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“I will not yield to the pressure of the woke mob or corrupt state. We will continue to spread the truth in love.”
–JOSH ALEXANDER
Calgary police arrested and detained a Catholic high school student after he organized an event protesting transgender bathroom policies — even though the teen was the one being attacked by Antifa and other pro-transgender counter-protesters.
Josh Alexander, a high school student in Alberta, Canada, started the “I Stand With Josh Alexander” walkout protests, which took place on Wednesday. Alexander was arrested at the protest for what he says was “offering students Bibles.”
In a tweet, he posted video of his arrest. “Today I was handcuffed and put in a paddy wagon for offering students bibles on a public sidewalk in Calgary. I was released and told if I returned I would be arrested and charged. I continued handing out bibles. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ” he stated.
Further video shows that Alexander was being grabbed and pushed by pro-LGBT counter-protestors, while he did not fight back.
According to Rebel News, police said that Alexander caused a disturbance, alleging that he approached the LGBT protestors. Police also said they planned to release him when the protest was over. The 16-year-old student tweeted, “According to Calgary police, my views were too ‘inflammatory’ to be expressed near the Western Canada HS. Thankfully some of my assailants were charged after the event. I will not yield to the pressure of the woke mob or corrupt state. We will continue to spread the truth in love.”
The teenager was suspended by Renfrew County Catholic District School Board last year after organizing a student walkout to convince the district to change its policy allowing students to use the restroom and locker room according to their gender identity. He tried talking to his principal but was unable to get the principal to change the policy.
Alexander said he went to the principal because of fears female students were expressing to him about using the locker room with males. He decided that if the principal would do nothing about it, he would organize a walkout.
“I spoke out against the whole gender dysphoria crisis being pushed in the schools, and it was affecting some of my female peers,” Alexander told CBN’s Faithwire. “They were afraid to use their own washrooms, and I spoke out against it. It was very controversial and it wasn’t received well by the administrators.”
Alexander notified school administrators that he was planning a peaceful protest. Two days before the protest took place, he was suspended. After his suspension, the law firm Emond-Harnden sent an email for the school district telling Alexander he was being given a non-disciplinary exclusion, which barred him from returning to school for the rest of the school year. He responded,
“I was very surprised when I read the email. It is disappointing they are excluding me, and they can’t justify an expulsion because they know they can’t expel me. So instead, they send me a non-disciplinary exclusion letter because I expressed my religious beliefs in a Catholic school. That is pretty disappointing.”
Alexander said the school felt that his “presence in the building would be detrimental to the physical and mental well-being of the pupils.”
On February 6, he entered the school to take his automotive mechanic class. “You can’t physically get inside a vehicle if you are learning online,” he stated. Alexander was arrested for trespassing and fined $65. He filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission earlier this year.
The district’s director of education wrote an open letter to the community, explaining that the school board’s “top priority is the safety and well-being of our students. As part of a Catholic community, we expect that values will be expressed respectfully and in a way that is not harmful to others. While all our students are entitled — and encouraged — to share their beliefs — it cannot be at the expense of others. No one should be made to feel unsafe or marginalized. Bullying behaviour that creates an unsafe space for our students is not tolerated.”
He continued, “To our brothers and sisters in Christ, as we learn together, we truly hope that within the fullness of time we will come to a deeper understanding of those with different life experiences and find a way to support each other while ensuring that all our community feels safe and loved within our Catholic school.”
For some reason, according to the letter, the only students whose safety matters are those who identify as LGBT. Catholic school officials don’t seem to care about the safety concerns and anxiety of young girls forced to share a locker room and bathrooms with biological males. In fact, the principal not only rejected those concerns out of hand but also made it a point to silence and get rid of the one person who stood up for the girls.
What kind of a principal would bar a 16-year-old student from attending classes for the rest of the year simply for voicing his beliefs about the natural God-created order, convictions that a Catholic school ostensibly shares?
This teenage boy is courageously doing what religious and political leaders and school administrators across the globe should be doing — standing up for truth. He is standing on the truth of God’s Word and standing up for others rather than bowing down to those who are demanding we all act as though something false is true.
Proverbs 14:25 says,
“A truthful witness saves lives,
But he who utters lies is treacherous.”
The person who stands on God’s truth is doing something that can help the hearers, while those who lie to spare feelings lead them to pain. In a secular age where sin and delusion are being embraced and normalized, more truth-tellers like Josh Alexander will be attacked and even persecuted. Cancel culture is hitting new levels, as government, companies, schools, medical associations, and other institutions ramp up their efforts to stop people from speaking the truth on gender ideology and other woke topics.
As Christians, we must follow the lead of peaceful fighters like Alexander who refuse to be shut down even as others insist on being loud, violent, and illogical. Keep speaking God’s truth and keep spreading the Gospel. It is the only correct answer in the gender identity debate and the only salvation for those who have been manipulated and seduced by the LGBTQ ideology.
Ready to dive deeper into the intersection of faith and policy? Head over to our Theology of Politics series page where we’ve published several long-form pieces that will help Christians navigate where their faith should direct them on political issues.
