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This article was published 23/6/2017 (1191 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Where a child goes to school in Manitoba shouldn’t determine whether they’re free from discrimination about gender and sexual diversity, the Manitoba Human Rights Commission has been told.

Two LGBTTQ* families and the Public Interest Law Centre filed a complaint on Thursday against the provincial Manitoba Education and Training Department.

"It’s important for the government to take action so that kids can be safer in schools," parent Michelle McHale said.

This time last year, the Public Interest Law Centre filed a human rights complaint on behalf of McHale and her partner, Karen Phillips, against the Hanover School Division and its trustees for a policy that forbids teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary and middle school classrooms.

Their child was being bullied for having two moms. They failed to persuade the division governing schools in the Steinbach area to allow teachers to interact with students in a way that respects the diversity of students and families. It prompted McHale to help organize Steinbach’s first Pride parade, in 2016. The complaint against Hanover has not been resolved.

"This is an issue that’s bigger than a single school division," said lawyer Allison Fenske, with the Public Interest Law Centre. "It’s necessary for things that are within the province’s control — like curriculum guidelines — that they also reflect something that’s LGBTTQ* inclusive. It can’t be left to dealing with one school division at a time."

"People need to be provided the right information and the same information across the board," said McHale, who, with Phillips, now lives in Winnipeg.

The second family making the human rights complaint against the province Thursday had to remove their daughter from public school because of transphobic and homophobic bullying.

The family, whose identity is not being made public, ended up homeschooling their children. The oldest child, who started Grade 1 in 2009, was subjected to transphobic bullying because of her gender identity and homophobic bullying because her parents are queer.

"Rather than protecting, affirming and respecting (the child and her family), school staff outed the child and appeared unable to deal with the bullying she experienced," the three-page complaint says.

"That’s what drove them to leave the public school system altogether," Fenske said. "That family feels really strongly that a family shouldn’t have to opt out of the public school system in order to provide their kids with a safe and supportive learning environment."

The two families involved in the complaint are not alone, the lawyer said.

JUSTIN SAMANSKI-LANGILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Lawyer Allison Fenske filed a complaint against Manitoba Education and Training.

"We’ve also heard from parents across the province and kids across the province that this is an issue that they experience and that it’s not limited to one town or one community, but that there really needs to be a broader approach to making sure that LGBTTQ* families are represented and are not excluded and that students are safe and supported," Fenske said.

Manitoba was one of the first provinces to recognize gender identity in its human-rights code, Fenske noted.

"What we’re talking about here is that disconnect between rights and reality," she said. "Schools are required by law to have a ‘respect for diversity’ policy," Fenske said.

"Having a policy is one thing but, what’s actually happening in classrooms and how kids are being treated and whether or not they feel safe, that’s a whole other story."

A 2016 study led by University of Winnipeg Prof. Catherine Taylor found that just 30 per cent of teachers in Canada felt their schools have responded effectively to homophobic, biphobic and transphobic harassment.

Phillips said they want to see the diversity of families reflected in the curriculum. That won’t happen if a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation can be considered "sensitive content" so that schools can avoid talking about it, McHale said.

"This is about ways to make sure that when schools and teachers are talking about families, they’re talking about the diversity of families," Fenske said.

"It’s not about people’s sexuality (but) that it’s important to accept all kinds of families. That’s a message that could be sent throughout the curriculum, not just through health education," the human-rights lawyer said.

"Kids need to see themselves and their families positively reflected in their school environment," McHale said. "It’s really quite simple," she said, offering an example. "If we’re talking about math problems — ‘Johnny’s mom has two apples. Johnny’s other mom has two apples. How many apples do Johnny’s parents have?’"

"Children need to understand the world that they live in and the people that are in it," Fenske said. "You can’t erase people and the education system shouldn’t be allowed to erase people, whether it’s faith-based or not."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca