A Family Values discourse emerged at the beginning of the 20t h century when social
welfare groups began to see "the family" as a solution to social problems. As the century '
wore on, the concept of the family came to take on a specific meaning of a heterosexual
reproductive unit. During the 1950s a growing Christian Right movement began to lobby for
the protection and promotion of the family. These Christian Right groups saw the family as a
means of saving the country from the evils of communism and sexual perversions. A few
issues came to be seen as of particular importance to the welfare of the traditional family.
These issues, abortion, education, pornography and gay rights, among others became
centerpieces of the 1990s Pro-Family Movement (PFM) platform within the New Christian
Right. The purpose of this study is to examine the use of a Family Values discourse in the
negotiation of educational policy around queer issues.
In order to study the PFM's use of a Family Values discourse, a documentary analysis
of documents surrounding the Surrey Book Banning in British Columbia was conducted.
The Book Banning began when a number of teachers and members of Gay and Lesbian
Educators (GALE) petitioned the provincial teachers union to include fighting heterosexism
and homophobia among its committees for social justice. Following this approval of this
resolution, the Surrey School Board, known for its P FM connections) banned GALE
materials and three Kindergarten-Grade One books that presented same-sex couples. This
banning resulted in an extensive legal battle.
For this study, media reports and court documents were assembled to present a
comprehensive history of the Book Banning case and its relationship to current gay rights
activism and P FM organizations. An argument analysis of the affidavits from the case was
also conducted to illustrate the specific Family Values arguments that the Surrey School
Board employed. For this analysis, affidavits were divided by author and analyzed for
argument content using a standardized argument format. Premise statements within
affidavits were pulled out and coded according to common themes. The five argument
themes that were explicated were Sexuality in the Home, Age Inappropriate, Favoring
Homosexuals, Homosexuality is Immoral, and Unnecessary Resource.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10589 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Clarke, Rebecca Danielle |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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