOGI 123 already helps schools address bullying and discrimination, including the kind directed specifically at LGBTQ students. Why remove resources that recognize those students in the first place?

And are we supposed to believe it will stop there?

This isn’t just a slippery slope. It’s a water slide.

At a time when LGBTQ people, particularly transgender people, face growing hostility and political attacks south of the border, the BC Conservatives are choosing to make inclusive education a political target here at home.

They say they’re protecting children. But LGBTQ children are children too. They deserve to see themselves reflected in their schools. They deserve to know they belong. And they deserve to be safe without having their identities treated as controversial.

So I’ll ask again: Why are the BC Conservatives so determined to kill SOGI 123?

Because from where I’m standing, the problem doesn’t appear to be what children are being taught about sex.

It appears to be that children are being taught there’s nothing wrong with being LGBTQ.

And if that’s what the Conservatives object to, they should have the courage to say so.

Rob Mumford, Surrey