On Tuesday, they met with Arts, Culture and Status of Women Minister Tanya Fir, slamming the moves and the government’s failure to consult with them ahead of time.
“The air in that room was heavy,” Mihko Kihêw told reporters, adding that Smith should have attended the roundtable, and more voices must be brought to the table because decisions are being made for people who are already marginalized.
“These are our lives. We are queer and trans people,” they said.
Among the new policies, regulations and legislation Smith said she plans to introduce in the fall is a ban on puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy for those 15 and younger.
Smith will require teachers and schools to notify parents and seek parental consent when a person aged 15 and under wants to go by different names and pronouns, and restrict trans adults from competing in sports with women.
The proposals have already sparked protests, and students are organizing a province-wide walkout of class in support of the trans community on Wednesday.
‘Public acts of violence are happening because of this policy’
Adebayo Katiiti, founder of Rights for All Refugees In Canada Now (RARICAnow), an athlete, and a Black trans man, said all of the policies, except for one to increase access to surgical care for trans adults, are dangerous and harmful, and were made by those who have “never lived in a trans body.”
“Let trans kids grow up as their authentic self, let them have support. Why are we using trans youth, trans kids, as a platform for political gain?” they said.
Glynnis Lieb, executive director of the Fyrefly Institute for Gender and Sexual Diversity at the University of Alberta, said consultations and surveys of community members should have happened before the premier publicly announced the moves via social media.
“This is life-threatening,” said Lieb, noting that gender diversity is not the problem.
“Social ostracism, and pathologizing of it is the problem,” said Lieb. The Bright Line mental health and wellness helpline dedicated to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community has been inundated, and “public acts of violence are happening because of this policy.”
Kristopher Wells, a Canada Research Chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth at MacEwan University, told reporters the government has propped up individuals to claim they’ve consulted the community without actually consulting.
“These policies aren’t just about restricting rights. These policies are about erasing the very existence of LGBTQ people in Canada, and that’s why people are upset.”
During the meeting, Fir was asked if she would resign over the policies, but she instead stood by them.
“It’s about protecting children. I think it’s about letting these decisions happen when they’re mature adults and have more time to realize the consequences and the outcomes,” Fir told reporters later, noting the roundtable demonstrated a need for further consultations.
Fir said Tuesday’s meeting was one of many regular roundtables she attends with various stakeholders under her ministry, but declined to respond to requests to provide scientific evidence in support of the policies.
On Monday, speaking to CTV’s Power Play, Smith said the plan is based on a “concern of what will happen.”
She supports the government’s plan, saying as a gender-non-conforming child, if she had been presented with the chance to transition she would have.
“I’m in my 30s. I would love to have a child and I’ve been trying, and I really shudder at the thought that that would have been stolen from me,” Kurilova said, adding that those opposed to the policies deserve to be heard as well.
Alberta pediatricians, child and adolescent psychiatrists, and the Canadian Paediatric Society have condemned Smith’s approach, saying it will increase health risks for transgender children and youth in Alberta. Doctors have noted that puberty blockers are not irreversible, and give young people more time to determine what their long-term decision might be.
Smith has also said in cases of abuse or family rejection, children can rely on child protection services.
In turn, the Social Workers Association of Alberta said Smith’s comment “speaks to her full acceptance and knowledge that this legislation will put children at risk of abuse, suicidal ideation, and self-harm.
“This is unconscionable,” it said in a statement Monday.
