In Our Gaybourhood

From soccer to SOGI

• JC Fung, Matt Carruthers, Brad Beattie, Scout Gray • Season 1 • Episode 2

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BC schools didn't used to be the most inclusive spaces. But how do you change the system? Do you start with the teachers, the classrooms, or the policies?
JC Fung talks to Matt Carruthers, Brad Beattie, and Scout Gray on how the SOGI 1 2 3 initiative shaped a movement.

Guests:

  • Matt Carruthers: lifelong educator and former BC SOGI Education Lead
  • Brad Beattie: POP the People Agency founder and former ARC Foundation Executive Director
  • Scout Gray: 2SLGBTQIA+ advocate and SOGI 1 2 3 National Program Director


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JC Fung:

Welcome neighbour, this is In Our Gaybourhood, the oral history podcast that journeys through the queer communities of so - called British Columbia. I'm your host JC Fung. Together, we'll explore the stories of 2SLGBTQIA + advocates, educators and students who are transforming our schools into spaces where everyone can belong. In each episode. We'll get to meet our neighbors and explore some of the events and milestones that have shaped our schools and our queer communities in the unceded territories west of the Rockies. We learn about who they are, what it was like doing the work, and what they've learned along the way. Last episode, we talked to Romi Chandra - Herbert about the first GSA in BC. Today, we're going to skip forward in time to talk about SOGI 123 and how a soccer team led to big changes. What is SOGI? If you're not from BC, you may not have heard of it. SOGI stands for “ sexual orientation and gender identity.” In the BC school system, it's a shorthand used to refer to education that broadens the spectrum of representation beyond heterosexual and binary norms in the last few years. This acronym has started showing up in Canadian news media a lot. SOGI 1 2 3 is a nonprofit initiative developed by the ARC Foundation in 2015. It supports educators, parents and other members of the school community to promote safe and inclusive spaces for all students through school policies, learning environments and teaching resources. All the tools and resources are available to everyone on their website, sogieducation.org. Let's meet two of our key players.

Brad Beattie:

My name is Brad Beattie. I use he / him / il and I have been in the not - for - profit sector for over 20 years. I have my own agency, POP the People Agency, for the last 11 years. And that's what got me involved with ARC Foundation.

Matt Carruthers: My name is Matt Carruthers :

h e / him /

Matt Carruthers:

his. I'm an educator, started in Delta, was also a student in Delta. A s a teacher principal moved over as a principal into Vancouver. So I work in Vancouver now, Vancouver School Board. And during my time in Delta, that's how I got involved with SOGI education.

JC Fung:

Like many folks, Matt got into advocacy because he started sensing a familiar fear in others, particularly his students.

Matt Carruthers:

I taught elementary school. I was, you know, 26 years old, not out yet. I had these three boys who hung out all the time. Two of them came to me one day after school and they nervously approached me and said, “ Can we talk, Mr C?” I said , “ Well, sure, guys. What's up ?” And they couldn't get it out. I said , “ Guys, what's going on? Why are you so nervous ?” And they said , “ Well, we want to talk to you about something.” I said , “W ell, what is it ?” And they said, “We want to talk about their other friend .” And they said , “ We think, uh, we think he might be gay .” And I said , “ Oh !” And my reaction was panicking because I'm like , “ Uhh are you coming to me because you think I'm gay ?” Like I was not out at that point, right? And I said , “ Oh .” And as I'm saying that, they're going , “ But we just want to help him .” And I thought “ What ?” I couldn't believe it. It was just an amazing moment for me to hear as someone who was struggling about coming out. T hat they would support their friend in that way. And I tried to reassure him that, well, it's pretty early, let's not press him into making a decision. And this is me never really having that discussion with anyone else in my life and no resources to turn to. And the principal at the time, who had run for the Progressive Conservatives, was heavily involved in conservative values and promoting them, was an active politician too. I could not talk to him about it. So I really felt like I didn't have many options there. And that was one of the first of quite a few situations that came up as a teacher where I was torn personally, but as an educator, a professional, I felt like I couldn't really help these students. So it all started with me, being as a teacher, trying to support students who are in need.

JC Fung:

Coming out as an adult isn't any easier than for kids. Adults need support, just like students. S ome folks, like Brad, need to move away from home to find that support.

Brad Beattie:

I grew up in Eastern Ontario in a little town called Brock - Vegas, sometimes known as Brockville. Really moving to Vancouver was a big coming out experience for me at 25. I grew up with a family that was still on a learning journey around that. And so over the years, we got there together. When I first moved here, I just thought I needed to volunteer to start to meet people. And so, I volunteered at the Qmunity center and helped with fundraising. And just kind of brought some of my experience volunteering in other not - for - profits in Ontario. But that whole experience, for sure, influenced my social impact work and trying to have a leadership voice in it.

JC Fung:

Volunteer organizations and sports clubs are a central hub for a lot of newcomers. And a great way to make friends and find your place in a community.

Brad Beattie:

I played soccer my whole life and I played at university. So I felt really confident. And so we met playing Out For Kicks soccer. That's where Matt and I actually met, and my husband and I. And that's where it all started, isn't it, Matt?

Matt Carruthers:

It is. Yeah , s o I came out for soccer to try it out because I played soccer, likewise with Brad, my whole life I've been playing. And I kind of nervously came out and then quickly got involved with that group and became president of the club and, you know, helped out any way I could. And so, we built up these connections with a lot of people. It started as a club that was relatively small before I was there. There was just like a drop - in and then it built up, built up. We had a league and it's gone from, what, 60 people regularly showing up to, now, 280 people. That was kind of the genesis of SOGI 1 2 3 though, is Out For Kicks because we all met there. We had a variety of people who'd worked in education, and then we had someone who had the financial wherewithal to fund this. And he also played in the soccer league. It started with discussions, a nice dinner at Bob Quartermain’s house and where we kind of brainstormed. We're enjoying great lives, but that's not applied to everybody. Let's do something. It's something I reflect on a lot. I've had so many great friendships born out of that league. But I don't think people appreciate the impact that that league had on the province.

JC Fung:

Dr. Robert Quartermain, Bob, is a geologist, mining magnate, and philanthropist who supported SOGI, Indigenous, and environmental causes. He's had an extremely successful 45 - year career, including recognition by the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2022.

Matt Carruthers:

If not for Bob Quartermain, none of this would have happened. He provided energy, finances, clear vision. His intent was very direct. And then he brought us in and, you know, kind of tapped into our expertise and motivated us.

Brad Beattie:

He was the first person to ask, what do we need to do to change this?

Matt Carruthers:

Yeah, it was his experience in the Maritimes, New Brunswick, as a child that he didn't want replicated for anyone else. Yeah, he wanted to change things for kids in school.

JC Fung:

In 2008, ARC Foundation of Vancouver was born.

Brad Beattie:

Originally, ARC Foundation was formed in the early days by a group of friends who were philanthropists themselves. And they were like , “ Hey, we can probably do more if we play together .” So they all got together and started focusing on looking at the 2SLGBTQ community. So they were granting money only at that point.

JC Fung:

The founding trustees were Robert Quartermain and his two friends, Wayne Hartrick, president of Canadian Men's Health Foundation, and media executive Mark Prior.

Brad Beattie:

Awareness, respect, and capacity. Early on, when we pushed to say “ who are we?” Building awareness, respect, and capacity in community. That's really where the name came from and what really kept guiding them. It was interesting to me when I started to get involved, the vision was around totally transforming systems. It wasn't advocacy, like disrupting it, it was transforming it.

JC Fung:

Initially, the foundation was supporting projects like Out On Screen's queer education outreach program Out In Schools. Within five years time, ARC Foundation wanted to do more.

Matt Carruthers:

The focus at that point was legislation and how can we move this liberal / conservative government that we had into drawing up legislation, w hich I don't think was realistic at that time because throughout the province, it was not going to be very well - received. Still, there was discussions. Steve Mulligan, who was a teacher in Vancouver, but also worked with Vancouver School Board. He was, I can't remember the title, it was essentially like a diversity lead. But a key aspect was supporting LGBT Q youth. When we first met, we were looking at how could we impact the legislative side and then, you know, policies and districts, and then lessons, l ike how can we provide teachers with access to lessons? But there needed to be a confluence where it all kind of had to happen, because a teacher in Vancouver might feel more comfortable taking that risk because there's been a history in Vancouver of supporting LGBT Q youth. Not so much in any other district. So without policy legislation, it was really tough to do. So. Those were the initial discussions

Matt Carruthers: :

How can we approach this? How can we actually

Matt Carruthers:

have an impact?

JC Fung:

The ARC Foundation was part of an ecosystem of community members, organizations and allies that were doing really important advocacy work too.

Brad Beattie:

I think in understanding the value for social change, it's so important that we have the advocate voices that were out and calling out why this change was needed and important. And I always said it was a luxury of what we were able to do as ARC Foundation because we were slightly more moderate. Anyone would have a cup of tea with us kind of idea. But we were only able to do that because of the advocates and the champions that were pushing for change in this big voice kind of way.

Matt Carruthers:

But it did give us room to actually have some sit - down conversations, set up a bit of a road map with people who could actually impact, like the Minister of Education at the time, Minister Bernier, who was an ML A from the Peace River North or South I can't remember, but Dawson Creek. He was very frank that he wanted to support his daughter who was facing some of these challenges. And it was quite moving to hear him to take these political risks and say, you know what, we need to do it. And he was an advocate within his caucus , w hich was definitely not thinking in a uniform way on this. He was very adamant about it actually.

Brad Beattie:

And then also the other community organizations like Out In Schools and Qmunity. That was a big part of what I started to do was have conversations with them. Again, being in the not - for - profit sector for so long, people would often come up to me as a leader and just say , “O h, I want to start a new not - for - profit” and I'd be like , “ Please don't, please don't, please find someone who's doing what you want to do and help them be better at it .” And so, we were really intentional upfront. I think those were the years you were involved where we started to actually gather together as community organizations. I mean, normally you see each other at each other's fundraisers, but we actually got together with them, Out I

Brad Beattie: n Schools and Qmunity :

“ Ok, what are you

Brad Beattie:

doing in schools? And let's make sure that we complement it, not kind of replicate it by accident.”

JC Fung:

With momentum building, a plan started to come together.

Matt Carruthers:

Meanwhile, we're trying to build up this kind of approach where we would have a presence in schools as well. [Mr. Bernier] provided us with some hope that there'd be legislation. If we knew there was going to be legislation, which leads to policy, which is exactly what happened, then we could actually build up resources and structures within schools.

JC Fung:

A RC F oundation brought together community organizations and quickly found focus in connecting collective capacity.

Brad Beattie:

We came forward and said , “ Hey, we've got this collaboration model. Like we want to basically align all the existing resources that are here, both community organizations plus educators at the provincial district and school level .” And when we came forward with this concept, essentially, we were just breaking down the hierarchy of the education system and being like , “ Hey, let's all play together as equals .” And ARC F oundation could also be a little arm's length. We came forward with this idea and that's where he got right behind it. And that's when I think, with the model and support and the momentum that we were having, he pushed really hard. And that's where policy, and Susan Anton also at that time, right, Matt? That's when gender identity and expression was added to the BC Human Rights code.

JC Fung:

In case you missed it, Bill 27 was passed in 2016, which meant that gender identity or expression was now among the protected grounds covered by the BC Human Rights code. At the time, Susan Anton was BC Attorney General and Minister of Justice, and a supporter of the amendment. In response, the following September, the BC Ministry of Education asked every school district to explicitly add “ sexual orientation and gender identity” to their policies and codes of conduct. Based on what they had learned from other community organizations and their programs, the ARC Foundation found a way to complement and build on existing work.

Brad Beattie:

Out In Schools would go in and have these amazing conversations with students as part of their model. But the challenge that they felt that we learned from them was then they'd leave. If all of a sudden, a kid came out the next day, they're no longer in the school.

Matt Carruthers:

And we'd had in Delta, a very effective model that included a literacy coach, they'd be trained from each school, come back, provide guidance. They had other models that were similar. And so when we started chatting about what could we do for direct impact? That's what we talked about is, well, why don't we follow this model? Delta's already supported a model similar to this.

JC Fung:

Starting something new is hard. Looking to successful initiatives can make the process easier.

Matt Carruthers:

There's a lot more nervousness, anxiety for teachers around this. They want to help, but they didn't know what to do. They didn't have the resources. So what we did is we funded a position in Delta, which was one day a week, 20%. I approached Delta, as ARC Foundation we approached, it was a formal meeting. We had a n outline of what the position could be. I knew quite frankly that they couldn't turn it down because I'd been there for so long and the optics of them turning it down would not have gone over well within the admin team. And I think actually they did want to help, but they were also nervous because within Delta, there wouldn't have been unanimous support for it. So they did, they supported it. Essentially, m y vice principal taught an extra day and I had this role for a year and we were able to kind of try it out.

JC Fung:

But one SOGI School Champion isn't enough to make the kind of change they were hoping f or. To do that, you need a whole network of champions.

Matt Carruthers:

What was interesting is we had this idea, and knowing that there was some concern about

Matt Carruthers: who might step forward :

“ Oh, they might

Matt Carruthers:

think I'm gay now if I step forward into this role .” So I was a little, I was kind of curious as to how many people would step up. And as an administrator, countless times, I had to offer up opportunities for people to volunteer and it would be silence, you know, the crickets would be taking on all the roles, right? In this case, we literally had 5 to 7 people per school offering to volunteer. We had no shortage of people volunteering for this role, which was an indicator to us and the district that wow, this is long overdue. We had custodians , we had every aspect of, you know, school staff. Everyone was represented.

JC Fung:

ARC Foundation wanted to build on that foundation of care and empathy to make space for conversations that had been missing from classrooms.

Matt Carruthers:

We didn't have any resources. We couldn't introduce this to a whole class. We couldn't say , “ Hey, by the way, there could be some people who are gay in this class or identifying in a different way other than you, you know, maybe questioning their gender .” There was no way to really introduce that into discussion. So we started to bring in resources, lessons, books, picture books that are now quite famous within LGBT Q circles. So we actually built up some skills, not just the empathy, we built up capacity for people to actually have these discussions and lead them with their staff and with students and have difficult discussions, in some cases, with parents. We found, once again though, that generally parents were quite supportive. They wanted to know what was happening and that's fair with anything going on in the class, you should be aware of what's happening. So it was building that capacity and because I wasn't an expert either, I mean, I had my own perspective, right? I was hardly an activist, I was someone who was nervous about being gay and really was kind of tentative about it. So for me, it was a couple layers, it was trying to get more comfortable with it personally, but also professionally. And so I tapped into some resources in Vancouver and Burnaby, two people who had been doing this work quite a bit, working with schools, working with administrators, parent groups and so on. And so we would meet and I felt like I was a bit of a drag on the group because I was trying to get up to speed. But we would meet and I would borrow from things that, you know, some of the lessons they'd learned. And then we started thinking, well, let's formalize this. And this is where Brad came in and just provided a structure that allowed it to grow at an exponential rate. That never happens in education. Like we're a monolith, like everything's slower, or maybe a better description is a cruise ship trying to get it to turn, you know, there's so many people on board with different opinions. He had a very clear timeline that he made everyone aware of and I was very dubious about the timeline. I said , “H ey, we've already got three districts that are connecting here. I think that's pretty good, let's enjoy it, right ?” But we looked for expansion and Brad saw the kind of synergy that was happening between the legislation, the policy that was due to happen, building up these resources online that would eliminate that barrier of teachers saying , “ Well, I have no resources.” and I think Brad can speak more to that in terms of how he was able to create a foundation that we could just grow dynamically from three districts connecting to every district connecting within two years. Like that is kind of unheard of.

Brad Beattie:

Why this project was also really interesting to me is my husband and I have a daughter with two moms and she was born in 2003 before the Modern Family TV show. It was early on, one of her moms is a teacher and in Grade 2, when they talk about family models, she was like , “ We got to go in and we got to talk to the teacher and make sure that Chloe's lived experience is reflected in the lessons and just make sure the teacher understands .” W e're just here in False Creek , s o the teacher was really open to it. I learned a lot just from that experience. And essentially we took that moment and kind of clicked and dragged it across the BC education system. The educators that we had as an advisory like Matt and the group that he was meeting with early on, I loved it. When I was invited into the space I could hear like one was, “ Oh, absolutely. No, we need policies.” And the other again was about “ No, no, no, we need curriculum resources.” And somebody else was super passionate about the environment, like just really around the school culture and that feeling and people seeing themselves, right, or climate. And why choose? Let's do it all. It had to be simple. And so I came up with the term 1-2-3, it was just like, oh, SOGI 1 2 3. SOGI had been a term that some of our educators were using, but it wasn't used widely at that point. Because everybody has a sexual orientation and everyone has a gender identity. I'm like, this is for all students, it benefits all students. It was a simple little brand that everyone could anchor around and share stories. Storytelling is how you change the world.

JC Fung:

Making change that lasts is a real challenge for many activists and organizations.

Brad Beattie:

How do you do this in a way that it's not just a campaign, like a flash in the pan, right? Because campaigns don't stick. Intentionally, we did a community engagement plan where it became part of the culture and the DNA, right? Because once people start kind of living it, and then exercise it, and try and then it works, the behavior changes. We're all like that. This was a slow massive system behavior change. We wanted the leaders in place in the districts, in the schools, in the province to have space to practice their leadership voice and then to grab that and to have it become just a part of their leadership responsibilities frankly.

JC Fung:

Growing the community became the core of the ARC Foundation's approach. But relying on the grassroots isn't sustainable. They needed some bigger players to start pitching in too.

Brad Beattie:

I mean, when we first started doing this work, the BC TF and the Ministry of Education were at the Supreme Court of Canada together. When we invited them into the space, essentiall y we just let's create gathering space and just encourage people to dream big, to imagine if, beyond the status quo. That's also a luxury space, I get, in a system that has capacity challenges. But when we created that space and invited them into the room, again, as equals around a table versus a hierarchy. I was amazed, they walked in and all of their other issues, none of it came up. There was no politics and we just moved into sincere co - creation. I think it helped that ARC F oundation wasn't a part of the education system. And so we were neutral and we essentially facilitated the space. We held them high as knowledge leaders. And so, you know, you're the experts. W e created like this little hub team, I called, it where essentially the work didn't land back on them. They gave us ideas, we centralized it and then we created this provincial collaborative of all the education partners, BC Parents Association, trustees, teachers, principals, superintendents, CUP E even, every stakeholder group was invited. And independent school associations. So from the very early days, coming in and saying , “ Hey, our commonality is that as educators, you all believe in supporting students so they can realize their full potential. So that's part of your job and your responsibility .” We really focused on the people who understood the why SOGI- inclusive education was important. E gale had come up with this report in 2009 and it was the first cross - Canada education study around homophobia and transphobia. The stat that really led us was 90% of educators supported the why SOGI- inclusive education was important , and 25% were actually doing it. And so we were like , “ Ok, great. That's our audience. Let's help them with the how to.” Because we had all these educators, as Matt was talking about, and you know, around the network at the district level and at the schools, there was a whole bunch of them that had really learned and practiced the art of SOGI- inclusive education. And so we just created a platform to share those tools and resources at a system level.

JC Fung:

Egale Canada is a nonprofit organization that advocates for 2 S LGBT Q people and issues. The 2009 report that Brad mentioned was phase one of the first national climate survey on homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in Canadian schools. It was released in its final form in 2011 under the name “ Every Class in Every School .” 10 years later, it was followed by a second national climate survey that was released in the aptly titled 2021 report, “S till In Every Class In Every School .” No burying the lead there. Building on resources from existing queer advocacy groups like Pride Education Network, ARC Foundation launched an online learning resource hub in 2017 . The SOGI 1 2 3 website at sogi education.org was built in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the BC Teachers Federation, and the U BC Faculty of Education.

Matt Carruthers:

So we have a streamlined website that was really easy to access. The lesson plans, there were eventually videos that were placed on there that spoke to every stakeholder group as well and so it could provide them guidance as they kind of.

Brad Beattie:

T here was no platform to share anything before sogi education. org.

Matt Carruthers:

BC TF had a lot of resources accessible for teachers, but there are so many administrators and district staff that did not have a comfort level with this and we needed to build up their comfort level and capacity as well. Because they'd be involved in some difficult conversations, either at, you know, the district PAC meeting, or with parents who have questions, or staff who had questions too. You couldn't really say I don't have any resources when you literally had hundreds of different opportunities that were, you know, age appropriate, which was a phrase that still comes up. Is it age appropriate? It was all assigned by grade, recommended age levels, and so on.

Brad Beattie:

The resources all supported the existing curriculum. We weren't changing curriculum. We were giving resources that helped educators deliver better lesson plans.

JC Fung:

These SOGI 1 2 3 resources did this by providing things like alternative strategies, supplementary teaching resources, or policy suggestions that are inclusive of all sexual orientations, gender identities, families, and other identities. It's still official BC curriculum content. Now, with less white cis heteronormativity.

Brad Beattie:

We had the technology and the sharing of the resources. Yeah. Pride Education Network. I mean, you look back when they were doing their work, the technology wasn't in the same space, they were printing booklets, right? And trying to get those around and shared. And so, there's a whole bunch of amazing contributing factors to the movement that formed.

Matt Carruthers: We went from three districts:

myself in Delta,

Matt Carruthers:

and then we had Vancouver, and Burnaby. To the following year expanding to nine, and the nine I think were providing support for us as we developed the resources online. So we expanded the number of people with voices. They in turn created their own networks within their districts. Within those nine districts , w e had almost every region in BC represented within those nine. We had the Fraser Valley, and that became a hotbed of excitement. Langley, they were on the forefront of that. We had Nanaimo was involved. K am loops.

Brad Beattie:

I remember like that was part of the environmental scan, asking “ Who are the districts that are doing some of this work? And who are some that want to?” and being amazed. I remember Nanaimo had been like one of the front leaders in policy. We had all these kind of shoe horns that help eased us in, right?

Matt Carruthers:

And so we found Nanaimo had all these things that were happening within their district. And then Prince George I found later on, too, was kind of the northern hub for supporting LGBT Q youth, gender fluid youth. Once we had, we went from 3 to 9 districts, we expanded the resources, the expertise, the collective capacity of people and they guided us that year, too, in terms of “ OK, what are the resources? How does this look this SOGI 1 2 3 website ?”

Brad Beattie:

Making sure there was room for the stories of what's working, knowing that the system had a lot of work to happen still. Because so often in change, we talk about the gaps of what's not working. We turned the volume up, communications - wise, I changed it a little bit to be , “ Hey, we need to shout out more what's working.” And then it was easy and it was peer - to - peer. And so educators could see themselves because they saw their other educator had done this work, and then it was like , “ Oh, I can do that, if that's what you're asking me to do as a SOGI champion, or to include that in my classroom. Yeah, I can talk about families that have two moms and two dads .” Essentially , w hat we were doing was working within the system and just quietly helping educators do their jobs in an enhanced way.

JC Fung:

By 2018, 56 out of 60 BC school districts were part of the SOGI Educator Network.

Brad Beattie:

I think it was the 2018 municipal elections. All of a sudden, SOGI 1 2 3 became public and it wasn't that we were quiet. It was there, sogi education.org, shared everything, transparent. There was, yeah, we were very public about it. but it hadn't really been picked up, I would say by opposition until the 2018 municipal elections. And so there was definitely some resistance there. Some of it was coordinated where our names were targeted a little bit. There are people like Glen Hansman at that point.

Matt Carruthers:

H e was a lightning rod, I think and he was standing tall.

Brad Beattie:

Safety type of issues.

JC Fung:

Glen Hansman was a champion for the SOGI movement and President of the BC TF between 2016 and 2019. During this time, he was on the receiving end of very real safety threats as have many advocates of inclusive education. But the opposition also inspired the growing SOGI community.

Brad Beattie:

The context of this is it was a very small group of people. My experience was when they would organize something, other supporters, educators or parents, would just show up.

Matt Carruthers:

It actually galvanized support for us as much as they felt like they were publicly admonishing us and raising hell, you know, because “ We're never going to let this happen!” And it was almost comical, but there were moments where I just thought , “ Oh, I hope nobody you know is questioning or within the LGBT Q, because some of the things you're saying are really hurtful .” But it drew out more support. People would just point to it. Superintendents would look at it and go, “ Ok, I'm in Chilliwack. I know I'm going to go head - on in this but we're going to do it. We need to, if there are people in my community who feel this way, these kids need to know there are so many others who don't .” It really did galvanize the courage and the leadership voices just came right out.

JC Fung:

Creating space for dialogue became an important part of the SOGI 1 2 3 strategy and building the community.

Matt Carruthers:

Stacy Wakelin was a parent who identified as straight, had a family, but was just appalled by some of the messaging in the community. And so she built up a network of support, Parents for Inclusivity, and went so far as to set up a panel a nd in Langley. We were in the Langley Township City Hall. She invited myself, Saleema Noon, who's a body science educator, we had an Anglican priest there, we had a whole bunch of different representatives from the queer community that were there to answer questions for people who had questions. As I'm driving and everything, I don't know what to expect like “ Who is going to be here? I mean, can I catch a pitchfork?” I don't know, I'm working on it. It was actually very moving. There were people who clearly were confused by this and wanted to seek answers. They came from a Christian perspective and wondered how it fit.

Brad Beattie:

Curiosity, though.

Matt Carruthers:

Knowing that they're supposed to care, but this seems to be out of sync with a lot of what they're taught. There were some great moments that came out of that. It didn't get out of control. There were some very poignant moments. I had somebody who had been delivering YouTube Powerpoints, delivering these Powerpoints with a lot of information that was very questionable. I think in her mind, she thought she was doing right by her religion and by her community. She asked a couple of questions during the session and at the end approached me and said , “T hank you for this night. I feel so much better about what's happening and how I can reconcile it with my own beliefs And it was one of those where we were not, we're not shouting at each other.

Brad Beattie:

We're having some productive dialogue.

Matt Carruthers:

It was, and I wish more people had been there. There's probably 40, 50 parents that were there, or people in the community that were there. But that was my big takeaway, is that. I don't think we convinced everyone in the room, but there was someone who had been actively questioning what we were doing, kind of undermining in her way, and came away from that meeting going , “ You know what? I'm OK with this .”

Brad Beattie:

I think there's so many amazing stories like that where it created common language, common dialogue spaces for the people who were really curious.

JC Fung:

Strong allies were also a big part of the growing success of SOGI 1 2 3 and fighting anti -SOGI misinformation.

Brad Beattie:

Well, I have to do a shout out for like Ed Newt and Sean Chisholm, head of Federation of Independent Schools Association.

JC Fung:

Ed Newt is the Executive Director for the Society of Christian Schools in BC , and also President of the Federation of Independent Schools Association.

Brad Beattie:

Really early on, we met with them and had conversations around the vision and the work, and they were early co - creators with us and then incredible champions. I know that Ed, he ended up going around the district to different churches and having conversations, getting the real information out around what SOGI 1 2 3 was. So these amazing unexpected allies all over the place, found their ally or leadership voice and they exercised it.

JC Fung:

You're listening to I n Our Gaybourhood, brought to you by the Queer Arts Festival and CITR 101.9. The changes we were seeing in BC was a huge success to be celebrated, but it was never just about BC.

Brad Beattie:

While I was building this, essentially my job was to look ahead then. And while we built the districts, with the nine districts, I was thinking about 60 districts plus independent schools, plus First Nation schools. And what are the resources for that? I was building BC thinking about the next province. And so, we launched in Alberta in 2018. And again, it was just around Edmonton, six districts I think to start again. We just did it all over in Alberta. You build the first one, and when you're building that first one, build the template so that the next one's easier. And so you're already building your start - up. And it's kind of like new province - in - a - box, if you will, where it's like , “ Great. Here's all the amazing things we learned from BC. Let's bring that to Alberta, and then let's customize this for the culture and the tone and the language and the curriculum and work with local educators to do all that stuff .”

JC Fung:

Growing beyond one province takes a lot of people power. So we invited one more voice to help tell the story.

Scout Gray:

My name is Scout Gray. I use the y and them pronouns, and a big part of why I'm here to talk today is I'm the National Director of Programs with SOGI 1 2 3. When I started in 2019, there was certainly already this idea of “ If we're going to do this thing, maybe we should do it across the country.”

JC Fung:

On top of setting their sights on nationwide impact, this was a time of change in the way the ARC Foundation saw its role in the movement.

Scout Gray:

So when I was hired in 2019, the summer of 2019, I was the first full - time permanent employee. So before that we had staff, there was part time or temporary contracts, people kind of working as sort of like subcontractors in different ways. When SO GI 1 2 3 became proposed as an idea, ARC was going to sort of like help seed this thing, and then give it over to the education system and it was going to continue to exist just within the education system. But after the first couple of years of doing it with sort of again, with contract support with teacher secondments, things like that, the feedback was really clear that it was extremely helpful to have an outside organization being a leader in this space, removed from some of the politics and some of the policies and some of the hierarchies that are inherent in such a big system. Yeah, so it was then it was decided, “ Ok, we're here, we're staying, we're going to keep doing this thing.” In 2019, there was just five of us and now we are 14, I believe, and have staff in addition to BC, we have staff in the Yukon, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Atlantic Canada. We've really grown across the country in the last few years in particular.

JC Fung:

Community building is still a big part of ARC Foundation's approach, and that means reaching out and building new relationships.

Scout Gray:

The work we do is very relationship - oriented and we only want to come where we are wanted, honestly. Like the school divisions we work with in Alberta, we've been invited in. W e weren't invited in by the Ministry of Education, but we were invited in by the school divisions and the educators that we work with directly. And in Saskatchewan, we were initially invited in and we started building those relationships with different education partner organizations. So like the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation, the Trustees Association. All education systems in the country, they have these different partner organizations of the different types of jobs you can have within education. And generally, they're supportive. Generally all educators really, like they want to create those safe and inclusive spaces for all students. They know that the research shows, right, that schools can be a really, really important place for 2 S L GBT Q kids. So that's generally not a problem having the support of the educators and the education system.

JC Fung:

Even with allies in these new communities, they were aware that different provinces have different social and political climates. And this means making adjustments to the approach.

Scout Gray:

We have often talked over the years about, sort of, government - supported and non - government - supported models. We've always had the support of the BC Government and the Ministry of Education as long as we've been doing this work, and we've never had it in Alberta, right? That's probably not surprising, but they just essentially ignored us. It wasn't policy, it wasn't like , “ Get out of here. We don't want you .” It was just sort of like “ Whatever, you're doing your thing, we're not paying you, we're not explicitly endorsing you. You're just over there, we're over here and it's sort of fine .” And so, that had always been our imagined model of expansion was h ow do we do this in a way where we have the full and explicit government support, like we do in BC, and how do we do this in a way where we don't, like we do in Alberta? Yeah. Whereas then, you know, in Saskatchewan, we were explicitly banned. In August when the Ministry of Education came out with what they called at the time the Parental Inclusion Policy. They, at the same time, said that all outside organizations that were doing anything around sex, sexual orientation, sexual health, any external presenters were not allowed in schools, including ARC Foundation and SOGI 1 2 3. Like we were named explicitly, even though we don't do presentations in schools. We are a pretty small staff team that just provide support, again, directly to educators. Educators that are doing whatever they do directly in schools. That's up to them. It was a surprise to be named, especially to be named in a way where it's like , “ Well, that's not what we do.”

JC Fung:

As SOGI 1 2 3 has continued to grow, the ARC Foundation has faced challenges throughout. Matt recalls some unbalanced media coverage that leaned towards the sensational.

Matt Carruthers:

I would engage with the media. I was on the CBC a couple of times. There was one instance in Kelowna where it was becoming a little bit of a hotbed there and there was somebody who had created their own organization, identified as gender fluid, I think, and was completely opposed to SOGI 1 2 3. As you're trying to wrap your head around that, you're going ok. And so, this person suddenly was elevated to being a spokesperson, having never been into school to see what it looks like. But because they were an opposing voice, was granted an opportunity to speak on this topic on the CBC. And then, I was to follow up. And I found that frustrating that this person, just because they're an opposing voice. It was almost like a American late night talk show, like we want conflict. I was surprised that they set it up that way.

Brad Beattie:

I think they were trying to do balance, and then it switched into some hate language.

Matt Carruthers:

And so I said that to the host at the end, I said , “ You know, I just have to tell you that I've been an educator for 30 years almost. And suddenly I'm talking to someone who has only been in an organization that they just created and has never been in a school to see what's happening .” And then the local CBC too, they had a parent from Langley who was upset. He was a super nice guy. C hatting with him beforehand, right, and he couldn't really explain why he was upset about it. But I guess he was a voice that would be counter to what I was saying, as though we needed that. It was odd that they wanted to kind of manufacture a bit of a story rather than just , “ Hey, here's what we're doing. And do you have questions?”

JC Fung:

Engaging with extreme voices staging anti-SOGI protests and pro -SOGI counter - protests was a regular part of their work.

Matt Carruthers:

There was a quote from George Bush that I can't believe I use. “T hat too often, we see the best in ourselves and the worst in our enemies .” That was it right there. People were at such a heated point , t hey couldn't listen. They couldn't understand that that grandmother who'd never experienced anyone who was involved in the LGBT Q was maybe in her mind being protective of her child and grandchild. Like they couldn't see that there was room because of the care she was showing for her own grandchild. There was common ground there that we could find. But if you call the m an asshole, there's no common ground there. This is why we've been, we were throughout a moderate voice.

JC Fung:

And more recently in Saskatchewan, political maneuvering has become a growing concern.

Scout Gray:

And yeah, it's been the shift that we've seen more explicitly in the last year around SOGI and around trans identities becoming more politicized, where it's generally like the Minister of Education that is increasing this pushback and creating some of these policies that we've seen recently that it's become increasingly political. So it's not the education system resisting SOGI- inclusive education generally. It's the politics.

JC Fung:

All of these and other challenges added up to a very stressful environment.

Matt Carruthers:

It wears on you when you're on that front line the whole time. We handled it with confidence and competence and I think we never fired back with any messaging. Yeah, it does wear on you because, you know, those of us who have questioned our identity, our gender, our sexuality, that's been there with you your whole life. Even though I'd settled into, you know, a great life where I was confidently in my professional life and personal life. But then, it's like you're going back in time to kind of revisit these doubts that people are bringing up, you know, about being gay or whatever the case is. And then even like, you know, Brad and I, we've known each other for so long, there were moments where we didn't quite agree on the approach.

Brad Beattie:

For sure, you're kind of in a heated environment.

Matt Carruthers:

And a lot of the timelines too we re really quick. We've been waiting for this budget approval and then we'd find out, boom, and you had to kind of act on something. Or we would get a budget shortfall. Or at the end of every school year, would we get any money? So that element too, that created some stress. So not only the constant questioning by some small groups, but pretty vocal, because that's who we kind of were checking in on, right, maybe disproportionately. And then we also had this. Are we going to sustain this? And Brad was bearing most of that work. Are we going to get the funding? The Ministry is working at such a slow pace with their budget but there are no commitments. And so there was an element of stress there for sure. Having been in education for a long time, I saw programs just collapse and that was a worry.

JC Fung:

Funding is an important resource in any movement. But more than that people are what keeps a movement going. Caring for the advocates keeps the work sustainable.

Brad Beattie:

Not - for - profits in general , y ou hear the term “ mission fatigue .” Anti -SOGI people just kind of wear down all these SOGI champions. It is, it's emotionally heavy work to be doing every day. Like for educators for the amazing ARC Foundation team that we built around SOGI 1 2 3. So that's the part around wellness and caregiving for each other that we we spent time with. And that's where the network also offered that space. Let's talk about resource building and stuff, but let's also talk about well- being. And this is kind of pre - COVID, I think well - being came out afterwards as a conversation more. But the network also created this community of practice, not just around knowledge, but around individuals needs and self - care.

JC Fung:

But sometimes you just run out of steam and that's ok.

Brad Beattie:

Talk about it openly, ask for help, always challenging pieces. E arly on kind of learning that. Ok, needing to ask for help and I had to learn to ask louder. I wasn't asking loud enough. And so that was a journey for me. Trusting the people around you to catch you. That was part of my exit strategy, was because I had burned out. And so I talk openly about it because it's important for everyone to support those change leaders. It is emotionally heavy work and every day. And so a big part of where the organization was for me was to help do start- up and build. I never imagined I'd be there for five years. And thankfully, we've hired these amazing… Scout and Heather and then Reg followed me as the ED, and I was so happy to hand the baton over. I didn't have a lot of laps left in me.

JC Fung:

At that point, Brad stepped away from ARC F oundation and took time to recover. But he hasn't left social justice work behind.

Brad Beattie:

I'm working with an organization right now called One Ability. It's focused on the disability community. We're looking to start a multi- sport, multi - disability event in 2025. And again, a big part of that is this K - 12 programming where good pockets of work are happening in lots of places. How do we align these resources and create dialogue, space, and platforms for sharing knowledge and success stories so that other educators and other students can realize their full potential. I'm heading to Quebec for Défi sportif. They've been doing this for over 40 years, this K-1 2 programming for students with disabilities. And I can't wait. It's going to be inspiring.

JC Fung:

Matt is also no longer part of the ARC F oundation, but he's continuing his advocacy in a direct way.

Matt Carruthers:

I've gone back to teach now. So I teach, I do workshops, and team building workshops, and so on. And so for me, it's just putting into practice what I had been talking about, what I'd presenting about and now to see it firsthand and put into practice in the classroom. Yeah, that's very satisfying ac tually. It's one thing to talk about it , b ut when you're actually day - to - day , “ How do I build this into the classroom? How do I show that support on a daily basis to students ?”

JC Fung:

So where are we now?

Scout Gray:

SOGI inclusion is anti - bullying. SOGI inclusion is mental health. SOGI inclusion is a bunch of things, and especially right now with a lot more focus and attention on SOGI as an idea, not just SOGI 1 2 3, like our initiative, but like SOGI - inclusive education, that idea. I think a lot of educators are nervous too about like , “ How do I make sure I'm doing this r ight? Is it possible that I will upset parents?” Really just wanting to do it well. And it's a topic that can make people nervous, they don't want to do it wrong. And so we provide resources. S o that can include lesson plans,

Scout Gray: like sample lesson plans :

here's a thing

Scout Gray:

that you can go ahead and teach that's aligned with curriculum. But it can also, and I'd say more of the time, just offer different small ways, sometimes very subtle ways that educators can change what they are doing to create those inclusive classrooms even without teaching anything differently. Right. There's a lot of pressures on teachers, especially classroom teachers right now, they're tired, they're overworked. So how can we make it really easy? Here's some tips and ideas of small changes you can make to your language without really having to do anything else. It's about saying things other than “ your mom and dad” when you're talking to kids, things other than“ come on boys and girls” when we're all getting together, right? It's like scholars, students, mathematicians, artists, you know, there's so many things that the educators can use. So just changing the characters or the names in your word problems. So instead of John and Jane, you can say like Khalil and his boyfriend were meeting up. And it can be subtle, you move on. Most of the kids won't even notice. But the ones that need to notice, the ones that need to hear that will hear it. We have posters that educators can put up around their school. That's a great way to signal that this is a safe and inclusive environment. We have little like “ What to do if a student comes out to you” cheat sheets that you can keep at your desk, all sorts of things that are always just in response to what we're hearing from educators. So

Scout Gray: we talk to educators all the time :

“ What

Scout Gray:

do you need? How can we make this easier on you ?” We create resources with educators and try to just create things that are needed. We don't really have a agenda for the education system. We know things are a little bit different everywhere, different schools, different communities, different cultures. So we just listen to the education system and the educators, and try to provide what is needed to make it easier to do what they're trying to do.

JC Fung:

In BC, at least there is broad support for SOGI - inclusive education.

Scout Gray:

Having that explicitly supportive government and entire education system is so valuable here, there's I believe 13 different education partners in BC and they've all signed supportive letters. The premier sent out a supportive letter in the fall and some of the protests were happening. So on an official level, the whole education system in BC is supportive of SOGI- inclusive education. And we know that makes a difference. We know that there's research that shows that educators are more likely to do SOGI - inclusive education when they know that they're not going to get in trouble for it, right? There, the systems, their bosses, the principals, the superintendents whoever it is are in support. So that's helpful. But yeah, at an individual level, if a parent comes and yells at you for doing something, most people are going to shy away from doing that again. On a systems level, things are going well in BC. But on an individual level, it can still be really challenging and it can really depend on where in BC you are, right?

JC Fung:

Advocacy in isolation is exhausting. The antidote for hate is community. Looking back, what has the SOGI 1 2 3 community achieved?

Scout Gray:

I think it has really become what it was intended to become. I think that the ideas and the dreams that I heard talked about it when I first started really, yeah, have have come true more or less.

Matt Carruthers:

I wouldn't have believed it would have the impact that it has. So when I watch the news and I see them talking about a SOGI protest, I'm thinking “ They wouldn't say SOGI unless we'd had that conversation at a dinner table 10 years ago .” And then to see how unified the response is when people are protesting. It's far beyond. I mean, I have so many examples within Vancouver, these are just regular conversations now, it just happens.

Brad Beattie:

I believe that if you can give people a space to come play together in this positive way and where people feel belonging. And I mean that as educators, I meant that as parents, students. We gave space for student voice that wasn't there before. At the same level, I was inspired constantly by the students. And like Matt said, it was such a different experience than my generation in school. I'd say my idealist side was like, “ Oh, this is gonna be amazing .” And as we started to gain momentum super fast and we kept up with it operationally, I thought, “ Ok, great. This may actually kind of just stay in the system .” I never imagined that it would spill over into the societal conversation that it did.

JC Fung:

Then, where do we go from here?

Matt Carruthers:

The hope for is that the need for this will disappear. That's the end game, right? Is that the need for this dedicated group promoting SOGI 1 2 3 will disappear because the kids will all feel supported. That's the hope for. We're not there, right? You know, you still hear push back and so on. But I think we're getting closer to that. We know caring discussions are happening in schools. These things that were just off limits before kids know that there's places they can turn to people, they can turn to now, which wasn't there for the longest time. Ideally, we'll get there. But for now, it's just kind of trying to expand the support we can provide, I guess and get to more teachers comfortable having these discussions. I am very thankful about how far we've come. But that's for me as a gay white male. So I guess I'm looking beyond that now. So I have students that have questioned their gender or presented in a way that's not conforming. And ideally, we will see people open up their minds to what, you know, others and how they can present themselves in different ways. Whether it's their ethnicity, their religion.

Brad Beattie:

Their intersection.

Matt Carruthers:

Yeah. That intersectionality piece.

Brad Beattie:

It's really interesting watching my little girl kind of go through. She’s now turning 21. She’s at U BC. She's going to become a teacher. Watching her experience and her friend groups, and knowing that it was really different than ours. They're all like little change champion advocates themselves in this amazing way. So I have confidence in the next generation. Change is going to accelerate a lot quicker than what we saw with SOGI 1 2 3. I'm hopeful for that. It was a really magical thing, the government, corporate business, and not - for - profit sector, including foundations, they all kind of found the same stream to swim in. And I think it speaks to, again, that power of people and aligning existing resources. We don't have to wait for more anything, we have it. And let's continue to play together in this collaborative way that has meaning. We have more we, than we have us in them.

JC Fung:

Thanks for listening to I n Our Gaybourhood and to our conversation with Brad Beattie, Matt Carruthers, and Scout Gray on building SOGI 1 2 3. Be sure to check the show notes for links to references and to find out more information about some of the organizations we mentioned. If you want to hear more, subscribe to the podcast. If you have feedback for us or you want to contribute, we're on Instagram@inourgaybourhood or email us at inourgaybourhood@ gmail.com. So much gratitude to all the wonderful people

JC Fung: who helped to make this episode happen:

to

JC Fung:

Matt, Brad, and Scout, for sharing their voices and stories with us; and to Brad and Scout, for hosting us; to James Chamberlain, for graciously transporting us; to CITR, for providing advice and recording space; and to the Queer Arts Festival team, for their ongoing support. Sound and recording by SJ Kirsch. Logo by Cheryl Hamilton. Creative counsel by lisa g, Yasmeen Nematt Alla, and SJ Kirsch. Production, writing and editing by me, JC Fung. In Our Gaybourhood is made possible by listener donations and funding from the Queer Arts Festival. Until next time, take care, be safe, cease fire now.

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