Greetings Siblings in Christ,
It has come to our attention that across-Canada anti-2S-LGBTQIA+ protest marches are to be held on Friday, September 20, 2024. The organization responsible, Hands Off Our Kids (https://handsoffourkids.ca/) states their mission is to:“safeguard children from gender ideology teachings, sexual indoctrination, exposure to explicit sexual content, ensuring that parental consent remains paramount.” They also aim to “protect our children from thought control and will ensure their religious freedoms are protected.”
Their rhetoric has been strongly anti-2S-LGBTQIA+ and especially anti-Trans in the past. This group has worked to exert influence in school boards in Ontario and beyond, spreading harmful misinformation and opposing SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) education in schools, again with misinformation. For information about SOGI click HERE.
These marches are planned across Canada on September 20, including the following locations across our tri-regional councils:
WOW: Owen Sound, Meaford, Hanover, Orangeville and Kitchener
HF: Mississauga (2 locations), Oakville, Milton, Hamilton
ARW : London, Windsor
More details and updates can be found on their website: https://handsoffourkids.ca/resources/
A constantly updated list of in-person presence and counter-protests is available here. The private Facebook group 1 Million Voices for Inclusion, which also hosts community-specific chats and planning, is an excellent resource for ideas and support.
Christ calls us to be a peace-seeking, truth-speaking,
love-focused presence in the face of these movements.
How can you be active?
Faith-Filled Responses
- Send letters of encouragement to school staff and to any student group or individuals who need support;
- deliver homemade real church cookies to those groups/individuals;
- use your church signage and lawn to send PIE messaging;
- write letters to the editor;
- learn about SOGI and what it really is, as opposed to the myths spread about it;
- support school board candidates and members who are supportive of 2SLGBTQIA+ human rights.
- Offer support to transgender, Two Spirit, and gender-diverse people who are being targeted by this movement.
Faith-Focussed responses:
- Pray
- Re-read all the radical bible verses about God’s all- encompassing love.
- And be PIE— public, intentional, and explicit—about the fact that you’re people of faith supporting 2S-LGBTQIA+ people (using your best judgement about when and how, of course).
When we show up in a positive way, it is noticed!
When discussing with your congregation:
- Know that it is possible that well-meaning people in your congregation may be supporting these movements. Leading with language of “hate” in this instance can alienate the well-meaning people that you wish to connect with.
- While the “Hands Off Our Kids” and related movements are understood as hate movements, and that is an accurate description of the impact of these movements, not everyone who shows up in support of these marches is doing so out of hate.
- Name and honour how this harms people in 2S-LGBTQIA+ communities without conveying an assumption that this harm was intended. Intentions and impacts are often very different, but a well-meaning intention does not erase hurtful and harmful impacts.
- Offer grounded information to counteract harmful mis-information.
If you are making plans or have concerns, please contact me, Thérèse Samuel, Minister Right Relations and Social Justice, and my colleague John Egger, Minister, Social Justice.
Thanks to Northern Spirit Regional Council and clergy from Western Ontario Waterways Regional Council for sharing information that helped in the creation of parts of this resource.
