By Florence Ashley, University of Alberta and JJ Wright, MacEwan University, The Conversation
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government recently tabled three bills targeting trans youth’s education, health care and sports participation. If passed, these ill-considered bills — the Education Amendment Act, the Health Statutes Amendment Act and the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act — could make all Albertan youth unsafe.
Smith has said the bills are aimed at protecting youth from harm, but the proposed laws have already met significant condemnation since they were announced in February.
The government’s restrictions on gender-affirming care were decried by the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Paediatric Society, the Alberta Medical Association and more than 80 other organizations across Canada.
Saskatchewan and New Brunswick’s near-identical policies on name and pronoun changes in schools have been criticized for violating children’s rights by the Children’s Advocates of both provinces. A Saskatchewan court has also concluded that youth affected by the policies “will suffer irreparable harm.”
Sex education eradication
The harms posed to trans youth are more than enough reason to abandon these bills. However, trans youth are not the only victims of these reckless policies.
The province’s Education Amendment Act will effectively eradicate sex education in the province, and the proposed Fairness and Safety in Sport Act will make all female athletes vulnerable to abuse.
While the Education Amendment Act purports to introduce a parental opt-in system of sex education — instead of the current opt-out system — the requirements are so burdensome that the quality of sex education will inevitably erode significantly. Many schools will probably choose not to offer sex education at all.
Not only must all teaching materials be approved by the government — with its evident hostility towards sexual education — but parental consent must be sought 30 days in advance and alternative instruction provided to students whose parents do not consent.
This outcome flies in the face of the 85 per cent of Canadian parents who believe they cannot effectively teach their children about sex and favour school-based sexual education.
Depriving kids of knowledge
The government’s attack on sex education goes against decades of research demonstrating that age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education — unlike abstinence-only sex education — reduces teen pregnancy rates and STIs and supports the reduction of child sexual abuse.
Smith’s attack on sex education will deprive children of knowledge on anatomy and consent, which they need to better communicate experiences of sexual harassment and violence. By denying youth this much-needed information, the law will turn the clock back decades in the fight against sexual violence — and make Alberta children far more vulnerable to it.
The law would also apply to materials and lessons regarding gender identity and sexual orientation, potentially erasing same-sex families and gender-diverse children from the curriculum. Although these kinds of policies are most harmful to queer and trans students, studies show that developing accepting attitudes towards 2SLGBTQ+ students also benefits the mental health of heterosexual, non-transgender students.
Abuse of athletes
As for the proposed Fairness and Safety in Sport Act, it will make all female athletes vulnerable to abuse, especially if they are perceived as “too masculine.”
Under the law, schools and sports associations will have to adopt eligibility requirements based on gender. To facilitate enforcement of eligibility rules, the bill grants legal immunity to athletes, referees and employees of the government, schools or sports association — as long as they are intending in good faith to enforce the law.
In other words, the law protects those who use the rules as an excuse to harass and abuse athletes.
This is troublesome. In British Columbia recently, a female basketball player was verbally and physically mistreated by the opposing players and coach for being trans.
Last year, a nine-year-old girl participating in track-and-field in B.C. was harassed by people who thought she was trans for having short hair.
And the world watched the vitriol directed at Algerian boxer Imane Khelif during the Summer Olympics — abuse that’s been directed at so many successful female athletes before her, often with more than a whiff of racism.
The government is giving a free pass to harassers in the name of protecting women’s sports. This makes all women unsafe, especially Black, Indigenous and other racialized women, as well as women who are considered insufficiently feminine.
This is a far greater threat than any athletic advantage trans women supposedly pose to other athletes — the evidence for which is far from compelling, especially when compared to advantages we readily accept, such as height in basketball.
Targeting a minority
The children of Alberta deserve better.
They deserve a government that respects their rights. They deserve a government that actually makes them safer, rather than a government that tries to distract us from its failures by targeting the latest unpopular minority.
Instead of persecuting children, why doesn’t Smith stop selling the province’s health-care system for parts by privatizing hospital operations and address the growing housing and affordability crisis?
At a time when it is getting harder and harder for Albertans to enjoy life in the province due to rising prices, the last thing we need the government to focus on is undermining children’s rights.
Florence Ashley, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law and John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre, University of Alberta and JJ Wright, Assistant Professor, Education, MacEwan University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
