Danielle Smith unveils sweeping changes to Alberta's student gender identity, sports and surgery policies
CBC
Alberta will prohibit hormonal treatment, puberty blockers and gender affirming surgery for children 15 years and younger, Premier Danielle Smith announced Wednesday in a video posted to social media.
Smith said the policy bans all children under 17 from having top and bottom surgery, though bottom surgery is already limited to adults.
Teens aged 16 and 17 can start hormone therapy as long as they have permission from their parents, a physician and a psychologist.
Alberta parents will need to give permission before a student aged 15 and under can use a name or pronoun at school other than what they were given at birth, Smith said.
Students who are 16 or 17 won't require permission but schools will need to let their parents know first.
Albertans who require transgender surgeries have the procedures performed in Quebec. Smith said efforts will begin to attract these specialists to Alberta so the surgeries can take place in the province.
Smith said teachers need to get any third-party instruction material on gender identity, sexual orientation and human sexuality approved by the Education ministry before they are used in the classroom.
Parents will have to opt students in to every lesson about sex education, sexual orientation or gender identity.
The law right now requires one notification, and parents can opt out.
The new policy also forbids transgender women from competing in women's sports leagues. Smith said the government will work with leagues to set up co-ed or general-neutral divisions for sports.
It's unclear which changes would be done by law or by government policy and when any of the changes would take effect.
Smith said she didn't want to encourage or allow children to alter their biology or growth because she said it would pose a risk.
"Making permanent and irreversible decisions regarding one's biological sex while still a youth can severely limit that child's choices in the future," she said.
"Prematurely encouraging or enabling children to alter their very biology or natural growth, no matter how well intentioned and sincere, poses a risk to that child's future that I, as premier, am not comfortable with permitting in our province."
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