Article content

Analysis

The culture war over gender identity just can’t stay away from Queen’s Park, but the protests against social change may soon fall on deaf ears.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Ontario Liberals, opposition on same page over bill changing ‘mothers’ and ‘fathers’ to gender-neutral terms Back to video

The provincial legislature is, once again, the site of a seething anger from pockets of social conservatism. This time, they’re concerned the province is trying to “erase motherhood” by changing the word “mother” to “birth parent” in myriad laws to ensure LGBTQ equity.

The actual point of Bill 28, the All Families Are Equal Act, is to close a legal loophole that forced many parents, especially same-sex couples, to adopt their own children if they used surrogates or reproductive technologies.

But it was shifts to make its language more inclusive of the shifting nature of families and various gender identities that has again stoked the fire of social conservative anger in Ontario. References to “mother” will become “birth parent” and “father” will become “parent.” While some legal experts warned the bill may need to be tweaked to ensure it doesn’t muddle surrogacy laws, much of the objection was to the legislation’s acceptance of varying gender identities.