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Transgender teacher fired by Catholic school board
Edmonton Sun ^ | 3rd October 2009, 3:33am | KERRY DIOTTE, SUN MEDIA

Posted on 10/03/2009 2:14:26 PM PDT by narses

An Edmonton teacher fired after telling a Catholic school board she was changing her gender to a man says the case fuels an unfair stereotype nationwide that Albertans are rednecks.

"I do believe it may feed into the myth that Albertans are redneck," said Jan Buterman who this week launched an Alberta Human Rights Commission complaint about the firing from a public Catholic school board in St. Albert that came on her birthday last October. "I really don't think it's really what Alberta is," said Buterman.

She's undergoing the process of becoming a man and had been a substitute teacher at the board for six months.

She said she was removed from the substitute teaching list of the Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools board after receiving a letter from a deputy superintendent who wrote, "Since you made a personal choice to change your gender, which is contrary to Catholic teachings, we have had to remove you from the substitute teacher list."

The official said the gender change "would create confusion and complexity with students and parents as a model and witness to Catholic faith values."

Buterman -- who has two children -- said she's essentially a man trapped in a woman's body and has a gender identity disorder.

"I do actually have a real medical condition. I really didn't know this sort of thing could happen anymore," she said of being axed by the board. "It doesn't feel very good. If feels pretty horrifying."

She said laws should protect her against being discriminated over gender or medical conditions.

Buterman said the board's argument that she couldn't be a "model and witness to Catholic faith values" rings hollow because officials also knew she was a Lutheran when first hired and that didn't pose an issue.

"Are they saying if someone was Sikh or Muslim they wouldn't hire them at all?"

Buterman's case is drawing comparisons to that of Delwin Vriend's fight in the 1990s. Vriend was an instructor at Edmonton's King's University College and was fired because of his homosexuality. His attempt to file a complaint to the Alberta Human Rights Commission failed because legislation at the time didn't protect people on grounds of their sexual orientation.

Vriend's fight wound up in the Supreme Court of Canada that essentially ruled provincial human rights laws must protect people against discrimination over their sexual orientation.

A spokesman for the St. Albert school board could not be reached for comment.

In March, Alberta debuted a $25-million rebranding campaign whose main video stressed Albertans are progressive, "open" thinkers who "embrace diversity."


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: catholicschools; disordered; fired; homosexualagenda; moralabsolutes; sickos
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1 posted on 10/03/2009 2:14:26 PM PDT by narses
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To: narses; informavoracious; larose; RJR_fan; Prospero; Conservative Vermont Vet; ...
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Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.

Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

2 posted on 10/03/2009 2:14:41 PM PDT by narses ("These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.")
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To: narses

good for them


3 posted on 10/03/2009 2:16:48 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: narses
She's undergoing the process of becoming a man

No, she is undergoing the process of being mutilated. If she started out as a woman, she will remain a woman. You can't change reality because you decide that you don't like it.

4 posted on 10/03/2009 2:19:28 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: narses
Alberta debuted a $25-million rebranding campaign whose main video stressed Albertans are progressive, "open" thinkers who "embrace diversity."

Alberta was about the last hope for conservative, Bible-oriented (as opposed to progressive, open) Canadians. Guess they'll have to move to the rural areas now and keep quiet.

5 posted on 10/03/2009 2:20:45 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurture)
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To: narses
"I do believe it may feed into the myth that Albertans are redneck," said Jan Buterman...

You say redneck like it is a bad thing. As for me, I'll take redneck over mentally ill any day.

6 posted on 10/03/2009 2:22:33 PM PDT by magslinger (Inside every father is a Bryan Mills waiting to get out.)
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To: narses; 185JHP; 230FMJ; 50mm; 69ConvertibleFirebird; AFA-Michigan; Abathar; Agitate; ...
Homosexual Agenda and Moral Absolutes Ping!

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7 posted on 10/03/2009 2:23:38 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: narses
Buterman said the board's argument that she couldn't be a "model and witness to Catholic faith values" rings hollow because officials also knew she was a Lutheran when first hired and that didn't pose an issue.

No innocent well-meaning deed goes unpunished; Catholic schools often hire Protestants, particularly Lutherans, because they assume they are Christians and accept Christian values. However, the woman is being disingenous. Even if she had been Catholic, she still wouldn't be allowed to teach in a Catholic school if she was "changing" her sex.

8 posted on 10/03/2009 2:24:45 PM PDT by livius
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To: narses

Red-necks? It shows that Albertans are some of the few left with any common sense.


9 posted on 10/03/2009 2:27:55 PM PDT by bboop (Tar and feathers -- good back then, good now)
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To: narses

A woman was hired not a man.

So who got fired?

Seems to me like the woman quit.

Then when the man applies they can say: STAY AWAY FROM OUR CHILDREN YOU FREAK!


10 posted on 10/03/2009 2:32:15 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (It's a Girl!)
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To: narses

I fail to see the ‘controversy’ here. A private, religious school is going to have certain lifestyle expectations. This substitute teacher made a decision that would be incompatible with said lifestyle. The school has the absolute right to end their association with this employee. The only ‘rednecks’ will be the ones screaming and railing against the school for firing the substitute teacher.

Alberta rocks, btw. Some beautiful country up there. Friendly folks, too.


11 posted on 10/03/2009 2:41:44 PM PDT by DemforBush (Somebody wake me when sanity has returned to the nation.)
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To: narses
said she's essentially a man trapped in a woman's body

She is essentially a woman, with major psychological issues.

12 posted on 10/03/2009 3:10:47 PM PDT by montag813 (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. -George Orwell)
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To: magslinger

I will take the mentally ill over the rats any day, oh wait they are the same.


13 posted on 10/03/2009 3:22:32 PM PDT by genghis
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To: narses; Salvation; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list


14 posted on 10/03/2009 3:25:21 PM PDT by NYer ( "One Who Prays Is Not Afraid; One Who Prays Is Never Alone"- Benedict XVI)
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To: montag813; narses
>> said she's essentially a man trapped in a woman's body... I do actually have a real medical condition..."

> She is essentially a woman, with major psychological issues.

Let's see yer chromosomes, Honey.

X-X-Y? Okay, ya gotta a legit medical condition, yer confused, talk to yer doctor.

X-X? Sorry, yer a girl.

15 posted on 10/03/2009 3:37:31 PM PDT by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: narses

If someone wants to get an addadictomy, it’s not my business; unless, of course, it it brings someone I love into the same perverse persuasion.
Why does this remind me of the poof on South Park (only in reverse)


16 posted on 10/03/2009 3:41:31 PM PDT by Migraine (Diversity is great... ...until it happens to YOU.)
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To: magslinger

This reads like propaganda. First of all, never let the enemy define the terms, no matter what. They’ll certainly try, but no matter. How is it that “redneck” must be used. By her own admission, it’s a “myth” anyway. EVERYONE is just sick of these bastards philosophical masturbation. And let’s drag religion into the equation for good measure. Perhaps atheists detest self-mutilation as well? Hm.


17 posted on 10/03/2009 5:03:02 PM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: narses

A woman is undergoing surgery to mutilate her sexual organs, and the people in this article aren’t concerned about her teaching children at a Catholic school... Instead, they’re worried Albertans will be seen as “rednecks”...?

It’s Upside Down World.


18 posted on 10/03/2009 7:38:36 PM PDT by Tired of Taxes (Dad, I will always think of you.)
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To: Freedom4US

And how funny is it that they’re having a campaign to show Albertans as “open thinkers who embrace diversity.”

Unless that diversity includes rednecks, I guess. Oh, no, they don’t want THOSE kind of people. ;-)

This is why it’s so difficult to distinguish between satire and reality today: Real-life news stories sound like jokes.


19 posted on 10/03/2009 7:43:00 PM PDT by Tired of Taxes (Dad, I will always think of you.)
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To: narses

IT’S a CATHOLIC school - for pete’s sake - they are Constitutionally entitled to operate on the basis of upholding THEIR moral values in their own organizations - as is ANY PRIVATE SCHOOL.

Why do people who knowingly hold a different value set than some organization turn around and go to work for, and insist they have a right to work for, that organization? I have never understood that.

Constitutionally it should be understood that government, and ONLY the government, cannot “discriminate” - in jobs and stuff - because it is everyone’s government, but our privately organized associations are free to set the terms of those associations, or else they are NOT FREE, but mere extensions of the government.


20 posted on 10/03/2009 11:01:14 PM PDT by Wuli (o)
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