Catholic School Bans Rainbows

Administrators at a Catholic high school in Canada told students they couldn't use rainbows for an antihomophobia event last week, but the students found a clever loophole.

Sixteen-year-old Leanne Iskander established an unofficial gay-straight student group at St. Joseph Catholic Secondary School in Toronto in March, according to Xtra. The school board told her the group could not use rainbows to publicize its information after the students brought in signs and posters with rainbows on them.

"They said rainbows are associated with Pride," she told Xtra. "There’s so many other things that a rainbow could be. It’s ridiculous."

So, for a June 3 event, the students cleverly baked rainbow colors into the batter and arranged the cupcakes, complete with colorful icing, on a table to sell to other students. The group was able to raise $200 (each cupcake was 50 cents). While they wanted to donate the cash to the LGBT Youth Line, the students were told they could give the money only to a Catholic homeless shelter.

The students also report roadblocks in trying to partner with gay rights organization Queer Ontario, which tried to supply the teenagers with information to disseminate for their antihomophobia event last week. Most of the materials were rejected.

According to Xtra, there are no registered GSAs among Ontario's Catholic schools.