Firas Zahabi questions his kids’ school curriculum: ‘They aren’t going to feminize our men’

Firas Zahabi—best known as the coach behind former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre—is concerned that schools are trying to “feminize” his sons by teaching them to be accepting of people with varying sexual preferences.

“It’s become encouraged now to feminize men,” Zahabi said during an episode of The 3Muslims podcast (h/t r/MMAPoliticsAndCulture). “If they want to feminize their men, they can do it, but they aren’t going to feminize our men.”

Zahabi, who owns the renowned TriStar Gym in Montreal, Quebec, argued that his sons should not be taught any form of LGBTQ+ acceptance in school, including being shown movies normalizing same-sex relationships.

“One of my sons, on Valentine’s Day, they showed him a movie about one guy falling in love with another. My kids, they’re open books—so my son is like, ‘I watched this movie and two guys were kissing each other so me and my friend were laughing and everybody got angry with us. They were telling me it’s normal, it’s normal.’”

“The teacher was telling my son, it’s ok [to be gay]. Well, that’s pretty weird, man. Kids haven’t even gotten through puberty yet. I send my kid to school to math, science, history, philosophy, ethics…the basics. Why are you showing them on Valentine’s Day, a story about a man with another man?”

Instead of teaching his children to be accepting of people in same-sex relationships, Zahabi, who also holds a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Concordia University, instead proudly informed his sons that they themselves were “not gay.”

“Now listen, there are gay people in the world. I tell my kids that there are gay people. You will see them. But we are not gay. That is what I told them, straight up, and I’m not ashamed. I told them ‘tell your teacher you’re heterosexual, and if he has a problem with that, to call me.”

Not only were Zahabi’s statements rooted in ignorance and prejudice, they also reflect an attempt to conflate heterosexuality with masculinity. Such worldviews have proven to be harmful and leads to a perpetual cycle of violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community.