Alberta makes gay-straight alliances mandatory
“We’re no longer that redneck, roughneck province. Today we took a stand for human rights.”
— Kristopher Wells, with the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies at the University of Alberta, in a statement after the Canadian province’s Progressive Conservative government today passed a bill which makes gay-straight alliances mandatory in the region’s schools.
The National Post reports that Education Minister Gordon Dorks added the amendment to Alberta’s Bill 10, after public outcry over the original draft which stated that school boards would have the final say on whether gay-straight alliances would be allowed.
“[I] heard students telling their stories of being bullied, discriminated against, feeling suicidal, even attempting,” Dirks said. “When that happens and you have those kinds of intimate, frank conversations with students, it goes from your head to your heart.”
Image Credit: jglsongs / Flickr
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