This past weekend Premier Danielle Smith told the UCP’s grassroots that “parental rights” would continue to be a “fundamental core principle” of her government — a message that has St. Albert 2SLGBTQ+ youth advocates preparing for the worst.
Smith’s declaration came after the UCP’s grassroots voted in favour of a resolution to force schools to get permission from parents if a child wishes to use pronouns that differ from the child’s assigned sex at birth.
There is no guarantee Smith’s government will pursue the policy, which was one of 30 put to a vote at the party’s annual general meeting (AGM). It would mirror legislation in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.
Kelsey Robbins, executive director of St. Albert’s Outloud Foundation for 2SLGBTQ+ Community Supports and Services, said they are “disappointed but not surprised” that Smith’s announcement on parents’ rights received the loudest applause of Smith’s speech at the AGM. (Robbins uses either she or they as a pronoun but prefers to use they.)
“Making sure kids have a safe space to go when their safe space isn’t at home — that saves lives,” they said. “We seem to be going backwards.”
In the past year, Outloud has experienced more hateful harassment than at any time in the organization’s history, according to Robbins.
Threatening and derogatory messages on social media have “ramped up about 200 per cent,” they said. “We have to screen calls in a very different way. We have had to make a couple of police reports. We have had to put in a few emergency safety plans. These are things we’ve never had to do before.”
Although Outloud has programs for 2SLGBTQ+ people of all ages, the largest demographic using the organization’s services are youth under 18 who are also transgender. Many are under 16, the age at which they would be allowed to choose their own pronouns in places like Saskatchewan.
Robbins said that the transgender youth she works with are already struggling, and policies such as the parents’ rights resolution passed at the AGM amplify the problem.
“The level of bullying is wild,” Robbins said. “We have kids that are scared to get on the bus, we have kids that are scared to go to school, some of them won’t go out in the community right now…. It’s really hard for us as adults to continue to tell them that they’re going to be okay when things like this keep happening.”
Protests earlier this year, such as the 1 Million March 4 Children, further alienated transgender youth from their peers as classmates walked out in support of the march, Robbins said.
Staff at Outloud have borne the brunt of the vitriol directed at the organization.
“It sucks, but I think that as a group we’re constantly talking about how we want this attention directed towards us as adults so that the kids don’t feel it.”
Robbins said that parents deserve to know what’s going on in their kids’ lives.
“Unfortunately, not every parent is in a position where they can support their child appropriately. We should be supporting those parents to get to a point where they can support their kids instead of forcing kids to come out to people who aren’t ready to hear it.”
Parental grief about a child’s gender transition can harm the child’s mental health, they said.
“In the activist world, we talk a lot about how you face the biggest point of push back right before you’re about to make the most progress…. They’re pushing back because they see that we are not backing down. And we’re not going to back down -- we will protect trans kids.”
