TORONTO (LifeSiteNews) –– The pro-life and pro-family Campaign Life Coalition is demanding that Toronto Catholic District School Board trustees vote to ban any district staff from participating in the city’s upcoming LGBT “Pride Parade” after a board department announced it plans to march in the event.

To make their point heard loud and clear, CLC launched a petition, addressed to TCDSB trustees and the board’s director of education, Brendan Browne, as well as Archbishop of Toronto Francis Leo.

The petition calls upon “the Trustees of the TCDSB order the Departments and Staff involved to cancel all plans to march in the 2024 Gay Pride Parade, and to forbid any future participation by the board.” 

As noted by CLC National President Jeff Gunnarson in an email to LifeSiteNews, Toronto’s “Pride Parade,” which will be held this Sunday, June 30, is notorious for being a “salacious” event praising the “deadly sin of pride, featuring full frontal nudity, mock sex acts, sexual bondage and sado-masochism.” 

Gunnarson noted that the parade “will make its sordid way through downtown Toronto, in full view of thousands of men, women, and children.” 

“I was shocked to learn that the TCDSB has decided to throw aside its baptismal garment and plunge into the murky sea of homosexual and transgender fetishism by marching in the obscene, unholy, and irreconcilably anti-Christian, 2024 Toronto Gay Pride Parade,” wrote Gunnarson. 

“For the first time ever, the TCDSB – the education arm of the Catholic Church in Toronto – officially plans to march.” 

The TCDSB’s Indigenous Education, Equity, & Community Relations Department recently announced that “it will march in the parade, alongside the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, and has invited TCDSB employees to join them,” according to CLC.  

“May God forbid they bring any Catholic students to this debauched sex parade,” said Gunnarson.  

LifeSiteNews contacted TCDSB Board Chair Nancy Crawford, and the district communications staff, to ask them how they could allow some of their staff to participate in an event that in the past has featured fully naked men parading around in front of children, noting how this does not seem compatible with Catholic teaching on sexual morality. As of press time, there has been no reply. 

LifeSiteNews also contacted the Communications team for the Archdiocese of Toronto, under Archbishop Francis Leo, asking if it condones the fact that some staff from the TCDSB plan to march, and how this is at all compatible with the Catholic Church’s teaching regarding sexual morality. As of press time, there has been no reply.  

As of press time, CLC’s petition has just under 2,800 signatures.  

Catholicism cannot be reconciled with the ‘Pride’ movement

In speaking with LifeSiteNews, Gunnarson said that the “pride” movement is incompatible with Catholic teaching. Noting that pride is one of the seven deadly sins, Gunnarson said “the movement promotes sinful and hedonistic lifestyles that are opposed to Christian morality.” 

“For this reason, no Catholic institution, including a Catholic school board, can support or march in ‘Pride’ parades. Doing so would be to betray Christ along with the parents who send their children to such schools to receive an authentically Catholic education,” he insisted. 

CLC’s petition brings up Catholic teaching, noting it is a “fundamental element of Catholic doctrine and practice, based on God’s creation of mankind as male and female, with the power to generate new life.” 

Gunnarson urged all Catholics and “those of goodwill who want to see the TCDSB remain faithful to Jesus Christ” to sign their petition.  

“Let’s help trustees and the Director of Education to change their minds before Sunday,” he said.  

Gunnarson also said that he “hopes” Archbishop Francis Leo will “exercise his role as a shepherd and use his moral authority to preserve his flock from the wolves who seek to devour.” 

The TCDSB has been embattled in issues relating to life and family before, most notably after its board recently voted 8 to 2 to stop trustee Michael Del Grande’s pro-life motion, which would have seen pro-life flags fly at Catholic schools in May and students being taught about the pro-life cause on the same day as the Canadian March for Life.     

Regardless of the actions of the TCDSB or others, the Catholic Church’s condemnation of the LGBT agenda – including homosexual acts and transgenderism – remains unchangeable.