To the Editor:
This is a sorry thing to see, having the safety and confidentiality of trans children and the judgment of their parents torn away by this new Alberta potential legislation around gender identity.
It's also sorry to see how many people think that the care and preservation of one's reproductive organs are more important than one's mental health. This is a draconian legislation that will impact a very small group of people who just want to live their own lives.
The number of trans people getting surgery every year in this province is much less than the number of Albertans hospitalized because of Covid since August, yet we don't hear our premier talking about that or the rural emergency departments closed on weekends, or the potential forest fire season if we don't get more snow. Top and bottom surgery has never been easy, simple or fast to access (especially not at all easy for children), and puberty blockers do not create irreversible effects on youth.
And if teachers could brainwash kids, wouldn't they have trained them all to hand their homework in on time? Or use deodorant or stop swearing or not bully other kids in the playground or on the school bus?
This witch hunt of trans children, already at higher risk for suicide, traumatic bullying and homelessness (homeless because homophobic parents do exercise their "rights" to kick their children out onto the street) is a great way to deflect us from focusing on real existential issues like a 50-degree temperature swing from -40 C to +10 C in January, an upcoming drought in Southern Alberta or the epidemic of homelessness and drug overdoses.
Common sense must be used to combat the toxic conspiracy theories that have infected our politics!
Monica Rosborough, Athabasca
