Protestors took to the streets of Chatham Wednesday as part of the Canada-wide #1 Million March for Children.
A group of about 200 gathered in Tecumseh Park before marching down King Street to the Chatham-Kent Civic Centre around 11 a.m.
Chants of “Leave our kids alone” and “Hands off our kids” rang out during the event.
On their way back to the park, participants passed by the Chatham-Kent Public Library.
However, a small group of counter-protestors were also on hand to defend the rights of the 2SLGTBQ+ community. The group of young people also brandished signs, mainly defending the rights of trans youth and children and anti-hate, outside the Civic Centre. Organizers say the goal of the #1 Million March for Children was to rally against what they call “gender ideology” in schools, saying children are being exposed to inappropriate content about sexuality.
The movement is also against school policies that do not require parental consent for a young person to change their gender or pronouns.
Many counter-protestors say that transgendered youth should not be outed to parents by their teachers.
‘Gender ideology’ is a dog whistle for any content even mentioning trans people. Furthermore, it is not only the opinion of queer activists that forcing kids to come out to potentially abusive or transphobic parents is dangerous, it is the consensus of professionals dealing with trans healthcare, and is also obvious on its face. The 1 Million March was the largest hate movement I’ve ever seen in my hometown, and the overly centrist narrative you wrote is not unbiased, because one side of this conflict advocates for true freedom of individuals and the other side wants to control people, putting a group that is already in danger on a daily basis in even more trouble by removing the only safe space many of them have as children. The march was organized around misinformation. No one is telling children to transition. The only ones who are transitioning do it of their own choice, and do not even receive surgery or hormones unless it is deemed medically necessary (meaning they will likely kill themselves if they do not receive care). It is irresponsible to report on this story without making all that clear.