Catholic sex-ed textbooks discontinued following accusations of 'homophobic,' 'transphobic' content

The Canadian arm of an international textbook publishing company will discontinue some sex education books used by Catholic school boards in Ontario by March this year, following accusations they contain homophobic and transphobic content. 

Fully Alive, a series of textbooks and accompanying teachers' resources published by Pearson Canada, is aimed at teaching students in Grades 1 through 8 about sexuality, marriage and family through the lens of the Catholic faith. 

But Kyle Iannuzzi, a 2SLGBTQ advisory committee member and former student trustee at the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), told CBC Toronto Fully Alive is not inclusive of anyone who doesn't identify as heterosexual and cisgender. 

"They provide developing minds as young as Grade 1 with sexualized notions of self that adhere with the Catholic faith but are at odds with the reality of science and nature," he said.

"It really fosters an experience of loneliness and I think it contributes to the reasons why self-harm is such an option for queer kids, especially in Catholic environments."

Iannuzzi first filed a complaint with Pearson Canada about the books in June 2022. 

He said he didn't hear back until six months later when the publisher contacted him to indicate it would stop printing the books in December. 

But earlier this month, Iannuzzi discovered that digital versions of Fully Alive are still available.

CBC News contacted Pearson Canada Monday to ask why it had discontinued the textbooks and what it planned to do about the online content. The publisher confirmed in an email Tuesday that it has stopped publishing the textbooks and said it will discontinue support for the online content by March. But the company did not respond to questions about why it ended the series. 

The Fully Alive series was first published about 30 years ago but was updated between 2007 and 2015. The textbooks were published with the approval of Ontario's Institute for Catholic Education and the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

The Roman Catholic church teaches that LGBTQ+ people should be treated with dignity and respect, but sexual relations between people of the same sex are still considered a sin.

The content deemed problematic by advocates occurs in Theme 3 of the Fully Alive books, a sexual education unit titled Created Sexual. 

Students are taught in Theme 3 "that sexual love should only occur in a male-female marriage (in which children should only be born or adopted) and that persons should identify by gender with the gender (male or female) attributed to them at birth," says a website run by Paolo de Buono, a TCDSB teacher.

De Buono, who advocates for students outside of school hours, told CBC Toronto he stopped using Fully Alive in his lessons last year.