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Contentious legislation regulating sex education, pronouns, trans women and girls’ participation in sports, and gender affirming care for trans youth will be tabled in the Alberta Legislature Thursday.
The proposed law has repeatedly made headlines since it was first suggested by Premier Danielle Smith earlier this year.
The legislation puts forward a suite of policies that include restricting transgender youth access to gender-affirming health care, banning transgender participation in female sports, and requiring parental consent or notification on sex education and changes to pronouns and names in schools.
Parents would also need to opt-in for their child to receive sex education at school. Alberta’s current system requires parents to opt-out if they don’t want their child to be in the classroom for those conversations.
Smith has long said the policies are aimed at protecting children and preserving choice.
“Adults who choose to tell children and youth that these policies were designed to hurt them, or marginalize them, that kind of rhetoric is irresponsible and harmful to the young people involved,” she said in the video posted to social media earlier this month. “It is entirely false.”
Criticism of the United Conservative’s plan has been widespread; Egale Canada, a 2SLGBTQI advocacy organization, has countered Smith with a peer-reviewed study published in Nature Magazine. The study found that anti-transgender legislation across the U.S. led to increased suicide attempts among young transgender and non-binary people.
The Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) has also expressed concern about the impact the changes would have on youth.