Video: Trans Alliance Society chair Morgane Oger invites Chilliwack trustee Barry Neufeld to call

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      A leader in B.C.'s trans community wants to educate a Chilliwack school trustee with some controversial views.

      The chair of the Trans Alliance Society, Morgane Oger, posted a video on YouTube this weekend encouraging Barry Neufeld to contact her.

      Last month, Neufeld wrote a post on Facebook denouncing the province's Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity program in schools.

      In the post, Neufeld also claimed that "allowing little children to choose gender is nothing short of child abuse.

      That triggered widespread outrage and Neufeld later apologized "to those who felt hurt by my opinion".

      Oger, a former chair of the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council, didn't accept the apology and tweeted last month that there's a "valid reason" for the province to fire Neufeld.

      In her new video, Oger repeated that Neufeld "thinks that helping transgender children avoid discrimination on the basis of their gender identity is child abuse".

      "He says he believes that gender identity and gender expression are not valid identifies," Oger continued. "They're not valued parts of an identity to be protected."

      Then she pointed out that the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity program was created to teach children to value all of the diversities in schools. Yet Oger maintained that "he feels it's going to cause children to become transgender".

      Morgane Oger chose YouTube to try to get a message across to Barry Neufeld.

      Oger, a former NDP candidate, noted in the video that after gay-straight alliances are introduced in schools, researchers have documented benefits for all students. That's because the overall suicide rate falls, as does binge drinking.

      "You are entrusted to look after our children in school and if you don't understand why what you said was horrifically wrong and simply not, not reasonable in 2017, I'd like to help you understand it," Oger said to Neufeld via the video. "And if you don't understand that your job is to protect transgender children and gay children in Chilliwack public schools, sir you have to leave. Because if you don't, children will be harmed. You do not want to be the source of harm."

      Then at the end, Oger urges Neufeld to phone her to discuss this issue further.

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