The Alberta government has introduced sweeping legislation that advocates warn will greatly impact the lives of trans and gender-diverse people.
Premier Danielle Smith said the measures will preserve choice for children and youth, however the legislation limits access to health care, education and sports for gender diverse people depending on their age.
“I know this is a sensitive issue that is deeply personal to so many, and I’d like to reiterate what I’ve said many times before: we are here to support and uplift every child who identifies as transgender and who experiences gender dysphoria as well as their families, who wants what’s best for them,” Smith said Thursday in Edmonton.
“Childhood is a time of self-discovery, and we want children and youth to have the time to gain experience and explore all opportunities available to them as they grow into adulthood.”
The trio of bills tabled Thursday in the Alberta legislature focusing on transgender people and students using preferred pronouns.
The UCP government has proposed one bill, the Education Amendment Act, 2024, that would require children under 16 to have parental consent if they want to change their names or pronouns at school.
A similar law is on the books in Saskatchewan, where the government invoked the notwithstanding clause, a measure that allows governments to override certain Charter rights for up to five years.
The bill would also require parents to opt-in for their children to be taught about sexual orientation and sexual and gender identity at school. The legislation also restricts any kind of curriculum that teaches about gender diversity.
When asked how the rules would be enforced in schools, Smith said the Alberta Teaching Profession Commission has the ability to discipline teachers if they defy the government’s direction.
The requirements would not apply in First Nations schools, but two-spirit Indigenous students in provincially run schools would be subject to them.
The second bill, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, would prohibit doctors from treating those under 16 seeking transgender treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapies.
It would also prohibit health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors. Currently, national policy restricts bottom surgery across Canada to those 18 and over, and such procedures don’t take place in Alberta.
The third bill, the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act, would ban transgender athletes from competing in leagues not designated co-ed and require school and sports organizations to report eligibility complaints.
The government said it’s aiming to protect fairness and safety in sports.
Sport Minister Joseph Schow said sex registration at birth would determine competitive eligibility. Such documentation is accessible through provincial authorities.
Smith said she wants to see sports leagues create mixed-gender divisions to ensure all athletes can compete.
Many organizations have spoken out against the policies, first announced nine months ago, including Amnesty International Canada, the Canadian Medical Association and the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
The proposed legislation comes days before members of Smith’s United Conservative Party are set to vote in her leadership review Saturday.
EGALE is Canada’s leading organization for 2SLGBTQI people and issues and said it has seen similar policies in the United States before but as far as legal director Bennett Jensen is aware, no single government has sought to pursue them all at once.
“This is an unprecedented attack on a tiny population of young people in the province,” Jensen said from Ottawa on Thursday.
EGALE plans to challenge all of Alberta’s new legislation in court.
“The bills in question are a clear violation of the Charter rights and other rights of young people in the province of Alberta,” Jensen said.
Based on similar actions in the United States, Jensen said there is demonstrated and devastating levels of harm that result from policies like this.
“What we have here is a government engaging in tremendous overreach into the individual freedoms and rights of its citizens.”
The UCP government said it consulted widely before drafting the new laws, asking supporters from the transgender community to speak to the media Thursday on the legislation’s behalf.
Kellie Lynn Pirie, who underwent a transition before reverting back to her birth sex, said transitioning to male as an adult was something she came to regret.
“I simply don’t understand how I was, as a 37-year-old adult with a post secondary education, wasn’t ready to make such a life-altering decision … how can we possibility support, encourage or allow our children to do so?” said Pirie, co-founder of the De-Trans Alliance.
Alberta parents of gender-diverse youth like Haley Wray believe the new laws will give kids less choice — especially when it comes to health-care that is not permanent but instead, gives kids time to work through their identity struggles.
“Hormone blockers are a very valuable tool,” Wray said, explaining they have a very small window of effectiveness to pause, but not prevent, puberty.
“It is reversible because nothing changes. And what that does is it allows youth and families to have that that pause, that break to explore further, validate, understand what this means and know that permanent changes aren’t happening.”
Wray believes the proposed legislation will make the province a less safe place for tens of thousands of Alberta kids who aren’t straight.
“It is removing an option access to affirming health care, access to knowledge and options, and allowing people to decide what it is best for them to move forward.”
It’s why, Wray says, a growing number of families with transgender children are now grappling with whether Alberta is a place they can stay.
“I know people who have, and I know people who genuinely feel like there is likely nowhere to go,” she said.
— With files from Heather Yourex-West, Global News, and Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press