NDP critic for LGBTQ Issues responds to minister’s refusal to acknowledge homophobia and transphobia

QUEEN’S PARK — Terence Kernaghan, Official Opposition NDP Critic for LGBTQ Issues, released the following statement regarding Education Minister Lisa Thompson’s outright refusal to acknowledge the reality of homophobia and transphobia:

“Today during question period, Minister of Education Lisa Thompson categorically refused to say the words homophobia and transphobia – refusing to acknowledge that members of the LGBTQ community and students in Ontario face hate, discrimination and violence that must be called out, and stamped out.

Ms. Thompson said ‘those words don’t exist in my vocabulary.’

Transphobia and homophobia are real. To stop discrimination, hate and violence against LGBTQ people, we need to call it out. We cannot confront homophobic and transphobic bullying if the government won’t acknowledge that those things are very real, and are destroying lives. Students in Ontario deserve a modern curriculum that reflects their reality, promotes acceptance, and a Minister of Education who acknowledges them.

LGBTQ Ontarians and students deserve a government that takes hate seriously, and stands alongside them to fight it.”