This Film Fest Is Fighting a Backlash Against LGBTQ2S+ Education

Back in 2004, organizers of Vancouver’s LGBTQ2S+ film festival, Out on Screen, started an educational program to bring age-appropriate presentations and short films to B.C. schools with the aim of helping queer students feel seen and encouraging all students to accept and support their peers.

“What was realized at that time was that there was really a lack of understanding or awareness or ability to actually talk about queerness in any kind of meaningful ways,” Gavin Somers, education director for Out on Screen, told The Tyee.

“From there, it became an education program that uses short films to unpack... 2SLGBTQA [experiences]. And it really looks at meaningful representation. It looks at allyship.”

Research shows that students who are queer or are perceived as queer have a higher chance of being bullied at school, with that bullying often including homophobic or transphobic comments.

“By naming those things, it was an effort to say, ‘Every student, especially those who are impacted by these things, deserves a safe and inclusive learning environment,’” Somers said.

Out in Schools got a “big boost” in 2016, Somers said, when the BC Liberal government of the day amended B.C.’s human rights code to include protections for gender identity and expression, a move that added stronger protections for transgender people.

The government also mandated that public and independent schools include specific references about sexual orientation and gender identity, often referred to as SOGI, in their anti-bullying policies. The province’s Education Ministry then released SOGI education resources — optional queer- and trans-affirming lesson plans, policy templates and professional development materials for schools.

“SOGI-inclusive education really didn’t have a place in the spotlight before, and the B.C. government said every child has the right to feel seen, supported, respected and valued in their school environments, and educators were interested in wanting to make this happen,” Somers said.

But things have changed again over the past few years. When the COVID-19 pandemic galvanized a right-wing movement in reaction to COVID-19 policies, the political climate surrounding LGBTQ2S+ issues also changed, especially when it comes to support for transgender and gender non-conforming youth.

Out in Schools facilitators now deal with teachers who are afraid to book their program because of possible backlash from parents. Inside schools, facilitators are increasingly hearing misinformation about queer people regurgitated by some students.

This year, Out on Screen is introducing a new program for schools called The Future Is Queer to address the backlash against SOGI.

The Tyee spoke with Somers about what Out in Schools is hearing from students and teachers, and what they want politicians and voters to know headed into the B.C. election. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Back in the era of, say, 2014 to 2019, what was it like going into schools? Can you give me a sense of how the presentations were being received?

Gavin Somers: There was a lot of positive reception. The formula back then really was “language plus terminology equals allyship.” These identities really weren't [well] understood, and so by having language, by having terminology, by understanding that trans and Two-Spirit people exist, that helped create space for meaningful understanding and supportive environments.

And I'd say, 2019 rolling into 2020, when the pandemic hit, that caused a lot of chaos for a lot of people, for a lot of different reasons, and since then we’ve seen a lot more backlash.

I don't know how much of it aligns with the pandemic, per se, but I will acknowledge that oftentimes there is a drastic swing in the pendulum.

There's this swing of acceptance, and we all of a sudden see transgender people and queer people, and we know that they exist.

And then there's a contingent who maybe are holding on to structures and beliefs that benefit some but not all, and are really shaken by kind of how all of a sudden what seems like the spotlight on [trans and queer people], so that spotlight creates a backlash. And I'd say that from 2020 to now, in 2024, we're experiencing the backlash.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have introduced new policies to review or pause LGBTQ2S+ resources and policies in schools. How is this affecting organizations like yours?

We practise predominantly in B.C. and occasionally do virtual presentations elsewhere, so our program specifically is not under review in other provinces. But things like SOGI 123, which is run by the ARC Foundation and has operated in provinces throughout the country, is under review [in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan].

It doesn't prevent us from operating in the province of B.C., but definitely over the last year what we've noticed is that teachers are afraid to bring us in. They're afraid of the backlash from parent communities specifically, and they're afraid to be targets themselves.

As an organization that is talking with young people all the time, can you give me a sense of how young people have been affected by some of these backlash politics?

The polarization that we see in the social and political sphere is trickling down into the lives of youth and children in ways that are really painful for me to witness.

I will be in a school in Vancouver, and I will have students who are so knowledgeable and so affirming and so supportive.

But in that same classroom, I'll have students who are spouting very anti-trans, anti-gay sentiments, and they're also parroting a lot of misinformation and disinformation. And so my job as an educator, as a facilitator, is to really question where they are learning these things, and what are the realities of the different situations we’re facing.

Maybe five years ago, I heard more of this kind of stuff in rural communities, and there's this idea of “That doesn't happen in Vancouver.” But really, in the last year, I've seen this take place everywhere, in schools all over the place. It's pretty disheartening.

There is this idea that's become more prevalent about this idea of “parents’ rights,” that parents have the right to determine what their children learn in schools, especially around this topic. What would you say to parents to explain why it's important for your program to be able to come into schools?

I would say that it's so important because the real world is full of diversity. It's full of lots of different people who have lots of different experiences, whether that's your gender, your relationships, your culture.

There are so many different intersecting parts of our identity, and when we don't talk about these things, we’re not preparing young people to navigate the world around them.

Everybody deserves to feel safe, everybody deserves to feel respected, everybody deserves to feel valued.

We’re going into a provincial election in B.C., and we’ve seen the BC Conservatives promising to end SOGI, alongside making some other comments that advocates have flagged as transphobic. What would your message be to political leaders?

There's no place in politics to discriminate against people's rights, or to roll back people's rights. We have fought long and hard to be able to exist and be safe.

[The Conservatives] keep saying, “SOGI has become too divisive, so we're gonna remove it and just add anti-bullying policies instead.” And I think that that's really harmful. It's really harmful to say we are going to remove the language that makes clear that we are not going to discriminate against someone based on their gender, based on their actual orientation, based on their expression, and that you shouldn't be using it as a political weapon.