FIRST READING: What SOGI actually tells teachers to do - National Post
A graphic used in BC SOGI education. Photo by Via SD61.bc.caArticle contentFirst Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.
The subject of SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) education has become an issue in the B.C. election. B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson has stated that if his party forms government, repealing SOGI will be a top priority.
“I firmly believe that we have to repeal SOGI,” he said.
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The usual defence of SOGI is that it’s simply an “anti-bullying” curriculum, and that is indeed how it’s framed in informational pamphlets distributed to parents. But any review of B.C.’s official SOGI course materials shows that it goes way beyond merely telling students not to bully gay kids.
The SOGI 123 program, developed by the Vancouver-based ARC Foundation, is the primary purveyor of such materials, and has been a mandatory component of B.C. public school policy since 2016.
The SOGI 123 website includes 147 individual lesson plans, in both French and English, and targeted to children as young as five.
SOGI 123 also provides teachers with “scripts” of prepared talking points to respond to parents with concerns about the program.
Below, a cursory guide to what SOGI actually asks teachers to do in B.C. schools.
Excerpt from a SOGI 123 “script” provided to teachers to respond to concerns about SOGI education. Photo by via SOGI 123Article contentInstruct students as soon as possible that the “rigid gender binary” is false
You won’t find the word “man” mentioned a single time on the website for SOGI 123. And the word “woman” is mentioned just once, in a 2024 guide to SOGI-inclusive books, which mentions that the protagonist in a lesbian romance is a “young woman.”
A central theme in all SOGI 123 materials is that sex is something that’s “assigned at birth,” that gender is “fluid” and that someone’s status as a man, woman or other is ultimately a self-declared identity unbounded by biology.
