Equal representation for all students

Demographic context

DDSB’s Student Census (identity questions published on the board’s census page) reported:

• Gender identity: “Girl/Woman” and “Boy/Man” each about 48–49%; about 1–2% selected a gender-diverse identity, depending on the cut reported.
• Sexual orientation (Grade 7–12): 74% selected Straight/Heterosexual; 17% selected a 2SLGBTQ orientation.

Those figures describe self-identification on a voluntary census, not a clinical diagnosis. They are still the board’s own published snapshot of how students describe themselves.

DDSB Student Census

Board approach

DDSB and DCDSB policies and resources deliberately centre 2SLGBTQIA+ identities through curriculum integration, days of significance, flag raisings, GSAs, and professional learning. The stated rationale is historical marginalization, elevated distress rates among sexual- and gender-minority youth, and belonging and safety.

DDSB 2SLGBTQIA+ compendium (PDF) · Human Rights page

Arguments raised for balance and neutrality

• Public education should reflect biological and demographic reality. Human sexual reproduction is binary (male/female gametes); the large majority of children develop heterosexual attractions and identify with their sex. Curriculum and school culture that disproportionately centre minority identities, or that frame majority patterns as defaults needing disruption, can create imbalance.
• All students — including those who are heterosexual and identify with their birth sex — benefit from age-appropriate, evidence-based content free from ideological pressure. Intensive identity promotion and school-based social transition raise questions of social influence (noted in the Cass Review) that can affect any vulnerable youth.
• Equal dignity under the Ontario Human Rights Code does not require preferential promotion, hierarchical “anti-oppression” framing, or unequal allocation of visibility. Viewpoint-neutral approaches — accurate biology, healthy relationships for everyone, respect without activism — protect the developmental space of every child.
• Teaching biological facts about sex alongside concepts of identity does not constitute “erasure.” Preferential institutional celebration of some identities while treating others as unmarked can itself produce a hierarchy of recognition.

Practical implication

Parents who want equal representation can request that school materials, guest speakers, and celebrations reflect the full range of students — including the majority — without elevating any identity as the institutional priority. School Council motions and written requests for balanced resource lists are concrete tools.