Questions raised after presentations on gender-affirming care made to New Brunswick MLAs 

A pair of presentations on gender-affirming care from two clinical psychologists at the forefront of the battle over trans health care in the United States is being criticized by local LGBTQ2 advocates and experts.

In recent months some government MLAs have received presentations from Dr. Erica Anderson and Dr. James Cantor about gender-affirming care in Canada and internationally. But some are questioning why the government has moved from discussions over school gender identity policy to gender-affirming care (GAC).

“These particular experts and the information that they’ve been sharing, and the premier has been sharing after meeting with them, seems to be focusing on the subject of medical care and coverage, which really hasn’t got anything to do with the issues that are up for debate in policy,” said Amber Chisholm, a board member with the LGBTQ2 advocacy group Imprint Youth Association.

If the government is looking for information on the province’s gender-affirming care system, Chisholm says there is a variety of experts with the province’s Transgender Health Network that they could have turned to.

Policy 713, which governs inclusion requirements for LGBTQ2 students, was amended last year to require parental consent for students under 16 to change their name or pronoun for reasons relating to their gender identity. Premier Blaine Higgs said his government aims to respect “parental rights” with the changes, while LGBTQ2 advocates and educational experts have said that it may result in more children remaining in the closet or being outed to non-supportive parents.

Anderson, a clinical psychologist and sex and gender researcher who has advocated for caution and often delay in medical intervention, was made available to reporters on Thursday and confirmed that she is also behind “parental rights.” She admitted that she didn’t have any evidence of Canadian medical practitioners not being cautious enough in administering care and said that she had been asked by the premier to present how jurisdictions in the U.S. and Europe are handling GAC.

“I was asked and I did provide some education to the premier and others,” she said.

Another presentation to government came from Dr. James Cantor, also a clinical psychologist and sex researcher, though he has no experience treating people with gender dysphoria or conducting first-hand research on it. Cantor has become a prominent figure in the U.S. battle over GAC, often appearing as an expert witness in favour of banning trans health care for minors.

A slide from his presentation shared with Global News claims that youth receive medical intervention solely on “self-identification” and that they are “quickly/unquestionably affirmed.”

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Dr. Adrian Edgar, the former medical director at Clinic 554, where he provided gender-affirming care for years, says that it appears the information being received by the government is misrepresentative and confusing two different issues.

“We’re really muddying the waters when we start talking about young people accessing health care, compared to young people in schools who might be exploring different presentations of their gender,” he said. “We have to be really careful not to do that. The assumption that every young person who is talking to an adult about these things is going to require health care or medical intervention or hormone therapy isn’t accurate, and we really do have to kind of roll back the script here.”

It’s not clear if the government is moving to review the application of GAC in any formal way. Global News asked the premier’s office if a review is taking place or if a ban on care for minors was being discussed, but only received the slide from Canton’s presentation in response.

However, Anderson suggested the province may be reviewing its policies, particularly in light of the recent tightening of access to care in Europe. While it is true some countries like the United Kingdom and Sweden have tightened access to care for minors, it is not true that they have banned it and it’s still available.

“It’s my expectation – that the premier and the government will be exploring how these developments elsewhere apply to New Brunswick,” she said.

Chisholm said it’s impossible to think that there is too much trans-focused health care available in the province. Imprint Youth Association has been involved in a project providing training and resources to primary health care providers to allow them to better help trans patients.

“So many doctors think that it’s too confusing, or too scary, or they don’t have enough information and then that they don’t have anywhere to send their patients to if they want to provide that affirming care,” she said. “We have a dearth of expertise and access to gender-affirming care, far away from an overabundance of it.”

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