Trustee comes out as bisexual after school board suspends member over posts that targeted LGBTQ community

A member of the Louis Riel School Division's board of trustees came out as bisexual on Friday to send a message following another member's suspension due to social media posts that the board says "targeted the 2SLGBTQIA+ community."

Trustee Francine Champagne was suspended for three months on Tuesday after the rest of the Louis Riel School Division's board of trustees voted unanimously to temporarily remove her for what the board's chair said were "comments on her Facebook page specifically indicating transphobia, homophobia" and "a general complete lack of [respect] for the LGBTQ community."

In response, Louis Riel Ward 3 trustee Ryan Palmquist announced in a Friday afternoon tweet that he is bisexual.

"It started to feel like it was wrong — and even selfish of me — to be in the position that I'm in, and to continue to basically hide because it's safer and easier for me personally," he told CBC News on Saturday.

Palmquist said he found Champagne's social media posts reckless, irresponsible and even dangerous, adding that he found it troubling to learn someone in a leadership role at a school division could broadcast such beliefs.

He has been aware of his sexuality since his early 20s, but said most people assume he is heterosexual since he is married to a woman and has kids.

Palmquist decided to announce his sexuality because he felt a simple statement acknowledging Champagne's suspension — which was the strongest sanction possible for the board under the Manitoba Public Schools Act — was not enough.

A small minority rallying against LGBTQ rights has been growing increasingly extreme over the last few years, Palmquist said, and he wanted LGBTQ families to know that they have representation in the school division's leadership.

He hopes his coming out will demonstrate "that there is a place for LGBT people and youth at all levels of the [school division]."

"They do belong in the division, because I belong on the board, and I am making decisions along with my colleagues with their well-being in mind."

He said he ran the tweet past his wife and a couple of close friends before posting it on Friday. 

He described the response since then as "overwhelmingly positive, mixed with a little bit of hateful trolling."

Boards have decision-making power: minister

Wayne Ewasko, Manitoba's minister of education and early childhood learning, says the Manitoba government and the educational system support safe learning environments for transgender and gender diverse students, but what comes next for Champagne is up to the school division.

The Public Schools Act requires Manitoba boards to develop and implement written policies involving respect for human diversity, and "local school divisions have the power to make decisions based on the needs of their local school communities," Ewasko wrote in a statement to CBC News on Thursday.

Given that, Palmquist said he wonders if the board would have been able to suspend Champagne if a proposed education reform bill had passed.

Bill 64, which the Progressive Conservative government introduced in March 2021, would have replaced the province's 37 English-language school divisions with a single provincial education authority, dissolved elected school boards and created local community school advisory councils.

However, it was so unpopular that the Tories scrapped it several months later.

"The changes that were contemplated to the School Act last year as part of Bill 64 I think would have put us in a far weaker position today to deal with this issue than we are in now," said Palmquist.

He also said Champagne and the rest of the board of trustees will undergo sensitivity and diversity training when she returns next September.

He hopes she can learn from the experience during her suspension and "becomes a better leader of our division," he said.

But Palmquist said he cannot control what Champagne does next.

"What we can control is sending a strong message to our families and students that the LRSD is a safe and welcoming and inclusive school division."