TORONTO, ON ( The Interim) - You knew it would happen, I knew it would happen, we all knew it would happen. In a sordid and cynical attempt to deflect from various scandals and mismanagement, the Liberal government of Ontario has told the Roman Catholic school system that it has to do what it's told, not be Catholic, and embrace the lie that gay kids are perennial victims of bullying. Be warned in the rest of Canada and be warned in the United States and Western Europe, this will likely happen to you as well.

The most fundamental dishonesty in all this is the premise that gay children are bullied, and that Catholic schools do nothing to prevent the bullying or deal with bullies and the victims. Some gay children are bullied of course, but there is no objective study in existence that concludes that gays are particularly targeted. Body shape and size is the major reason for bullying, teenage girls are the most likely to attempt suicide, and figures that indicate otherwise tend to come from gay organizations. In other words, overweight girls are the most bullied of all, not gay kids.

As for bullying itself, teachers have been trying to stop bullying since teaching began, and Catholic schools have been particularly committed to this. Far too much time has been devoted to the bullying of gay children, largely because the gay community seems to have an emotional hold over our culture and politicians right now. There is no doubt that gay people have often been bullied in the past, and that - important this - no child, no person, should be made to feel unloved merely because of their sexuality, but we have to, as the so-called progressives insist on telling us, change with times.

Sometimes reality simply cries out to be heard. Urban North America has become extremely gay-friendly in recent years, to the point where in some schools it is even a fashion statement to come out, and silly girls regard having a gay friend as the ultimate fashion accessory. Unless you are a teenager or have teenage kids - and Christians tend to have more children than most in society - you have an historical, even hysterical view of it all, and don't appreciate the modern reality. Being gay is just not such a big deal anymore. The gay community should be celebrating this, but instead they still play the cringing victim card.

Teachers in Catholic, as well as public schools, rush to the defence, even the affirmation, of gay kids and of homosexuality. Gay teachers often push an agenda. Students who have a Christian or Muslim perspective that has any sort of objection to the homosexual lifestyle are made to feel eccentric, if not evil. The main Catholic union in Ontario, OECTA, has an extreme leadership that is severely out of tune with Catholic teaching, more supportive of the NDP than the Roman Catholic Church, and does not speak for genuinely Catholic teachers.

Back to this specific case. In Ontario people are losing their jobs and people are dying on hospital waiting lists, and yet the government obsesses about an issue that even many in the gay community are not concerned about. The minister leading the charge is Laurel Broten, who back in 2007, and much to the chagrin of neighbours, became slightly famous when she and hubby applied for a permit to build a large two-storey garage monstrosity behind their home for their four, yes four, cars! She was environment minister at the time. Now she's at education, and appears similarly consistent.

It's actually quite simple. Catholic schools are Catholic. Not very these days, with the majority of teachers being Catholic only in name, and many young teachers never having been formed as Catholics in the first place. But the schools themselves are still supposed to be committed to Church teaching: Jesus is saviour, Virgin Mary, Papal authority, turning the other cheek, marriage between man and woman, and all that stuff. If you object, fine. Go to another school.

What the schools are being told now is not to stop bullying (which they already do) but to affirm homosexuality (which they can't). The alternative to a gay kid being bullied is not a gay-straight alliance but an end to bullying. But then this isn't about children being bullied and hasn't been from the beginning. It's about government and activists bullying others into acceptance of homosexuality. Whatever happened to genuine tolerance? It doesn't stop here of course, and once some people smell blood they can never resist the feeding frenzy ever again.

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Michael Coren's new book is Heresy: Ten Lies They Spread About Christianity. He can be booked for speeches at www.michaelcoren.com.

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