Sex and pro-gay education is finding its way to British Columbia students through the B.C. Ministry of Education, beginning in kindergarten.

Its 2006 Health and Career Education curriculum dictates that kindergartners “use appropriate terminology to identify female and male private body parts” for “safety and injury prevention.” Students use diagrams and models to name the “nipples/breasts,” “vulva/vagina,” “penis,” “testicles,” and “buttocks (bottom, bum).” The curriculum states that appropriate and inappropriate touches may be demonstrated with puppets or models. The teacher may “have the puppets go behind a blanket and use words only when illustrating touches to private body parts.” In Grade 2, teachers review inappropriate touching using scenarios such as: “A man in a changing room at the beach tries to touch a boy’s penis” and “an older boy in the neighbourhood tries to see a younger girl’s vulva and to touch her nipples.”

To “identify practices that help prevent the spread of communicable diseases,” Grade 1 students should know not to touch “garbage such as … condoms.” In Grade 4, students begin to learn about the physical changes associated with puberty, including “changes to reproductive organs.” It is recommended that “testicular and penis growth” be discussed in Grade 5. As early as Grade 6, students learn that they should avoid “unprotected sexual practices” to avoid contracting HIV, hepatitis B and C, or meningococcal C. Sixth graders also identify sexual orientation as one of the grounds for stereotypes and discrimination. In Grade 8, students are expected to “identify factors that influence healthy sexual decision making” such as “access to accurate information” about “safer sex practices.”

In Grade 12, students have the option to take a social justice course. According to the 2008 curriculum, social justice students “identify and define a range of concepts and terms of social justice,” including “heterosexism,” “homophobia,” and “speciesism.” They should also “describe social injustice in relation to categories that are not fully protected under the Charter or the Human Rights Code,” such as “gender identity and gender expression” and “animals.” As well, they must “demonstrate an understanding of the role of language in oppression,” including “non-gender-inclusive language.” Social justice principles are applied “to analyse specific historical and contemporary examples of injustice in Canada,” for instance, pertaining to “people who are LGBT (e.g. … marriage, adoption, employment discrimination, spousal rights … school safety)” and the “reproductive rights” of women. Reproductive rights include abortion.

The Ministry website also has several model lesson plans for the course entitled Instruction and Assessment Units. One pertains to “Women and Social Justice,” which introduces students to feminist movements and history, or, as the lesson plan states, “the concept of HIStory vs. HERstory.” Students learn about “the main events and accomplishments of the Women’s Movement,” including the birth control pill, the establishment of Planned Parenthood of Canada, Canada’s 1969 abortion law, and Roe v. Wade. Another lesson plan in this series is on “Examining LGBT Issues,” which uses several lessons from Challenging Homophobia in Schools published by Gay & Lesbian Educators of B.C.

In 2008, the B.C. Ministry of Education published Making Space: Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice Throughout the K-12 Curriculum, intended to show teachers how to promote “social justice” and “diversity” in all aspects of their teaching. The document includes self-assessment criteria for teachers to rate how well they pursue these goals. One criterion is: “I recognize and think about the visible and less visible diversity that exists within my class(es) and community” (including sexual orientation and gender identity). Another is: “I avoid making assumptions related to the diversity of students in my classroom,” for instance, “I am sensitive to diverse family structures when conducting activities related to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.”

To further promote social justice, teachers are encouraged to involve students in the creation of “anti-homophobia school policies.” When teaching math from Kindergarten to Grade 3, teachers should make sure that “diverse examples are included when conducting number operations and statistics activities,” such as different “family structures. Grade 4 to 7 English students may consider how the story would have changed “if a given character were a boy instead of a girl or vice versa” or “had a different sexual orientation.” When discussing students’ heroes and idols, teachers should emphasize their “diversity” (including sexual orientation) and explore why some characteristics are not represented. In social studies, students may learn about “various cases and examples of human rights in Canada and globally,” including “same-sex marriage and adoption,” as well as “Roman acceptance of homosexuality and bisexuality” as an example of the “nature and extent of pluralism and equity in various ancient cultures.”

In a sample lesson plan for Grade 12, students use the story Paul’s Case by Willa Cather as a context to research the link between teen suicide and homosexuality. A special note to teachers instructs them to tell students that “homosexuality does not inevitably ‘cause’ depression or suicide, but rather the high incidence is a result of overwhelming societal and/or family pressures and censures.” The document thus suggests that pro-gay education is being pushed in all grades.