November 5th, 2024

Province introduces transgender legislation


By Lethbridge Herald on October 31, 2024.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, left, and Tiffany Gillis, right, watch as Kellie-Lynn Pirie speaks about Smith introducing three bills to do with transgender issues in Edmonton, on Thursday Oct. 31, 2024.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

The Alberta government is introducing wide-ranging legislation addressing transgender youth in the province.

Amendments to the Health Professions Act announced Thursday will prohibit sex reassignment surgery from being performed by on minors in Alberta and prohibit the prescription of hormone therapy drugs including puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapies for gender dysphoria or incongruence in minors unless permitted under ministerial order.

Amendments also include new definitions for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence and minor which will be added to the Health Protection Act to ensure it is clear in legislation to whom and when the prohibitions will apply.

The province is also adding a new definition to the term ‘sex reassignment surgery” which will include a list of 10 procedures within the definition.

The province says the amendments are aimed at strengthening the protection of Albertans’ rights while increasing Alberta’s health care system’s capacity to respond during a public health emergency. Information supplied to media says the government “is seeking to balance emergency health measures with civil liberties and to minimize the real and/or perceived infringements on individual freedoms.”

A ministerial order will allow the establishment of binding provincial clinical guidelines which set out exceptions when minors can be prescribed puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapies.

If passed, the HPA amendments wouldn’t ban any specific drugs. And amendments won’t prevent Albertans from changing the gender listed on their birth certificates.

The government is also going to introduce the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act to ensure women and girls have the chance to compete in leagues and divisions that are for biological females only.

This act will require organizations to establish, implement and maintain policies relevant to their respective sports.

The act will apply to school authorities, post-secondary institutions and provincial sports organizations.

Under the act, organizations will be required to report complaints relating to athlete eligibility and how they were handled, requests to establish mixed gender or mixed sex leagues, classes or divisions and the establishment of mixed gender or mixed sex leagues, classes or divisions.

The act also establishes protection from liability for following the requirements in good faith to the Crown or its ministers, employees, appointees or agents, organizations subject to the act and participants in a relevant sport.

The regulations will clarify the specifics of athlete eligibility policies which include eligibility for female-only divisions to female-born athletes.

The province expects eligibility requirements to come into effect in the fall of 2025.

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Kal Itea

UCP taking Alberta back step-by-step to 1928, ugly, and shameful:
: “Forced sterilization was “common practice” at some residential schools and Indian hospitals in that era, but it also occurred in the child welfare and correctional systems, Redsky said.
The practice was first passed into law in Alberta in 1928 under Alberta’s Sexual Sterilization Act, which arose from the eugenics movement. British Columbia followed suit five years later, and the provinces didn’t repeal the laws until the 1970s.
source: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/new-registry-seeks-to-determine-the-national-scope-of-forced-sterilization-of-indigenous-people/article_b76ad08c-97ed-11ef-bd71-779d0d445d7d.html

DougCameron

I have no problem with people that are transgender or any other part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. I do have to agree with the UCP on this one concerning youth. I think back to when I was a young lad and even into my early twenties (my wife would say much older) the poor decisions I made. Young minds that are still developing and making life changing decisions that they might regret later, is too big of a risk, in my humble opinion. If when they are of an adult age, if they feel the same way, then at least they are more prepared to make those decisions. As an example, why do you think that drug dealers and tobacco companies (now vaping) want the youth to start using their “products”? It’s because their brains are still developing, and they make bad decisions. Anyway, these are just my personal opinions the same as others may look at things in a different light. It’s food for thought from both sides.

Last edited 3 days ago by DougCameron
IMO

Sadly, DougCameron, transgender or 2SLGBTQIA+ folk don’t just wake up one morning as young people and come to the conclusion they are gender diverse. You have been conned by the UCP to accept this thinly veiled MAGA Madness. Physicians who work with gender diverse youth should be the professionals consulted on the topic. Not some radical right-wing group currently at the rudder of the UCP party. This legislation DOES NOT protect kids, as is touted by the premier. This legislation protects the premier. Period.

https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-premier-s-policy-changes-around-trans-youth-could-be-harmful-doctors-1.6752908

DougCameron

IMO: Read my post and then read yours. I clearly stated that this was just my opinion. Your post tells me in no uncertain terms that I am wrong, and you are right. Get it? Also, for your information, I voted NDP the last two elections. I don’t get conned by anyone but come to my own conclusions based on fact checking (which is getting extremely hard now-a-days) I also listen to other opinions and actually have changed my mind on several issues over the years. So, in conclusion, try to keep an open mind and have respect for those with different opinions than your own.

IMO

Unfortunately, DougCameron, opinion is just that – it is merely opinion. Did you miss my point that medical professionals who work in the gender diversity field of medicine should be consulted on what is best practice for youth who identify as gender diverse?

alexseens

Жақында қызығушылық үшін онлайн бәс тігуді байқап көргім келіп, іздеу арқылы андроид таптым. Сайтты телефон арқылы пайдаланған өте ыңғайлы болды. Ең ұнағаны – бонустары; оларда алғашқы бонус бар, сонымен қатар үнемі жаңарып тұратын акциялар оны қызықты ете түседі. Спорт түрлері мен казино ойындарының кең таңдауы бар, сондықтан әрдайым сынап көруге жаңа нәрсе табылады.

lumpy

What’s with the big ‘side-eye’, Tiffany?

biff

govt needs to keep out of the minds and bodies of people – a most basic right, along with privacy. ever the more those areas, which must be sacrosanct, get infringed upon. abnormal is the idea that govt, any third party, including the “majority”, should have any determination over one’s conscience, beliefs, and mutual consent one with another, and what one chooses for their body, so long as the rights of another are not infringed upon.
more simply put: mind your business and stop minding the business of others where your rights are not at issue.

Last edited 2 days ago by biff
IMO

Good point, biff. There is an additional problem with this legislation in that it appears to contradict all of the rhetoric around the “rights of parents” and the proposed legislation re same. This begs the question how are the rights of parents protected on the one hand while these very same rights are taken away on the other?



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