Alberta Canada restricts 'transing' children

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/danielle-smith-unveils-sweeping-changes-to-alberta-s-student-gender-identity-sports-and-surgery-policies-1.7101053

'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. '

Seems pretty robust.

''"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."

More detail is coming at a news conference on Thursday afternoon. '

Oh, I saw something on Amy Hamm's twitter hinting at something. I thought it was the judgment on her case (while should be due any day), perhaps it was this?

It does seem reasonable.

Yes it does seem measured and reasonable, but I'm going to speculate that the TRA side will be howling about how terrible and bigoted she is and possibly federal law makers trying to over-ride the provisions. Let's hope that they don't succeed.

Gosh is that really Canada?

Listening to her full announcement on Twitter/X it seems that Alberta proposes to go even further than the UK to protect kids. Well done that woman.

https://twitter.com/ABDanielleSmith/status/1752814944716734935

This sounds pretty reasonable. Patients are classed as adolescents if under 25 years old. My daughter found this out whilst under gynaecology, he explained it to us, very surprising.

So if we are still classed as adolescents then why not make 25 years of age the legal limit to be able to permit hormones or top and bottom surgery?

It is evidence that as the consequences of this massive experiment on children and young people is emerging, the impacts are so grim that politicians are starting to step up to protect children.

Snippit, I’d agree as a long term aim, but given where Canada has been, this is huge progress.

While there may be a tiny number of people who feel they have benefited from earlier treatment, the irreparable damage done to others makes it, in my opinion, not worth the risk

Teens aged 16 and 17 can start hormone therapy as long as they have permission from their parents, a physician and a psychologist.

Belt and braces approach. Love it.

I'd like to see the physicians and the psychologists specifically trained and licensed before they can sign off on these treatments. No shopping around for a nodding dog or trans activist who'll sign anything. Perhaps they'd need to be specifically insured so that patients will have some recourse?

This is a multi-faceted law, dealing with sport, children, adult transpeople, teaching in schools. It will be interesting to see the reaction to this. I don’t know much about the Canadian system, is Alberta a right wing area of Canada? Will we see other districts taking a similar approach?

There have been glimmers of sense in other areas, I believe, but this is the boldest so far accrording to the Globe and Mail:

'The United Conservative Party’s policies are far more sweeping than those imposed by conservative governments in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick last year.
Premiers in those provinces last year introduced rules requiring parental consent before schools use the preferred name or pronouns of students younger than 16.
The pair drew widespread criticism and Saskatchewan invoked the notwithstanding clause to override protections offered in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In New Brunswick, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has filed a court action to overturn parts of that province’s policy.
Advocacy groups in Alberta are already preparing for a legal challenge. Egale Canada and Skipping Stone Foundation said in a joint statement that the province’s “draconian measures” run counter to expert guidance, violate constitutional rights and will lead to unimaginable harm and suffering.'

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-alberta-to-restrict-access-to-transgender-medicaal-care-for-youth/

(paywalled, archived)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67177292

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66061514

Well that’s a massive step in the right direction and that it’s coming in Canada, where they are way ahead of the legal curve on so-called “trans rights” is hopefully a strong indication of how things progress when things go too far.

It will be very interesting to see how it plays out now. A hint of the direction that things are now going, hopefully.

Very encouraging news from Canada. No small task to start turning things around there with them having fallen so far into this ideology, good for her.

Seems reasonable to me. There’s the issue of teens not being able to appreciate the magnitude of choosing to destroy their future fertility. And then there’s the fact that puberty blockers and early surgery don’t seem to give good results for transkids either (thinking about that TCL tv show following the young transgirl/woman from pre-puberty to disastrous vaginoplasty).

The countries to go for genderism most wholeheartedly seem to be the ones rowing back strongly. Hopefully that's reality asserting itself.

So encouraging. The tide is turning. Thank god.