Influx of anti-drag ‘grooming’ emails preceded N.B.’s pronoun policy review, documents reveal

Warning: This story contains offensive language.

On April 6, 2023, a woman on Facebook, who shares conspiracy theories involving vaccines, “chemtrails” and a fake King Charles, posted a video to mobilize New Brunswickers. 

The Saint John woman asked people to send emails to Education Minister Bill Hogan to get him to do something about the “sick agenda” that’s “rapidly poisonous to our children’s minds.” She mentions drag storytime, as well as flying Pride flags and teaching kids the “lie” that a person can be transgender.

In the video, she holds up a petition against drag storytime and invites people to email her for a copy to sign and send to Hogan.

A CBC News investigation has found that an influx of dozens of emails, including the petition, against drag storytime and 2SLGBTQ-inclusive education, went to Hogan and Premier Blaine Higgs immediately before they began a controversial review of Policy 713.

Almost every email claimed that drag performers pose a safety threat to children or that teaching kids about gender identity is a ploy to “groom,” abuse or brainwash students.

The minister and premier have often pointed to concerns from the public as a reason to begin the review of Policy 713, the Education Department policy on sexual orientation and gender identity. At the time, the policy said school staff had to respect all students’ pronouns and only required parental consent for official record name changes.

The anti-drag storytime and curriculum complaints appear to be the only public emails about 2SLGBTQ+ issues received by the department in the three months before the review. 

Drag storytime is not part of the school curriculum, but schools can invite drag performers to read pre-approved books. The New Brunswick curriculum starts addressing puberty basics in Grade 4, and addresses gender identity and expression in Grade 6.

But neither the curriculum nor storytime events are explicitly mentioned in Policy 713, which sets “minimum requirements for school districts and public schools to create a safe, welcoming, inclusive, and affirming school environment for all students, families, and allies who identify or are perceived as LGBTQI2S+.”

Hogan changed Policy 713 to make it mandatory to get parental consent before teachers can use a child’s new chosen pronouns if they’re under 16, even verbally in the classroom.

The changes have sparked protests, a ministerial revolt, union grievances, two constitutional court challenges, the minister taking steps to dissolve a district education council, and changes in other provinces. 

In the decision in a recent Ontario Superior Court defamation case, Justice T. J. Nieckarz said that groomer “is a slur that is used to allege that drag performers sexualize children and aim to recruit them into the 2SLGBTQI community,” and is part of “age-old tropes that cast them as dangerous sex offenders and child abusers.”

Emails not voluntarily released

The review of Policy 713 officially began in late April 2023, according to the province but only became public knowledge on May 5.

When asked why the review started, Hogan and Higgs gave several reasons, including “misinterpretations and concerns,” from the public, and “hundreds of complaints” about the issue.

At the time, child and youth advocate Kelly Lamrock asked for the complaints showing these misinterpretations and concerns. The department handed over three emails.

When challenged, Hogan said Lamrock was only given a sample, and if people wanted to see all the emails, they could file a right to information request.

Through right to information, CBC News requested all emails about 2SLGBTQ+ issues sent to Hogan between January 2020 and May 2023.

According to records, Hogan received about 40 emails about those issues in those three years. The majority, about 35 emails, came between March and May 5, 2023, stating objections to different forms of 2SLGBTQ+ education or drag storytime.

Some of the email authors were alarmed that an “adult nightclub performer” would be allowed to read to children, calling it “disgusting” and “wrong.”

“You need to step up and stop allowing our children to be groomed by pedophiles,” one email from March said, referring to drag storytime. “It’s almost like you’re trying to push New Brunswickers to take action against this indoctrination. I’m not making any threats myself, but I can’t be held responsible when you make fathers angry enough to do something.”

Some emails referred to a drag storytime event in Sainte-Bernadette School in Moncton. At the event, a drag performer wearing a floor-length, full-sleeve, high-neck floral dress sat in an office chair and read a story. The book, Je suis Marilou Melon, was about a little girl who learns to embrace her big teeth.  

According to documents, Hogan directly responded to two emails from people concerned about exposing children to drag performers. In letters, Hogan assured the writers that all materials are age appropriate.

In one letter, he confirmed parental consent was sought before the drag storytime event at Sainte-Bernadette. 

In the weeks after the review became public, however, Higgs brought up drag storytime concerns several times, citing them as one of the reasons the review started. 

“It really came to light, Mr. Speaker, when the storytime issues became more prevalent, more pronounced, more involved. So people started to look, ‘Well, what is this about?'” Higgs said to the legislature.

He also said people were wondering about drag storytime. He has said it’s not appropriate for some kids to be exposed to it.

Higgs and Hogan have said the goal of the policy review is to maintain “parental rights.” 

Winning ‘the battle’

By late April, the emails began focusing on an upcoming New Brunswick Teachers’ Association career day at Hanwell Park Academy. 

The event included a session about 2SLGBTQ-inclusive education run by Pride in Education. The goal was to present Policy 713, train teachers in its implementation and explain how to be more inclusive in the classroom, said Gail Costello, the group’s former chair.

The poster promoting the teachers’ session in Hanwell read “Inclusive K-12 curriculum, queering sex ed, new EECD Policy 713 … Drag storytime.” 

“We need to legislate this stuff out of the system,” one email said about the Hanwell event. 

Another said, “It is my opinion that the overt sexualization of children, under the guise of ‘love and inclusion,’ is in effect part of a grooming process, with the intention of normalizing pedophilia in our society.”

The Saint John woman on Facebook, Barb Dempsey, is one of several New Brunswickers who make posts against 2SLGBTQ-inclusive education on social media and ask people to lobby the government for change. It’s not clear whether she created the petition she shared in early April.

In late April, Dempsey and another New Brunswick resident started promoting a protest against the teachers’ event in Hanwell.

On that day, a small group of protesters held signs calling educators “perverts,” and accusing them of harming children. 

In a later interview, when asked why he started the policy review, Higgs referred to that event.

“That became kind of a bit of an opportunity for parents to say ‘OK, what is this now [that] my children are learning?'” he said.

CBC News asked Dempsey for comment, but she declined. It is not clear if Dempsey was present at the protest that day. 

In a video posted on May 16, after the review became public knowledge, Dempsey said their efforts paid off.

“We’ve really made an impact on the minister of education’s office and it’s all due to everybody taking action and doing something,” she said.

“We’re winning this battle. This is a battle between good and evil.” 

Hundreds of emails after review became public

While about 40 emails came before the review became public knowledge, hundreds came after.

CBC has reviewed emails that went to Higgs and Hogan from May 5, the day the review became public knowledge, to June 6, when the results of the review were announced.

The approximately 900 emails were almost equally split between people objecting to the review, and people supporting Hogan and Higgs and opposing drag storytime and LGBTQ education. 

They include dozens of identical form letters for and against the review. Senders’ information is redacted. 

About 460 emails were against the review, asking the premier and Hogan to leave the policy alone.

About 440 emails were either explicitly in favour of the review, were against LGBTQ and gender-identity education, or both.

Among the emails against the review, parents, students and educators implored Higgs and Hogan to stop the review and address concerns from the public about 2SLGBTQ+ education being “grooming” and drag queens being pedophiles. 

“This was such an easy thing for your government to come out and say, ‘We condemn any harassment of our teachers, we condemn any harassment of anyone in the LGBTQI2S+ community.’ But we were met with silence and handwashing,” one person wrote, referencing the protest in Hanwell. 

The emails congratulating and thanking Higgs and Hogan came from people in New Brunswick and elsewhere. Some parents and residents thanked them for upholding their religious rights, parental rights, or for fighting against the “LGBTQ agenda,” or “gender ideology.” Many emails ask them to go further and change curriculum to prevent discussions about gender identity.

“You must unequivocally remove anything and everything to do with gender identity theory from our schools,” one email said.

Many other emails also thanked Higgs for speaking about drag storytime.

“Thank you very much for opposing drag queen story time in schools,” one email said. “We should be treating drag queens the same way we treat sex offenders, sexual deviates, perverts and pedophiles. They have no business whatsoever around children.”

“I sincerely hope that your review will ensure that parents are aware and involved in all aspects of their children’s activities in school,” another email said.  “Please do not let a minority of fanatic activists shape the future of children in this great province.”

‘Popular and trendy’ gender dysphoria

Some email authors said teaching children about the concept of gender identity would harm them because it would confuse them. 

In July, in his speech to the legislature, Higgs said, “we’re seeing a rapid onset of gender dysphoria. It’s expanded in the last several years and it’s becoming popular and trendy.”

“Society can compound [children’s] confusion,” he said.

The New Brunswick Medical Society said that the points Higgs made are “ideologically based narratives.”

The society said “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” or the notion that some children are socially influenced to become trans when they’re actually not, has no scientific basis.

“The notion of ‘Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria’ is not a recognized medical condition and should not be used in medical, social, or political narrative,” the society said in a statement.

“Framing gender dysphoria as ‘trendy or popular,’ as opposed to an actual medical diagnosis, lead to further prejudice and misinformation.”

Higgs and Hogan did not respond to requests for an interview on this issue.

Last September, Hogan said he was reviewing the sex ed curriculum to make sure it’s “age appropriate.”

In October, Dempsey posted another video on Facebook, saying she had met with Higgs and Hogan to talk about her concerns about inappropriate library books and “sexualizing of children.”

In November, Dempsey continued to call for emails to go to Hogan against sexual orientation and gender identity education. On May 8 of this year, she shared an illustration of a horned demon wearing a rainbow suit and reading to children in a classroom. 

A caption reads “This needs to end.”