Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's youth sexuality plan takes a harder, broader line than anything seen in Canada, and it will take months to unwind the details and potential consequences.Todd Korol/The Canadian Press
If the goal was astonishing the audience, Danielle Smith has succeeded. Instead of mimicking parental rights laws introduced by Saskatchewan or New Brunswick, the Alberta Premier unveiled a sweeping youth sexuality manifesto on Wednesday: What she calls the “entire package” includes rules on parental rights, but also gender-affirming care for minors, transgender athletes and sex education.
Anybody who thought Ms. Smith, the libertarian who values bodily autonomy, would wade into this issue reluctantly – as I did – was mistaken. She dove right in.
The United Conservative Party plan goes much further than just requiring parental notification and consent for children and teenagers who opt to alter their name or pronouns at school. It takes a harder, broader line than anything seen in Canada, and it will take months to unwind the details and potential consequences. The protests will be coming. The process of implementation through regulations and legislation will stretch into the fall. Court challenges are assured.
It’s too much for the average person to digest.
But in this strategy, Ms. Smith and her party could win public opinion, catching a wave of concern from parents who feel excluded from important information about their children’s lives. Many feel like an open, curiosity-driven dialogue is missing from discussions around these issues. “I am confident that Albertans do not want children to make irreversible decisions that impact their reproductive health,” Ms. Smith said.
However, there’s also the worry about young lives – transgender youth who might benefit from access to care, and are especially vulnerable to depression, self-harm, abuse and bullying. “We are concerned about how students may feel forced to suppress their identities and to be afraid of reaching out to teachers as an avenue for support,” the Alberta Teachers’ Association said.
Danielle Smith needs to own the imported-medicine mistake
Depoliticization of this issue – as the Premier has long said she wanted – is not on the menu. It’s true that Ms. Smith’s social media video announcing the policies took on a deeply compassionate and familial tone. She said the province supports and loves children who identify as transgender, and promised to build out a provincial health care system for adults undergoing gender dysphoria treatments.
But the fact that the UCP is prioritizing this over a thousand other things is a political decision. It reinforces the viewpoints of those who believe – ahead of a party leadership review later this year – that Ms. Smith is being led by the most socially conservative wing of her party. It opens the governing party up to the risk of further bozo eruptions or more centrist party members being scared away.
Almost no one expected Alberta to delve into restrictions on gender-affirming surgeries or puberty blockers. And to be clear, this part isn’t about guidelines or consultations with medical practitioners or families. It’s about codification: new laws or regulations.
Surgeries for youth are already relatively rare – and all lower-body procedures are already restricted to adults in Canada. But Ms. Smith referred last week to the more cautious approach some medical experts are taking on puberty blockers and hormones. Countries such as Britain, France, Finland and Sweden – which have longer histories of providing services for gender dysphoria – are tapping the brakes on these treatments for youth, based on concerns about appropriate care and outcomes.
But instead of taking a European path, with health authorities leading the way, Alberta’s plan here resembles conservative U.S. states that have laws restricting gender-affirming care to youth as part of the culture war between Republicans and Democrats. Ms. Smith, on Thursday, didn’t answer definitively when asked whether health care providers, teachers or parents who break the rules – perhaps by taking a child to another jurisdiction for treatments – would face penalties.
Also, the massively underrated problem in Ms. Smith’s plan is the new rules for classroom instruction on gender identity, sexual orientation and human sexuality. Alberta will be requiring parental notification and opt-in for each instance a teacher intends to give formal instruction on these subjects.
The issue is glaring: It will likely reduce the number of children taught about human sexuality. And it seems to take a page from such states as Florida, where sex-lesson plans have become subject to endless political fights over issues such as abstinence or gender identity.
The Premier said her government will launch a pilot to provide joint counselling services to support parents and youth identifying as transgender: “We encourage all teachers, parents, classmates and youth volunteers to be on the watch for any instances of bullying of youth or children.”
Yes, indeed. But with the stakes so high for a vulnerable group of children, it’s not enough to say – as the Premier did – that the rare instance of abuse at home can be handled by child protection services. That’s a system that’s far from indefectible, and it’s far more complicated than that.