Alberta Students Protest Against New Transgender Policies
On February 7, 2024, Joane Cardinal-Schubert High School students demonstrate against the UCP administration’s recently unveiled policies regarding transgender youth by chanting during a protest. Photo by Brent Calver / Postmedia
In order to rally against the municipal administration’s proposed policies regarding transgender youth, hundreds of students across Alberta staged class walkouts on Wednesday morning.
Students and faculty at the University of Calgary gathered on Pride actions in front of Mac Hall to demand that the state revoke the gender identity policies that Premier Danielle Smith announced last year.
Creek Thompson, a student majoring in software engineering, claimed that he went on the strike after experiencing “ridiculous” levels of bullying and torment during his time in school in the small town of northern Alberta.
“The authorities, the nation, and the province as a whole do not help these kids,” Thompson said. “I would like to see more drive towards accepting and showing them that they can be who they are.” He continued by saying that these new laws would be removing the need for children to be encouraged to express themselves and given the freedom to do so.
“All I can think about is that forcibly removing that safe place from those children if they are comfortable enough to use it as a safe place to go to school,” Thompson said. “I have personally witnessed the harm that may result from children who are violently forced out of the closet by society.”
There is no “single voice” that can speak for the entire transgender community, according to Smith, who defended her proposals on Monday while traveling to Ottawa. She claimed to have spoken with some trans people who had expressed concerns about young children’s ability to transition.
“We needed to discuss what age is ideal to be able to make those life-changing decisions,” she said.
“Decisions are Being Made for Them”
Sam Ines, a 28-year-old transgender woman, stated that many people don’t take into account the fact that transgender children are not given the opportunity to speak for themselves.
“The people who have an impact on their lives are those who are outside of that circle, and that affects us greatly,” Ines said. “They’re having decisions made for them by people that are ignorant of their situation.”
The new regulations will make physiological therapy, puberty blockers, and gender-affirming surgery for children under the age of 15 illegal in Alberta.
Surgery for top and bottom sex change may be prohibited for children under the age of 17 and younger.
Hormone treatments can be started by teenagers between the ages of 16 and 17 with their parents’, doctor’s, and psychotherapists’ consent.
Ines talked about her own experience as a 25-year-old Filipino refugee and said it was not an easy journey.
“My mother was the first person I came out to, and she was not at all accepting,” Ines remarked. “A transgender girl is just a twisted man in her eyes, and from her own social environment.”
On February 7, 2024, University of Calgary students take part in a strike to oppose the Alberta administration’s proposed modifications to transgender rights. Photo by Nathan Ross; supplied
Chloe Ratti, a U of C student, said that Smith is endangering transgender youth (they/them). Ratti attended the protest because it’s important to them to make younger years feel safer.
“I was born and raised in Italy, a very conservative and Christian country,” Ratti claimed. “I came out as lesbian when I was 14 years old.”
Ratti identifies as transgender, gender fluid, non-binary, and gender nonconforming.
“I met a lot of different people along the way, and that’s how I learned more about my own sexuality and sex.”
Some children’s sole means of escape is through school, according to the student.
Although they are aware of the potential student protests, the Calgary Board of Education stressed that walkouts are not initiative events in a statement.
However, any students who were not present in school will be marked as an unexcused absence. “We will not stop individuals from leaving school during this time. According to the CBE, we collaborate with our school communities to develop loving, considerate, polite, and secure learning settings for all individuals.
At Joane Cardinal-Schubert High School, Danny Kruzick organized a strike. He/she pronouns were used when he or she came out as transgender at school at the age of 14, but they didn’t tell their parents until they were 16 years old.
Individuals 15 and younger who want to change their names or pronouns at school need parental permission under the proposed Alberta guidelines for transgender children. Although kids would need to be informed, individuals 16 and 17 would not need their permission.
If these laws had been in place, according to Kruzick, they would never have been disclosed to anyone.
On February 7, 2024, Joane Cardinal-Schubert High School students demonstrate against the UCP
government’s just unveiled policies regarding transgender youth by chanting during a protest. Photo by Brent Calver / Postmedia
Hayden Keller, a Joane Cardinal-Schubert student who was present for the protest, claimed that the new regulations are robbing transgender youth of the safe spaces that schools currently offer.
According to Keller, “School is currently for some kids the only kind of ‘escape’ from perhaps a home career that isn’t as encouraging or inviting to them.”
Student Talks About Having the Ability to Observe Personality
“I want other kids to be able to discover their identities for children and the future,” Kruzick said.
Kruzick remarked, “I was able to observe my identity between those two years.” “When I was 16, I felt much more at ease with my female expression and identity, to come out to my kids.”
Because friends, individuals, and instructors come and go while families and community are always with you, according to Kruzick, coming out at school is simpler.
Keller remarked, “If we don’t fight this, you know, it might only make issues for trans students in schools worse.” “They (trans kids) generally experience a lot of discrimination.”
On February 7, 2024, Western Canada High School students take part in a province-wide class strike to oppose the proposed changes to transgender rights made by the Alberta government. Photo by Gavin Young / Postmedia
Yomade Akapo, a Western Canada High School student who took part in the walkout, claimed that the new legislation is robbing those who haven’t done anything wrong of their rights.
“It’s just disgusting,” Akapo said. “This isn’t right, we should be able to respect every human being, whether they’re trans or LGBTQ.”
— Including documents from Gavin Young and Brent Calver
On Wednesday, February 7, 2024, a student at Joane Cardinal-Schubert High School holds up the Trans Pride flag as they walk out in opposition to the UCP administration’s just unveiled policies regarding transgender children. Photo by Brent Calver / Postmedia
