Trans activists protest a father speaking out for daughter's rights to single-sex washrooms at Ontario school
By Mia Ashton - The Post Millennial
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There was chaos at an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) meeting Tuesday night when a large crowd of rainbow-clad parents and trans activists gathered to protest an Ottawa father giving a presentation on the issue of single-sex spaces for female students.
It was Nick Morabito’s second time delivering the speech after his first attempt was shut down after just one minute by acting chair Nili Kaplan-Myrth earlier this month. Inside the building, the atmosphere was calm while Morabito told the assembled board of receiving thousands of messages of support from the Canadian public in the intervening weeks before going on to highlight the safety risks to girls of allowing any male to identify as transgender and gain access to female washrooms and changing rooms.
Outside a loud and boisterous crowd chanted “protect trans kids” and “trans rights are human rights” for hours on end. Tensions started to rise as those who had shown up to defend the privacy and safety of female students were shoved and harassed by those who were there to demand that males should be allowed to invade these intimate spaces.
Among the rainbow-festooned crowd, there was a man who identified himself as a principal in the OCDSB who was loudly proclaiming that he wants “rainbow clubs” for kindergarteners in every school, “so kids who are three and four have the space that they need and deserve.”
The man, who has been identified as Nicholas Lafrance, the vice principal of Glen Ogilvie Public School, later was filmed saying that “children’s identities are formed within the first three years of life,” in response to a nurse expressing her concerns about young people undergoing medical sex changes.
“It’s too bad you’re a nurse,” said Lafrance, seemingly in complete disbelief that a medical professional could have doubts about children undergoing experimental medical interventions as extreme as cancer treatment for a poorly defined, socially influenced psychiatric condition.
Other footage shows a trans activist, entirely unprovoked, assaulting a senior citizen while Ottawa Police looked on and refused to intervene.
Josh Alexander, the Ontario student currently excluded from his Renfrew high school for organising a single-sex bathroom protest as well as stating in a law class that there are only two sexes, was also in attendance at the event. At the end of the evening, as Alexander was leaving the building, a trans activist threw coffee over him.
During the speech that provoked so much anger and aggression from Ottawa residents on the left of the political spectrum, Morabito explained that he speaks from a place of empathy and sincerity, not hostility, transphobia or bigotry.
“I can't speak on behalf of the entire Ottawa community tonight, but I can certainly speak on behalf of the 1000+ emotional messages of gratitude, support and concern I’ve received from parents including those of handicapped students regarding safety, female Muslim students regarding private hijab removal, teachers that have asked to remain anonymous due to fear of consequence at their schools, female and male students, law-enforcement and human rights advocates,” said Morabito.
He stated that asking parents to pretend that the bathroom inclusion policy could not be used for ulterior motives was “a lot to ask.” He suggested that individuals with mental illness or a lack of judgement could easily take advantage, and informed the board that since his last speech, he had heard numerous accounts of incidents occurring in schools. He argued that an already unsafe environment was being made more unsafe.
Morabito said the inclusion policy meant “choosing one group’s rights over the rest of the population’s rights and safety.”
“All students and families of students should feel safe. If that sounds familiar to the board, it’s because it is the first line written in your policy handbook,” said Morabito, holding up a copy of the OCDSB’s gender identity and gender expression guidelines.
Morabito proposed solutions to the issue including open plan gender-neutral washrooms with private enclosed stalls and security cameras monitoring the common area, as well as separate male and female washrooms.
