Chilliwack school trustee: Allowing children to 'change gender is nothing short of child abuse'

Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeldis facing widespread criticism after denouncing members of B.C.'s education systemas "radical cultural nihilists"for their policies on gender rights and education in a Facebook post Monday.

"At the risk of being labelled a bigoted homophobe, I have to say that I support traditional family values and I agree with the College ofPediatricians that letting little children choose to change gender is nothing short of child abuse," wrote Neufeld.

InMay, PsychologyTodaywrote that the groupNeufeldreferredto,the American College of Pediatricians, is "asmall but clever anti-LGBT group [that] created a legit-sounding name."

On its website, thecollege "urges health-care professionals, educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex."

Requests for an interview with Neufeldwentunanswered

Swift criticism

Hours after the post appeared, former Vancouver school board chair Patti Bacchus tweeted that Neufeld should apologize, and called for his resignation.

Education Minister Rob Fleming said trustees can have their own opinions, butthe province's public education system is one that values human rights, democracy and inclusion.

"We have very good consensus around the entire school system, aroundthe need to eliminate discriminationto counter bullying," said Fleming.

"We are in the fifth year of our erase bullying strategy, where we very much looked at some of the harassment and fear that gay and lesbian studentsandtransgenderstudents in particular, have experienced in our school system, and there was a consensus to eliminate that."

All B.C. schools have anti-bullying policies that include explicit references tosexual orientation and gender identity.

Facebookreacts

Neufeld'spostdrew widespread criticism on Facebook.

"Given your position in leadership, you should know better than to quote a widely discredited pseudo-science source in order to publish hateful material," wrote Morgane Oger.

"Is it safe to assume that you are stepping down as trustee? And if so, when will you submit your resignation to the board?" wrote Jared Mumford.

In an apparent attempt to show how times have changed, Neufeld's post included a meme that quoted kids and parents from 1997 and 2017, contrasting a father, supposedly justified in not allowing his son to have his ears pierced in 1997 to a sontoday, telling his mother "I think I am supposed to be a girl."

Neufeld ended the post by denouncingmembers of B.C.'s education system for their policies on gender rights education and said he no longer wants to be part of that system.