Rose responds with fear and anger to news article she recently read online “Bullied Catholic student speaks out”; about an out lesbian student in Windsor, Ontario who is being bullied by her religion teacher and is threatened with a lawsuit for speaking out. You may read the news article by clicking here.
We continue the story of Out With Dad through Rose’s video diaries while we raise funds and prepare our third season production schedule.
Normally all new episodes of Out With Dad are posted three weeks early for the members in the VIP Facebook Group, as a show of appreciation for their financial support of the series. However, because of the time sensitive nature of this news item, it has been released immediately upon completion.
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Starring
Kate Conway
Music Composed, Produced and Performed by:
Adrian Ellis
Created, Written and Directed by:
Jason Leaver
This video really spoke to me. I’m currently 18 and graduating in two months from a Lutheran high school I’ve gone to for two years. I love my school to death and appreciate the loving community and faith aspect to my education. I’ve also accepted that I am a lesbian at 17 however, when talking with peers at lunch groups and hearing discussions from teachers and reactions to projects that I’ve done that have had an lgbt topic, I am also scared to come out. I am not neccesarily scared, but overly worried and feel that I’ve got to hide my sexuality until I graduate, partly because of the christian and lgbt social interactions. I’m aware that not all christians are homophobic (me for example) but also know that it’s a large community where homosexuality is frowned upon. I am not sure I can come out this close to my grad, especially since I have a female date (my best friend) and it would like “inappropriate” to the school board.
My school has also had problems in the past with their past principal writing a doctorine that involved the LGBT community and was fired for that writing. I am not sure if it was positive or negative about the lgbt community, but it makes me even more worried. I got the impression that LGBT people were either really accepted or not accepted at all. I love religious studies and haven’t had a problem in class, and teachers seem generally accepting of my assignments, and ideas, but still I’m not sure how publically coming out would affect that.
This is simply why I don’t continue my education (although I would love to) at a Christian university, because I feel like I would be pressured or guilted into pretending to be someone I am not, for the sake of peace. This is a huge problem within the Chrisitan school setting because as you said, there are laws about acceptance in schools, but the Christian institutes have a “privilege” to overlook that topic – because it “infringes” with the right to religion. However their actions infringe on our rights to equality, freedom of action, and livelihood.
I feel very passionate about Christianity and the :LGBT community, and when I convocate with a Social Work degree, I will make sure to work in areas where I can help promote acceptance of the LGBT community, in all settings.
I’m mexican. The catholic church is one of the biggest institutions in my country. I went to a catholic school between ages 12 and 15. I descrive it as one of my worst experiences and I’m not even joking. Sure, I made so cool friends and all that, but by then I was discovering my sexuality and being in that sort of closed minded enviorement was aweful. I remember one teacher sort of knew I had a thing for a girl in my class and made comments on it a few times. Not like she outed me but she said things like “kids your age don’t know about if they’re gay or not, they’re just confused” infront of the class and I couldn’t say anything. I’ll never forget a nun once told me homosexual didn’t exist lol that’s actually a funny story.
I think it sucks, I’m from Mexico and I’m in a Catholic school even though I’m not Catholic, and I hate psychology and religion class cause in both classes the teachers say that being gay it’s not normal and that gay ppl are sinners and we are all going to hell and all that stuff ….at the beginning it was hard for me to hear that but then I came out to my close friends and they have always supported me… 🙂
I have good friend now in public school and I say to a teacher and she was fine with it but in my other school was catholic and some of them don`t like me because I am fat if I knew that earlier I think more people hate me because I am a lesbian.
In Germany, the General Equal Treatment Act forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in all areas of life. However, religious institutions are exempted from this ban. Therefore, a Catholic hospital is allowed to fire an employee for entering into a registered partnership. This special treatment of religious institutions really pisses me off, particularly considering that the church is the second biggest employer in Germany.
What’s my opinion on religion in the classroom? In general, I think that religious education (as opposed to indoctrination) at school is not a bad idea. Pupils should be taught about the existence of the different religious beliefs, but not that these religious teachings are actually true. By completely banning religion from schools, you would just make religion more interesting to teenagers, because it would then become a “forbidden fruit”. The best example is the USA with all its Christian fundies. Religious institutions, such as hospitals, should not receive any public funds. Religious schools and other private schools should be outlawed. School education is the task of the state.
I think that whilst it is O.K. to teach Roman Catholic theology in Catholic schools, these schools should not be publiclicly funded. Concerning bullying of homosexuals, this should not be allowed even where religious doctrine is taught.
No creo que en la se escuela se deba tomar en cuenta ninguna religión. La educación debe ser para todos no importa raza, sexo, orientación sexual ni religión. En una escuela hay diversidad y por la tanto la administración DEBE ser neutral.
religions are a huge mistake. i’m atheist, many people is doing the same, i hope religions in the future dissapear, it is full of hipocrite people in church, they tell you it’s wrong, but these days many religious are doing it behind those fake costumes but they don’t talk about it. They had commit the worst actions in history, just go back to the inquisition. The other problem, is the weakness of people who let their minds on priests hands. I hope some day we can say NOW WE ARE FREE, reigion and ignorance are over 🙂
As a girl who grew up with my faith being a very important part of my life, I’m happy to say that I was never taught that homosexuality was a sin. My mother is very open and accepting of everyone, and we both believe strongly that God sees no wrong in love.
God is love. God created love. God is what creates the love we feel for others. If God creates in me a love for a man and I have a healthy, loving relationship, there is no wrong in that. Why would it be any different if God created in me a love for a woman? If God created that love, then how can it be wrong?
God didn’t create greed, pride, darkness, evil, hatred. He created generosity, humility, light, goodness, love. The prior are only descriptive words of the lack of these things. Love cannot be a sin because God created love, and God did NOT create sin.
God wants us to love and be loved. ALL of us.
The real sin is in not even trying to understand that.
I’m very proud of my little sister – she asked me if I liked anyone and despite having known that I had a boyfriend in the past, referred to this potential crush of mine as “he or she”. She just has 12 and has a better grasp on love than most people. This is because homophobia isn’t caused by religion, it’s caused by people. People drawing conclusions from things they could never really understand. No one can understand God, that’s the whole point, so how do they think they can decide who can or cannot be together?
Here in the UK the Commons have just voted through a gay marriage bill- caused a right fuss from the conservatives and the church. Why can’t people just accept times are changing?
Well, I watched this video and i went directly to thinking… I work for a catholic school, and there are some gay students ( and me the teacher…) in the case of the kids, there is not really a bulling situation, their partners are aware of their sexual preference but they dont judge, they actually support their friends… ( but there are always the exceptions of course… ) but I might say that bulling is not an isue in the school. ( at least for the kids…) Me, thats other subjetc… I cannot openly say that I’m gay cus’ If I said it… I would lost my job! angry parents, and the whole catholic shit situation against gay people… I just can´t… I have to hide who I am… it’s not difficult but… well is just that Mexico is not ready yet to accept gay teachers… you know?…
I’m afraid the problem you face is not limited to Mexico. Even the gay teachers in Ontario high schools can not be openly gay – or the would loose their job. This is a story very sad situation that I look forward to exploring in our third season.
The Republic of Iceland does not tolerate bullying of any kind. We have this thing called zero tolerance policy towards bullying.
No one is immune to it. We even had a homophobic teacher fired for speaking out against gay rights.
We teach religion in schools yes but we don’t teach it as a fact. We teach our kids about every world religion equally and we teach it as a part of history, not as facts.
It is against human behavior to blindly follow something without evidence.
It sounds to me like Iceland is a VERY progressive country.
hola soy de argentina me gusta mucho su serie, yo no soy gay, pero me parece muy lindo como lo tratan al tema al hablar sobre adolescentes, lo encontre sin querer en internet estaba buscando series sobre adolescentes con algun conflicto emocional y justo me aparecio esta sere la cual me parecio muy interesante al ver como tratan el tema de la homosexualidad en los adolescentes y lo que sufren en todas partes del mundo la homofia que hay en todo el mundo, apesar de ser un tema cada vez mas tratado y que aparece en peliculas, series y programas de televicion no se acepta hay que ayudar a nuestros adolescentes con cada uno de sis conflicto y enseñarle que eso no es malo como alguna gente cree que lo es, eso es un tema tabu el cual ya no existe, ellos son los que mas nos necesitan esa es la etapa mas vulnerable emocionalmente, somos nosostros los que tenemos que estar a su lado y no juzgarlos me parece muy bien lo que hacen y los felicito espero pronto ver la tercera temporada, por favor traduzcan los videos diarios si pueden.
hello I’m from Argentina I love your show, I’m not gay, but I find it very cute as address the issue when it comes to teens, I found it on the Internet without realizing I was looking for a series about teenagers with emotional conflicts and I just showed this series that I found very interesting to see how they handle the issue of homosexuality in adolescence and suffering around the world , despite being topic increasingly processed and displayed in films, series TV and many program is not accepted we help our teenagers with emotional conflicts demonstrate that it is not as bad as some people think it is, it is a taboo subject that no longer exists, but we are the ones that are needed in the emotionally vulnerable stage for us has to be with him and not judge what the congratulations I hope soon to see the third season, the videos please translate to Spanish daily if you can.
What I wonder: Since the christian holy books specifically call for the death of homosexuals, why would an LGBT-friendly person be a christian?
First I’m just and old strait men but, your right, any religion try to dictate the way of life of others. Be and let be should be the way. Gay or strait is not important, love and respect is. What you report just show a lack of respect from this institution.
By the way, it’s constitutional but can be change. We had the same problem in Québec and with goodwill, we scrap religious base school to go to language base school. So it could be done in ontario to… if people decide to change it.
I hope you’re right Marcel. I’m well aware that Quebec did that in 1997. I’m not sure of Ontario has the courage to do so yet. I think the fear is that if we did that, Quebec would have more reason to separate. I wish I understood the politics better myself. But, I know enough to write from the perspective of a teenager!
Sorry if you can’t do change because of us. For me and the people I know, it would be a thing of proud for you, not a motivation to separate. I’m a french separatist and sexual orientation have nothing to do with it. We only see the canada more in the old time with religion an queen and law and order way of life verry far from what we think her. That why, with the langage question we whon’t stop looking to go ahead…. I have a canadian passport buy in any way I’m feeling canadian.
Hope for a day where ontario will have the courage of changing the school structure like we done… and be sure it won’t affect in any aspect the fact if Québec stay or not in this country.
Sorry for my english, i’m not bilingual.
I’m from Czech Republic… Nobody knows it yet on my school… Msot girls would be okay but pretty much all the boys are so homophobic…. I think, that my class is highly suspecting. I still want to tell them i’m just not sure how. However, yesterday in school cantine, two classmates sat next to me. We’ ve talked about the film “Prayers for Bobby” and they told to me… they told that if i would feel it that way, they will help me and not tell it all the other morons. That helped me so much… I feel really better now
Sounds like you have some really good friends.
I’m at Grammar School in Germany, and lots of the girls in my class are homophobic 🙁
Religion, for the most part, teaches love, kindness, compassion and caring for God, yourself and others. That is a good thing. Religion in and of itself is a good thing. Having faith and something to believe in is a good thing. Having values is a good thing.
Unfortunately, there will always be people that take religion to the extreme and are fundamentalists about their beliefs. They believe that what they know, feel and think is 100% correct and it is 100% correct to impose what they know, what they feel and how they think on other people. They are not happy with other people who are different. They are only happy with others if, only and when they completely 100% think like they do, feel like they do, think like they do, dress like they do, act like they do, talk like they do, dance like they do, read the same books, watch the same movies, sing the same songs, like the same things. Diversity, acceptance and tolerance is a foreign concept to be frown upon. They do not believe in free will and that people have the right to think for themselves as well as the right to live their lives happily and peacefully. They have the “I’m always right mentality and you are always wrong therefore should change or at least stop existing mentality.” People who are different are seen as less than human and therefore do not deserve human dignity, human rights, human freedom, human respect, human happiness, etc. Judge-mental people make life sad, gut-wretching and painful but they can’t see it so they are blind to the suffering they cause in other people’s lives. They actually believe they are doing God’s work, judge people and make life difficult so that people will be forced to live in silence, change or conform to their beliefs, feelings and thoughts because only they matter. Other people don’t matter.
On the positive note, not everybody believes, feels and think these way. There are many people who are loving, caring, compassionate, accepting, tolerant and value the opinions and difference in other people. I would like to think there are more people out there that have a heart of open-mindedness and the willingness to learn from the experiences of other people. In the end, we can only learn from each other and grow together. It makes a better world, anyway!
* these way, in this way
Sorry, grammatical errors.
I didn’t go to a catholic school, but I was raises catholic..when I first came out my mom who is and practice the catholic faith had a very hard time accepting me..she told me it was a sin and I was going to go to hell..even doe now she is alot more accepting of me,and coming around, it still was the fact that me and my family being catholic I knew I never be accept in my church which I had grown up my whole life in,had my first communion,my confirmation, were I was baptized at..spent kindergarten through 12 grade going to CCD every Wednesday..Being catholic is followed by many strict rules..once I graduate I keep going after a year cause the fact that if these people knew the real me then I wouldn’t be accepted..and all those feelings come from growing up and learning you cant be catholic and gay..may not be that way in some parts of world but in mine it can be.
I meant I kept going for a year after school, then after that year I stop going completely..
i went to a catholic school where homosexuality was pretty much accepted by the teachers. there were a number of out kids in my year and they were treated the same way as everyone else. i actually had a friend who came out as bisexual and her dad who was a catholic priest was totally supportive straight away. i guess we were lucky but i like to believe just because someone is relious it doesnt mean that they are automatically homophobic. the bible says you should love every ome. this is clearly stated throughout. i just wish more people would focus one this instead of finding hate in what is meant to be a book about love. i hope some day in the future the catholics that behave like the ones i know become the majority not the minority.
sorry my friends dad wasn’t catholic he was a different christian church group but he did still accept her.
religion is message of hate and ignorance… the positive things about religion is very outweighted by the negative things….
I was born and live in one of the most atheistic country in the world(czech republic)…
so if some1 come out(like one of my best friends few years back) we dont judge, ofc it takes some time to process it(especialy if you know him since early childhood) but i think that majority of ppl(especialy the younger generation) are very openminded about this.
Too bad that some nations still have this hypocrisy too rooted inside.
For others, dont be afraid, your friends should always accept it, if they wont, then they arent realy friends.
After I saw this Diary I wanted to write almost the same as you wrote. But you’ve said it “loud and clear”. So just one small pice of lyrics from my favourit swedish band: “Mankind’s great mistake was to create God
Creation of man. Excuse to spill blood.”
Wow, another Czech out there 🙂 Hi 🙂 Well, our school is still not that otllerant but i hope that time will take it away 🙂
While I attended a regular public high school (as opposed to a Catholic school) in the States, I did attend BYU-Provo for a few semesters and was raised in a homophobic family and church. I spent years in denial/trying to suppress the fact that I am gay because I was (and am) afraid of the religious and family backlash. It’s terrifying. Many people still do not know that I am gay, though I am slowly coming out to more people. While at BYU-Provo, attending religion classes was mandatory and nearly every secular class also began with a prayer. The only religion class I actually enjoyed was a class on a different religion (than the one most students, faculty, professors, school board, etc. belonged to) and it was looked at from an academic standpoint. We studied it’s origins, it’s highlights, it’s low-lights, it’s contributions and detriments to society…as much as you can touch in one semester. If people feel religion must be taught in classes, I wish they would only do it in that manner. Not teach it as something that must be believed (or assuming that everyone there believes it), but as something that some people in the world believe-and then leave it to the student to make decisions from there. I am not a religious person, but I love to learn. I do not mind /learning/ about religion, but if someone tries to shove it down my throat as the only viable option, then I will immediately dislike it (and quite probably the person doing the shoving) and it can take me ages to be willing to learn about it again (and sometimes longer for me to respect the person again). I hope things work out for the student(s) involved in the article. I cannot imagine being in her shoes.
I think catholic religion should remember what were the teachings of Jesus, one of the most important ones is to love your neighbor as yourself. And it seems that this teacher has forgotten that.
I’m from Mexico and don’t know too much about Canadian scholar system, but I believe religion teacher all around the world should teach about loving each other as equals and to do good to your neighbor as much as you can, they should stop worrying about criticize and judge the differences among us and focus in what makes us the same at God eyes and it is love.
That was really tough to watch. I wonder what it would have been like for me if I would have realized soon that I was gay. I went to Catholic schools through eighth grade, so I totally understand where Rose is coming from. There are still grade school friends that don’t know that I’m gay. I probably won’t tell them. It’s hard to say if it’s easier to pretend to be someone I’m not or lose someone that I grew up with.