CKNW Editorial
for November 3, 1999

I continue to get scads of mail on the Surrey School District matter and have even been libeled – it takes a lot for me to take legal issue with anything said about me … after all, I of all people have to take it. But this one even by my tolerant attitude towards such things goes too far and there’s a first time for everything.

As I read this mail it is clear that there is in some a fear of homosexuality, in others a hatred of it and in some a feeling of moral revulsion about it. With some it is a combination or all three.

What I see most of is the statement that they don’t want someone pushing a gay lifestyle teaching their kids.

I find this extraordinary. Indeed I simply cannot understand it.

Horror is expressed because the Surrey teacher in question, James Chamberlain, openly admits he’s gay. He belongs to a group called Gay and Lesbian Educators of GALE for short. I suppose it is expected by my correspondents that gays stay in the closet and hide their sexual preferences.

It’s very clear that much of this emotion is rooted in Christianity as interpreted by some. I have scoured Christ’s teachings to find any mention of homosexuality and can’t find it. I also have difficulty interpreting any of the ten commandments in a way which would proscribe homosexuality. While I have not personally researched the Old Testament I’m instructed that there is a passage in Leviticus which forbids such practices.

It’s not my intention to spend much more time on religion other than to say this – Jesus didn’t even proscribe slavery. This, it seems to me, is because Jesus did not see himself as a reformer but as a teacher. He abjured politics in any form and made no effort to work his way up the church ladder of the day. In fact in Matthew, were he enjoins us to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s, He makes it clear that His way and the political way had no meeting place. In fact it was He who laid the foundation for the separation of Church and State.

The critical fact here is that it not against the law to be a homosexual. If it’s against God’s law – I don’t believe it is but many do - punishment for the "crime" will be exacted by God, not man.

Not only is it not against the law to be gay it’s quite the reverse. It’s against the law to discriminate against homosexuals.

What then about the flaunting, by Mr Chamberlain the gay teacher who in no time will be more famous than his English namesakes, of his gayness?

Perhaps the question is best answered by questions. What about an Indo-Canadian teacher? By his colour he flaunts his race. If he wears a turban he flaunts his religion. If he takes a position on politics within the Sikh community, he flaunts his culture. God help us if he brings a curry lunch to work. Is that teacher by being and doing the things I mentioned teaching children a Sikh lifestyle? If he explains his very unChristian ways and beliefs to kids is he thereby trying to convert the young? The same questions could be raised about Jewish, Chinese and indeed Catholic teachers in a protestant dominated community.

What is it about Mr Chamberlain that so frightens these parents. Does he come to school in drag? Does he recommend his lifestyle by any words deeds or even gestures?

These, incidentally, are the same parents who talk so much about family values – are these families and their values so weak that their children, hearing a homosexual, will leap at the chance at being gay themselves?

I wonder why these parents aren’t more worried about feminists than gays. From what I’ve been able to glean from my correspondence the parents involved would be very opposed to their children learning about stay-at-home fathers as an acceptable lifestyle.

I’ve been taken to task for generalizing that these parents are bigots … homophobes. If you listen to tapes of their meetings you have to conclude that much of the leadership is bigoted as hell … by even the strictest of tests.

The system we operate under is a public one. There is ample room for private education if that’s what one wants and can afford. In the public system the education is run by two sets of elected representatives – provincial and municipal. Those who feel aggrieved as parents can make their views known at the ballot box. This does not mean that one can deny homosexuals the right to teach because they have that right under the Charter of Rights and freedoms. It does mean that teachers can be removed for cause.

So far the only cause I’ve heard against James Chamberlain is that he’s gay and admits it.

Under our laws, thank God for small mercies, that’s not sufficient grounds for any sort of action.

Surrey has become the laughing stock of Canada – and my mail proves conclusively why that’s so.