TORONTO

The union representing the province’s Catholic school teachers should not have an official presence at the WorldPride 2014 Parade, a parent’s group says.

Teresa Pierre, president of Parents As First Educators (PAFE), said a petition has been launched in response to a Catholic Register report that the church leadership is opposed to plans by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) to send a delegation to the event, which will be held in Toronto on June 29.

The petition, which drew more than 1,000 signatures over Easter weekend, urges the Ontario Catholic school trustees to demand OECTA change course, she said.

Parents were unhappy with a previous decision by OECTA to support Gay-Straight Alliances, or “activist” clubs, within the schools, she said.

“The concern with this is just that it’s further involvement of the schools in an official capacity with the promotion of ideals that run counter to the Catholic message on homosexuality,” Pierre said.

An immediate response was not available on Easter Monday from either OECTA or the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association (OCSTA).

OECTA has not sent an official float to the parade in the past but has passed resolutions in support but this year it plans to march, Pierre said.

“This is a formal participation,” she said. “Our petition is directed to the trustees because the trustees are the legal guarantors of the faith in the boards … so the petition is directed at what the trustees’ response to OECTA should be.”

In a public statement, Pierre said the parade decision shows that OECTA leadership has a mistaken understanding of the faith.

The Catholic trustees must “step up” and proclaim that the Pride event is not suitable for families or any Catholic organization because it “breaks nudity laws and participants promote homosexual activity, instead of sex in marriage, and simulates extreme behaviour like sadomasochism, which demeans the roles of men and women in loving relationships,” Pierre said.

Parents want OECTA to support the Catholic approach that homosexuals, and all unmarried adults, live a chaste lifestyle, she said.

According to the OECTA website, delegates at its annual general meeting voted to march in the WorldPride Parade “in solidarity with one of (the) most marginalized groups in (the) Catholic community.”