'If I don't support it, I get yelled at': Ottawa students hold walkout to protest gender ideology

Dozens of students took part in a walkout protest against their school's promotion of the "LGBTQ2S+" enterprise at Longfields-Davidson Secondary School on Thursday, a public high school in Ottawa.

Lina, a student at the school, told Rebel News that male students "identifying" as females were entering female restrooms and were permitted to do so by the school's administrators in accordance with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board's "gender identity and expression" policies.

Advocates of the "LGBTQ2S+" agenda deny human sexual dimorphism while framing sex as an arbitrary social construct that is fluid while existing on a continuum.

Lina said counterdemonstrators opposed to the students' walkout — observed by Rebel News as middle-aged persons — were belligerent and hostile to the demonstrating students.

A male student who spoke with Rebel News on condition of anonymity said Jennifer Borell-Benoit, the principal of Longfields-Davidson high school, applied a double standard between students on opposing sides of the gender debate. The student said the principal prohibited the demonstrating students from returning to classes after their protest on the day of the demonstration. He added that the principal has been supportive of a prior demonstration by students supporting "LGBTQ2S+" politics, allowing these students to return to classes on the day of their demonstration.

Borell-Benoit apparently sent an email to parents ahead of the planned demonstration which included a reference to "collective rights" and a request to "refrain from actions that promote hate or harm to others."

The school has responded by sending out the following email to parents: pic.twitter.com/KnozcucC0e

— Chanel Pfahl 🇨🇦 (@ChanLPfa) June 14, 2023

An Instagram profile named "LDHSS Students For Change" described the walkout as grounded in opposition to "radical and insulting comments" from members of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and "transgender people being allowed to enter biological gender bathrooms." It added, "We are a group focused on love, not hate. We do not hate transgender people, we do not hate gay people. We do not hate most teachers. We just want to protect our religions. … and most importantly, our personal beliefs and right to believe what we want."

Many students and several parents attending and supporting Thursday's protest emphasized that their motives for demonstrating did not include hostility to what they referred to as "the LGBT community." They maintained that their opposition was towards an educational apparatus demanding compliance with what has been dubbed "gender ideology" by certain activists.

"All we're asking, essentially, is that everyone be given fair rights," Soha, a student at Longfields-Davidson who attended the walkout, told Rebel News. "If you ask for respect, then respect other people's beliefs. No one's feelings matter more than another. We're all just asking to be treated equally."

Soha stated that the school is "pushing" and "forcing" its "agenda" onto students. "We don't hate anyone," she emphasized.

Ali, another student supporting the walkout, said, "We're not here to go against the pride community. You can believe in what you want, be what you want, do whatever you want." He said he has gotten "in trouble" and "yelled at" by teachers for his refusal to support the school's sexual propaganda.

Marianna, Ali's mother, told Rebel News that sexual propaganda targeting prepubescent children amounts to "child abuse," particularly when sowing seeds of confusion and doubt within a child's acceptance of his or her sex.

"You can't come and give me a little child and tell me that they know what they want in life," she said. "You can tell this child one thing and the next thing he'll tell you, 'I want something else,' is that not child abuse?"

An Ottawa Police Service SUV was on site ahead of the scheduled walkout.