FAIR News: FAIR Canada stands up for religious freedom
FAIR News: FAIR Canada stands up for religious freedom
Dear Friends of FAIR,
This week, we’d like to highlight the important work of our Canadian chapters, coordinated by Quaker chaplain Kate Johnson. FAIR Canada’s seven chapters have submitted statements and organized letter writing campaigns responding to important legislation with FAIR principles, created surveys on school board trustee candidates, and hosted regular guest speakers and gatherings where members can speak their mind freely without fear of reprisal.
Most recently, FAIR Canada released a statement in response to leaked audio of an Edmonton teacher criticizing Muslim students for not attending Pride events. FAIR believes that every individual is a unique human being, and that everyone should be free to express their individuality. This includes both students who wish to attend Pride events as well as those who, for whatever reason, do not.
As FAIR Canada put it in their statement:
“FAIR believes in the universality of civil rights. LGBTQ people have civil rights as do people of any faith background and truthfully, all of us. One person’s rights as a member of a protected class can not and do not cancel out the rights of those who are members of a different protected class. Finding places where values are shared, emphasizing our common humanity, is an ideal to strive for while leaving room for respectful disagreement.”
We are proud to support FAIR Canada in all of their impactful efforts to create a more pro-human society.
Warmly,
The Team at the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism
Mao and Me by Chen Jiang Hong
In this graphic novel style memoir, author and illustrator Chen Jiang Hong shares his memories of growing up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, interweaving ordinary domestic scenes with moments of profound cultural change.
At ninety-six pages, this book is a work of art that crosses genres and will appeal to readers of many ages. It is an ideal resource for teaching upper elementary, middle, and high school students about the Chinese Cultural Revolution. For younger readers, we recommend that an adult preview the book to determine suitability.
FAIR Series: Educational Philosophy
Please join us on Tuesday June 20th from 5 - 6PM EST for a two-part FAIR Education Series discussion of educational philosophy and how it drives disagreements over contentious issues such as culturally responsive teaching, social-emotional learning, standardized testing, and how to teach topics like race, sex, gender, and justice. We will explore how differing assumptions about the purpose of schooling lead to holding strong positions on such issues. In session 1 we’ll learn the four basic philosophical positions. In session 2 we will explore how they inform the issues. The sessions will help parents better articulate their own educational priorities while engaging more sympathetically with those whose priorities differ.
Understanding Gender Modification Laws in Missouri
Join FAIR in Medicine on Tuesday, June 20th from 11 - 12:30pm EST for a webinar in our ongoing series about the legal actions across the country on medical gender modification for minors with a special focus on Missouri. Panelists include Vernadette R. Broyles, President and General Counsel of Child and Parental Rights Campaign, and Jamie Reed, whistleblower at the Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Hear about the child protective treatment bans, the litigation it has spawned around the country, and Jamie Reed’s first hand experience that has caused her to agree that bans are necessary to protect kids.
FAIR Twin Cities June Meeting
Join FAIR’s Twin Cities chapter for their June Meeting! At 9:30am EST on June 24th they will celebrate their second "birthday" with special treats and a great program. Hear updates on the newly launched Minnesota FAIR in Medicine concerning illiberal changes to K12 from the legislative session and impressive pockets of local energy for upcoming fall school board elections.
The event will feature a pro-human training on "How To Have Difficult Conversations" to set the stage for great pro-human conversations throughout your summer.
Does Implicit Bias Training Help Anyone? With Dr. Chris Ferguson
Watch FAIR in Medicine’s webinar about The Implicit Association Test.
DEI Trends in Education: What’s Happening & How To Respond
What are DEI programs in education intended to achieve? Are they making a positive impact, or are they causing more harm than good? For this webinar, FAIR brought together three panelists who have extensive experience with DEI in educational settings.
FAIR News Podcast
For audio versions of our FAIR News and FAIR Weekly Roundup newsletters, subscribe and listen to FAIR News Weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or via RSS feed.
FAIR Educators Alliance & Other Networks
Connect with other pro-human educators through the FAIR Educators Alliance. We bring together educators from all levels to share experiences and work on developing resources that can support teachers, community members, and FAIR chapters.
The FAIR Educators Alliance hosts an informal, virtual happy hour every other Thursday evening with occasional speakers and presentations.
FAIR also offers a group for Librarians and Library staff that meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 7:30pm EDT.
Teachers, administrators, librarians, and educators of all kinds are welcome. For more information and to join any of these networks, please email educators@fairforall.org.
Join the FAIR Community
Join us, and become a member of FAIR.
Become a FAIR volunteer, or join a FAIR chapter.
Take the Pro-Human Pledge and help promote a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity.
Sign-up for a Welcome to FAIR Zoom information session to learn more about our mission.
Share your reviews and incident reports on our FAIR Transparency website.
Kudos for denouncing the Edmonton teacher who criticized Muslim students for not turning out for Pride events.
I am assuming that before FAIR did so it made sure that the teacher was speaking in her capacity as a teacher and in a forum where her expression of disapproval could reasonably be expected to have negative effects on the Muslim students or Muslims in general.
However, defenders of civil liberties and critics of gender-identity ideology must remain alert to the possibility that their activism in support of their causes could cause collateral damage, the most likely and obvious sort being a backlash against gay men and lesbians.
Some gays and lesbians, especially those of the queer persuasion, are fervent trans allies. That does not make them bad people. But, like just about every straight liberal in the land, they fail to see the harm that can come from gender-affirming care, the indoctrination of children into gender-identity ideology by their teachers and the assault on women and men's spaces by trans women and trans men, respectively.
On the other hand, many gay men (including me) and lesbians are gender critical and offended by the hijacking of Gay Pride by the trans and queer movements. I have a personal reason to be gender critical, having been just the sort of Barbie-doll loving, sports-negative little sissy boy 60 years ago who would be at great risk today of being turned into a little girl. Thank goodness I was born when I was. In any case, I hope that most well informed people of good faith understand that the Gay Rights movement of the 20th century was qualitatively different from trans activists' aggressive assaults on society today.
Unfortunately, the backlash against gays is already underway in some comment sections on Substack. There, homophobes motivated by religion or politics are writing hateful, moralizing screeds against gays in response to pieces that are critical of trans activism. We're told we're "perverts" and worse. There is no place for this in our society any more than there is for racism or antisemitism. If readers do not feel up to rebuking the authors of such hateful rhetoric directly (some are downright scary), they should at least give serious thought to reporting the comments to the substack's admins.
In closing, signs of violent intolerance can also be found in the real world. I recently saw a video on Twitter in which a little Muslim girl stomped a Pride flag repeatedly while adults looked on approvingly. I hope it is not necessary to explain to this readership why such an act is reprehensible. One could say that using a Muslim child as a political prop when she lacks an adult's emotional and intellectual perspectives on the world is as offensive as seating little kids in front of a drag queen for a story hour when they cannot place the performer in his larger cultural and political context. One could say that except it would not be true because in the former scenario children are being taught what at best could be called intolerance and, at worst, hate.
Why is it necessary to say "protected class" as used in the FAIR Canada statement? If indeed one espouses universal, individual rights then class (identity group) has nothing to do with anything. Moreover, who decides what a protected class is? Isn't this just another form of elitism, which then works to counter the espoused principles of individual rights? Having protected groups by direct implication means there are unprotected groups and therefore the former would then have some benefits or privileges not enjoyed by the latter. Treat people as individuals. It really is that simple.