Please let me start this by saying I fully support inclusion and any and all initiatives to make ALL students feel welcome, comfortable, and safe in their learning environment so they can thrive.

There has been a lot of discussion around SOGI  (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) 123 over the past year, and there will be even more with election fever kicking in.

What I have come to realize after opening a dialogue with many parents and caregivers is this … the biggest (and only) problem with SOGI 123 is the lack of understanding and communication about what it is, what it stands for, and how / why it can / should be used in our schools.

I have heard parents questioning:

• what is it, why I have never heard of this?
• is it part of the new curriculum?
• why do we need this, aren’t our schools already inclusive?

And those wanting to stir controversy are primed to play in to parents’ lack of understanding and focus their efforts on fear-mongering and spreading misinformation. Ultimately, as with many things in life, information is often the key!

A quick search on our school district website points to the fact that SD40 has embraced and encouraged the use of SOGI 123 in our district (which is great), but beyond that, there is not much information as to the why and the what. It’s one thing to say we support inclusion, but with something like SOGI which has unfortunately created some controversy, it’s fair to think parents might want more information.

Further searching with regards to how we could better communicate to parents has led to a very useful parent piece from the Coquitlam School District. It is thoughtfully written and I believe helps answer a lot of questions parents might have: http://www.sd43.bc.ca/Resources/ParentResources/Documents/SD43.SOGI-Information.pdf#search=sogi

Ultimately, every child deserves and has the right to feel safe, accepted and secure, especially in their place of learning. Anything we can do to support and encourage this should always be a priority.

Quick Resources for parents:

BC Government Factsheet: https://news.gov.bc.ca/factsheets/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-sogi-in-schools

BC SOGI Educator Network and SOGI 1 2 3 Website: https://www.sogieducation.org/