This week, Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith, came out with some new laws that are going to make life just a little harder for a lot young people out there.  If you haven’t heard, she is instituting various restrictions against people under 17 who have decided their sex doesn’t fit their gender.  Some of them are clearly short-sighted, even dangerous, but with others there’s some room to argue.  In particular, new restrictions against boys and girls under the age of 15 from having hormonal therapy are among those which I think can be argued.  Before we hit puberty our hormones are already doing a lot of stuff, and it’s not clear yet what long term effects their might be from having additional hormones added to the mix.  The restrictions go too far, of course, a total ban is simply quick and mindless, not taking individual considerations and concerns into account. And when we note that trans teens commit suicide at a rate five times that of their cis-gendered counterparts, we can’t afford to be mindless about this.  But there are ways that we could mitigate the risk, and, if nothing else, requiring a teen to be assessed by a professional before allowing such hormonal treatments also gives the opportunity to perhaps head off that suicide risk.

Among the short-sighted ones are those that require parents to opt-in on every class or discussion where sex, sexuality, or gender is going to be talked about.  Because nothing works better for keeping kids from doing the wrong thing than not educating them, I assume is the logic she’s using on this one.  This law means, for one thing, that the idea of free flowing conversation between teacher and students is stifled.  Let’s face it, most kids, especially teens, are interested in sex in some fashion, whether as part of their identity, something they don’t want to be pressured into, something that’s fun, or what have you. It’s a major part of the human experience and as teens are coming to grips with who they are  it will occasionally come up in conversation, especially with teachers that they trust.  Those teachers now have to shut that conversation down, even if the parents would approve of it, because the parental consent needs to be given before the subject comes up.  So good luck, Alice, you’ll just have to figure out the best birth control from your friends and the internet, and hope what you find isn’t misinformation.

And among the dangerous? Schools are no longer allowed to refer to student by their chosen gender without informing the parents.  Parents are just people though. There’s good ones and bad ones.  And informing mom and dad that Robert prefers Roberta when they’re both dead set on having a Robert can lead to trauma or even abuse depending on the attitudes of certain parents.  As a result, kids are simply going to try to repress those feelings, but repression doesn’t work well when something is a key part of who you are, hence the five times number above.

Meanwhile, this week, we start off interviewing a student who has graduated from AU and now is taking her master’s courses here as well.  Find out what barriers she’s had to overcome in the latest installment of Minds We Meet!  Also, I have the council meeting report up from the first AUSU Council meeting of the new year. It was a big one with the audit report, and the report of the executive compensation review committee that determines the wages of the AUSU Council executives.  Find out what’s changed and who voted against it in our Council Connection.  We’re also featuring the start of a new column this week.  If you’re familiar with our AU-Thentic events column, you may be among those who wish they could attend some of the things AU and AUSU hosts, but never seem to have the time.  Not to fear, our own Natalia Iwanek has taken up the gauntlet to attend some of these events and bring you a report on what goes on inside.  It’s your very own VIP ticket and you don’t even need to take the time to go!

Enjoy the read!