Marlaina Danielle Smith’s New Transgender Policies For Youth

From the Feb 2 2024 Town Hall Medicine Hat Public Library

Photo Credit Kelly Allard

By Kelly Allard

I think we can all agree – no matter what side of the political spectrum you identify with, we all want to protect children from changes and surgery they will regret.

The New Legislation Will Restrict all Transgender Surgery for Youth Under the age of 18

This makes as much sense as passing a law forbidding unicorns to marry griffins.

For bottom surgery to be covered by AHS, the General Referral Criteria states that patient must be 18 and over.

Source - Document Med 166A

The Clinical Referral Criteria states that they must have already had the required preliminary surgeries prior to getting bottom surgery which would include top surgery.

(NB – top surgery is not just mastectomies but also implants for M-F transition.)

Unless they change this policy, this means that bottom surgery cannot be done at the age of 18, they will have to wait even longer.

They don’t even do the bottom surgery in Alberta, it’s done in Quebec. That’s how rare the surgery is.

(I find it disturbing that our premier does not know these guidelines since she said that a youth in her family is transitioning right now. I found this in about 5 minutes.)

The Canadian Paediatric Society says

“While gender-affirming surgeries are less commonly performed for adolescents, TGD youth may identify surgery as one of their transition goals. It should also be made clear that ‘bottom’ or ‘lower’ surgeries are already limited to individuals 18 years of age and older. “

The new legislation will ban the use of puberty blockers until the age of 16

Puberty blockers are not permanent, puberty resumes when they are stopped. The use of these medications allow the child essential time to consider their decision to transition.

This site outlines when the 5 different stages of puberty happen.

Stage 1 - Internal changes starts at ages 8-10.

Stage 2 - Physical changes start between ages 9-11 for females, age 11 for males.

Stage 5 – The final stage starts at about age 15, the body changes are permanent.

Source Healthline.com

Puberty blockers will also prevent the issue of transgender people in sports if the secondary characteristics of their natal gender are blocked.

some people worry that

“Tom-boys” Will be Encouraged to Transition

I was a “tom-boy” growing up. I hated wearing dresses and skirts, even now it is rare that I wear one. I don’t get my nails done, I don’t sit for hours in the stylist chair. I don’t have pretty shoes (mostly because none will fit my mutant feet).

Do I have gender dysphoria?

No

I’ve never wanted to be a male or wanted male body parts.

I’ve never been distressed at the development of my own body parts.

I’ve never been distressed at being female (other than the monthly nuisance).

I’ve never asked to be called by a different name (in all fairness, my name is unisex).

At most I would be classified as

“Nonconformity to Gender Roles
Children/youth with gender nonconformity are those whose behavior or gender expression does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. They may or may not also have gender dysphoria.”

Source ementalhealth.ca/primarycare

Opt-In Process for Sexual Education Including Gender Indentity, Sexual Orientation and Human Sexuality

As a grandparent, I’m appalled at this. I raised 4 children and sometimes they would learn things in school I did not always agree with.

What did I do?

Did I demand the right to opt-in, to know everything they were being taught?

No.

I listened to them. We discussed the issue. Often someone would be “Devil’s Advocate”.

Sometimes the children agreed with me.

Sometimes the children were able to teach me something and I changed my point of view.

I taught my children to question authority, that included questioning my own beliefs.

I taught my children to think for themselves so they were not able to be indoctrinated by anybody

I taught my children to never to believe something on faith, to withhold judgment until all the facts were in.

Mandatory Reporting to Parents of

Pronoun, Name Changes

Again, this disturbs me very much. Children are entitled to their privacy. Changing their name and/or pronouns at school may be a way of exploring how they like it before talking to their parents about it.

It is our role as parents to raise our children to be independent creatures. We do this by allowing them to make more and more of their own decisions – age appropriate of course.

If we control every bit of their lives they will never learn how to function as adults; they will be dependent on others to do their thinking for them. Yes, it means they will make some mistakes on the way. We often learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes.

If children are not allowed to confide in someone they trust without it being reported to their parents, they will keep it all inside.

Unfortunately, there are children who are not safe at home. Their parents are unsupportive at best, abusive at worst. It is my experience that parents who demand to know every little detail of their child’s lives are the ones most likely to have something to hide.

Transgender youth are 5 times more likely to have suicidal ideation.

Marlaina’s polices will cause more harm than good.

#yxh #medicinehat #comtv #communitytv #thetrashpanda #daniellesmith #marlainasmith #ucp #Ableg #alberta #transgender #genderdysphoria #transition