Trustees to vote on whether to fly Pride flags at Halton Catholic schools

Nicole Hotchkiss, a Grade 12 student at Oakville’s St. Ignatius of Loyola Secondary School, raised the flag idea at the board’s April 6 meeting saying they were aiming to promote LGBTQ+ inclusivity at their school.

“It would provide comfort to students who belong to the community who may have struggled with feeling accepted in school,” Hotchkiss said in a letter to the board.

The idea of flying the Pride flag has been met with some controversy and generated more than 200 letters to the Halton Catholic board, the majority of them supportive. A petition was started by a student trustee in support of Hotchkiss’s proposal, which accumulated more than 3,000 signatures as of Monday.

Some parents who oppose the idea of flying the Pride flag wrote letters to the board saying it goes against Catholic teaching.

“My concern is that we Catholics are giving a message to the outside world that ultimately we condone the blessing of same sex unions or marriage,” a woman who identified herself as a grandmother said in a letter.

Father Janusz Roginski, a pastor at St. Gabriel Roman Catholic Church in Burlington, suggested that instead of hoisting the Pride flag, the school district fly the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as June is also for the devotion to the Sacred Heart for Catholics.

Hotchkiss, 17, believes their school is fully supportive of flying the Pride flag, noting St. Ignatius has an inclusion and equity committee, which focuses on allyship for all minorities. The school also held an anti-bullying week recently specifically focusing on LGBTQ+ people, according to Hotchkiss.

“This flag really is just about visibility,” said Hotchkiss.

Burlington Trustee Brenda Agnew said putting up the Pride flag at all schools will show a commitment on the part of the board to “nurturing safe and inclusive learning environments.”

“There are students and staff in the LGBTQ community that I don’t think truly have that sense of belonging, I mean, one of our pillars of our board is belonging,” said Agnew, who put forth the motion to fly the flag that trustees will vote on on Tuesday.

Jen Mayhew, a mother of three children, two of whom attend St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School in Oakville, said having the visibility of a Pride flag being flown can start the conversation for younger students of why families can look different and be a “beacon of light” for students who do identify as LGBTQ+.

“There’s a lot of controversy that goes on in the Catholic Church about sexuality and identity being a choice or not a choice. It’s not a choice. And these are kids and ignoring it is not going to make it go away,” said Mayhew, who identifies as a lesbian and is in a same-sex marriage.

She adds that the visibility of a Pride flag will help students to be aware about their own sexual identities and also help them be allies to those identifying as LGBTQ+.

Araz Ahmed, 34, an alumnus of HCDSB, who identifies as transmasculine, wrote in a letter supporting the motion, that they “survived” the elementary and high schools they attended in Oakville. Without support at the schools, Ahmed said their gender was “repressed” and it was not until their 30s that they understood their gender and identity.

“I can see that I put my life on hold for a number of years. When I think if I’d had more support, and if we’d have done little gestures, like flying flags, etcetera, it would have meant a lot to me,” said Ahmed.

Chris Bertrand, who has three children in Halton Catholic schools, said he believes the Pride flag should be flown at schools because it not only supports Catholic values of “love thy neighbour” but is also reflective of the community it serves, which includes those who identify as LGBTQ+.

“This isn’t a church, this is an education,” said Bertrand. “[HCDSB] needs to show that they care about what taxpayers say, they care about what the people who attend the school say.”

The hoisting of the Pride flag has been a controversial topic at Catholic boards around the province, including at a recent Toronto Catholic District School Board, where the subject ignited heated debate. Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board has been flying the Pride flag at its board office during the month of June, since 2019.