New policies governing trans youths in Alberta will put some of Alberta’s most vulnerable at greater risk of suicide, says a St. Albert professor.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced a host of policies Jan. 31 that, if implemented through legislation this fall, would affect education and health care for transgender youths.
The policies include a ban on gender reassignment surgeries for anyone under 18, a ban on hormone therapies and puberty blockers for the purpose of gender reassignment for anyone under 16 (unless they’ve already started on those treatments), and a requirement for anyone aged 16 or 17 to get parental, physician, and psychologist approval before starting hormone therapies or puberty blockers for gender reassignment.
In schools, the policies would require parents to be notified of and to opt in to any instance where a teacher provided formal instruction on subject matter involving gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality, and require all third-party materials related to those subjects in class to be pre-approved by the Ministry of Education. Parents would have to consent before their child aged 15 and under could ask teachers to refer to them by a different name or pronoun, and be informed if their child aged 16 or 17 asked for the same.
Kristopher Wells, a St. Albert resident and the Canada Research Chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth at MacEwan University, called the policies a “poison pill” that will have devastating consequences for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
“Not only are these policies discriminatory, they are designed to silence and erase 2SLGBTQ+ lives from the public sphere.”
Kelsey Robbins, executive director of the St. Albert Outloud Foundation, said last week’s announcement left St. Albert youths shocked and scared.
“Every single kid we’ve spoken to is terrified,” they said, with some scared for peers who had yet to come out as trans to their parents.
“That is the most heartbreaking thing to hear from a child.”
Flawed, illegal, lethal
Wells said these proposals were blatantly discriminatory and would certainly be challenged in court if passed. Saskatchewan recently had to invoke the notwithstanding clause for much narrower policies to avoid violating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“These policies are unprecedented in Canadian history in terms of targeting the LGBTQ+ community,” he said.
“This is really what you’d expect to see in Alabama, not Alberta.”
Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling said teachers were concerned these policies would threaten student safety, particularly the one requiring them to inform parents if a student asks to be called by a different name or pronoun.
“Teachers don’t want to be put in the precarious situation where they might have to out students,” Schilling said, or where students do not feel safe talking to a teacher about their gender or sexual identity.
Schilling said the proposed policies could require teachers to get parental consent to talk about the human reproductive system in Biology 30 and get every library book audited for references to sexual or gender identity.
These policies imply that sexual and gender identity are somehow dangerous, yet people talk about them all the time, Wells said — “Mr.” and “Mrs.” refer to gender identity.
“Sexual orientation and gender identity belong to everyone,” he noted, and this policy would require parents to opt in before teachers could discuss any person, heterosexual or not.
Robbins said this policy was conflating sexual orientation with sex.
“Teachers aren’t talking about sex every day in the classroom, but what they are doing is making sure every kid in the classroom feels represented.”
Wells said having a teacher reveal to parents that their child wants to try a different pronoun isn’t always safe, as not all parents accept trans children. Family rejection is the number one reason for homelessness amongst North American 2SLGBTQI+ youths, he noted.
“If a parent wants to know how their kid identifies, all they have to do is ask their child,” Wells said.
“If that child feels safe, they will welcome that conversation.”
Wells and Robbins said the international guidelines Alberta doctors follow already ban gender reassignment surgeries for people under 18. Youths already need the consent of parents and many medical authorities before starting puberty blockers or hormone therapies, and often have to wait two years to get to a specialist willing to prescribe such treatments. While you can reverse puberty blockers, Robbins said you cannot reverse the harm caused by going through puberty in a body you don’t feel like is yours.
In a statement Feb. 1, the Alberta Medical Association called on the province to reconsider these policies as they would deny appropriate medical care to youths. They also noted that transgender youths had higher rates of mental health issues and suicidality due to the stigma attached to their status, and that these proposed policies would reinforce that stigma and worsen mental health.
Research has shown that being in a gender-affirming environment reduces suicide risk and improves mental health amongst 2SLGBTQI+ youth, Wells said. These proposed policies would undermine such environments and raise suicide risks.
“These kinds of discriminatory policies will kill our children, and that’s an outcome we will not accept,” he said.
With files from Jack Farrell and Riley Tjosvold
