Parental and Gender Identity Bills Passed
More work to be done
On Dec 4th, 2024, all three parental rights and gender bills were passed by the Alberta government. This means children under 16 will be protected from transitioning into another gender, biological girls will not have to compete with biological boys in sport and parents will know what their children are doing at school, most of the time (more on this below). This is worth celebrating! However, the bills will likely not be enforced until next year. The government also anticipates that activist groups will sue to keep the law from being implemented. This means we need to keep the pressure up on our elected officials.
Gay-Straight Alliances Exempt
As one of our partner organizations, Parents for Choice in Education (PCE) detailed in our last letter, Bill 27 ensures that parents know everything their underage youth learn and know at school. However, events, lessons and conversations at gay-straight alliance (GSAs) clubs are exempt. GSAs promote LGBTQ identity among youth and politicize these conversations, often turning youth against their parents. Activists argued that having parents know that their child is a member of a GSA would "out" them as gay or transgender and could endanger their lives. This argument treats all parents as if they were dangerous to their children when in fact the vast majority of parents love their children, regardless of their situation. It also reveals the purpose of these clubs: if these clubs are truly both for gay and straight kids, then no one can assume that a child joining that club is LGBTQ!
"Sarah" a young woman from Calgary explains that this is what happened to her when she joined a GSA at her school. She lived as a boy at school and as a girl at home without her parents knowing. Only when she faced a crisis did she tell her parents.
Concerns with GSAs
Parents for Choice in Education have raised more concerns about gay straight alliances. We need to ask the government to ensure parents know everything that is going on with their students. Read this article and share it with your MLA.
Contact your MLA
Alberta's MLAs need to know that we continue to SUPPORT parental legislation. Contact your MLA by phone, in-person or by e-mail. Use ARPA's website which will make it easier to send a personalized letter.
Responding to Opponents
Opponents of parental rights are making arguments that are simply untrue. We refute many of the arguments below:
Do we care about Kids? Yes we do! Responding to Opponents of Parental Rights Legislation
1. “Making any education about sexual orientation, gender identity, or human sexuality require parental notice and for parents to OPT-IN will undermine not just education that teaches human rights and that it’s OKAY to be gay, trans, or 2SLGBTQ+. It will also undermine all sex education - practical and essential knowledge that prevents childhood sexual abuse and which every kid has a right to learn about.”[1]
Response:
This is one of the most disturbing claims of those opposed to parental rights legislation because Alberta Education has always included a partnership with parents. To suggest that parents should not know what their children are learning on any topic takes away the fundamental right of kids to be protected by their parents. Besides, parents already have a right to know what their children are learning on any topic and this has not led to more sexual abuse, suicide or other harms.
The government mandate for the education department already acknowledges the right of parents to be involved in every part of the provincial curriculum. It states:
- Working collaboratively with parents, teachers, and stakeholders to continue to implement K to12 curriculum, and implement additional basic life and home maintenance skills as well as financial literacy training into the high school curriculum where appropriate.[2]
2. “I want to believe that most parents are good parents who, of course, want to know what’s going on in their children’s lives and would learn and support their kid if they came out as 2SLGBTQ+. But policies have to be made with the most vulnerable in mind, and take into account that some parents are homophobic, transphobic, and abusive.”
Response:
There are already laws in place that protect kids from harmful parents. In fact, according to the Alberta Children and Family services website, “Alberta’s Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act requires anyone who believes a child is at risk to report their concern.[3]” It goes on to say, “The Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act provides authority for Child and Youth Services to provide services in support of children who are abused, neglected or otherwise in need of intervention. As a last resort, the Act allows for children to be apprehended if they are not safe in their own homes...[4]” Of course, this means children who come out as LGBTQ have the same legal protections as any other child. This argument provides no evidence that another law is needed.
3. “Forcing teachers to out youth who are questioning, exploring, or transitioning in their gender identity to their parents creates an incredibly dangerous situation for vulnerable kids. Let’s trust kids to know their parents and know if and when it’s safe to come out to them.
Response:
The assertion that Alberta parents are a danger to their children because they know about their child’s sexual or gender identity, assumes that kids can only be protected by schools, peers or even strangers. There is no reason to suggest that Alberta’s parents aren’t loving or supportive of their children. No one loves a child like mom and dad.
The argument also assumes that parents must agree with every decision their minor children make in order to care for them. But parents disagree with their children’s decisions all the time and do so because they love their children. This is why parental rights are guaranteed in Alberta law. As adults, parents understand the consequences of decisions that children do not have the capacity to. Living as another gender apart from your biological body is a life-altering decision, especially if it involves medical intervention. With every other medical issue (except abortion), parents are legally required to be involved in their child’s life.
The argument also makes no distinction between a six-year-old child and a sixteen-year-old child. It advances polices that would allow children as young as five or nine to declare their gender identity without guidance and support from those who know them best: their parents. Yet any good parent knows that children do not fully understand what they are choosing. This is why we don’t “trust” kids at that age to choose their bedtimes or meals. Why would you “trust” them to choose their identity if they can’t choose to eat ice cream for lunch?
4. “It’s well established that gender-affirming healthcare saves lives. There’s also no such thing as under 18 bottom surgery in Canada. Transgender people access care in a step by step way with doctors, counselling, and due diligence at every stage.”
“More youth will die by suicide if they are cut off from hormones or puberty blockers and prevented from living as the gender that fits them.”
Response:
The studies are inconclusive at best and deceitful at worst. These studies rely on a small sample size (there was not enough people interviewed to make a conclusion), did not follow the long-term health of patients, and often ignored or even covered up conclusions that did not agree with activists’ conclusions. An extensive study by doctors and other medical experts lays out major problems with this assertion:
Those of us who support parental rights legislation want all kids to be safe and healthy. We do not want any child do commit suicide. Putting aside the debate on transitioning children, we should all be able to agree that a child who is willing to kill herself because she does not get what she wants, is not well. That child deserves all our support to live by helping her see that killing herself because parents may disagree with her on a difficult issue, is never the solution.
[1] https://www.antihate.ca/letter_to_danielle_smith
[3] https://www.alberta.ca/children-and-family-services
Members of our Coalition
Redeeming Conversations.ca
Redeeming Conversations.ca
Redeeming Conversations.ca
RC is a Christian apologetics ministry based in Calgary, Alberta.
AllFiredUpForFreedom.com
Redeeming Conversations.ca
Redeeming Conversations.ca
Supporting events and initiatives for the protection and restoration of individual rights, individual freedoms, and individual responsibilities.
Detrans Alliance Canada
Redeeming Conversations.ca
Detrans Alliance Canada
An alliance of former transgender people who have now returned to their biological sex. Find them on Facebook.
Alberta Parents' Union
Redeeming Conversations.ca
Detrans Alliance Canada
The Alberta Parents’ Union advocates for the best possible education for all Alberta students - whether that be public, separate, francophone, alternative, charter, independent, or home education.
We are parents (and also grandparents, guardians, and even some teachers) of K-12 students all across our province.
We aim to empower parents wit
The Alberta Parents’ Union advocates for the best possible education for all Alberta students - whether that be public, separate, francophone, alternative, charter, independent, or home education.
We are parents (and also grandparents, guardians, and even some teachers) of K-12 students all across our province.
We aim to empower parents with the information and tools they need to ensure every child in Alberta achieves their full potential.
Alberta Muslim Social Association
The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform
Alberta Muslim Social Association
Parents for Choice in Education
The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform
Alberta Muslim Social Association
The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform
The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform
The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform