From a global perspective, even in democratic countries, an enviable feature of the West is its freedoms. Freedom of speech is one expression of it. Another epitome is sexual freedom. Here is what I, and many others like me, saw from the outside: It’s OK to be gay in the West. It’s OK to have premarital sex. It’s OK to have kids before marriage. It’s OK to be in a relationship without marriage. It’s OK to not be married at all. Character isn’t based in a vagina.As someone who was raised in a culture at a time when virginity meant good character, sex was not talked about, and couples didn’t even kiss openly, feminine empowerment lay either in the pages of the nation’s past or in the lands of liberation that held the promise of a judgment-free expression of oneself.That image has turned itself on its head with the Ford government’s decision to repeal the carefully cultivated, highly consulted sex-ed curriculum in Ontario schools.Read more:The naked truth about how the repealed sex ed program compares to the 1998 one that replaces itOpinion | Judith Timson: Rolling back sex education is not good for kidsOpinion | I was pulled from sex ed class, did not learn about my body and was abusedHad the curriculum never been updated by the Liberals, chances are the world would have assumed Ontario’s sex education was every bit as progressive as its image. But the Conservatives’ pulling it back has exposed the gaping hole between perceptions of progressiveness and the reality of regressiveness that is taking a hold of Ontario. When the sex-ed curriculum protests began in 2015, media images presented it as a problem of visibly religious minorities, mostly Muslims. In reality, a big driver of this compassionless discontent is far-right Christian belief rooted in homophobia.That became apparent not just by the presence of far-right Christians at those protests or the number of people who are openly equating the Li ...
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