ONTARIO: Father Of Bullied Dead Child Denounces Plan For Gay-Straight Clubs

The father of the boy whose suicide prompted Ontario’s pending anti-bullying bill says that had his son belonged to a Gay-Straight Alliance, he would have been an even greater target. The father’s words are now being heralded by anti-gay groups as evidence that schools should not allow such clubs. From the anti-gay LifeSiteNews:

“From what I read of studies of bullies, they look for what makes you separate from others. They look for something that—you’re different. It could be the clothes you wear; it could be anything,” said Jamie’s father Allan Hubley before the Standing Committee on Social Policy on May 22. He argued that legislating that each club be given a specific name such as Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) would be to deal with “the issue of bullying in a way that is sure to fail.”

“Jamie was the only openly gay person in his school of over 1,000 students,” the surviving father said. “A GSA with one member, or even a few, would only have made him more of a target.” “I have to ask you,” he continued, “How many people publicly announce their sexuality before they are out of school and established in their lives? Why, then, would we be considering forcing them to do so at an age when they already have so many pressures to manage?”

Ontario’s Cardinal Thomas Collins has denounced Bill 13 as a “trampling of Catholic religious liberties.” Catholic schools receive funding from Canada’s provincial and federal governments.