A Review of Danielle Smith's New Gender Policies
Puberty Blockers, Bottom Surgery, What is a Woman, and more!
Danielle Smith surprisingly introduced new policies and laws concerning the treatment of minors with gender dysphoria in Alberta on Jan 31, 2024. In this article, I’ll first go through her argument, then through my opinion on the two most important policies she introduced, and finally critique her muddled use of gendered language.
Her argument was quite straightforward (full transcript of the video at the bottom of the page):
Premise 1: Parents, leaders, and the community have a duty to protect children from making life-altering decisions that limit their options before they are old enough to decide for themselves.
Premise 2: Transitioning is a life-altering decision that severely limits the options of children.
Conclusion: Therefore, parents, leaders, and the community are responsible for protecting children from transitioning.
The individual policies:
o No top or bottom surgery until 18 years. No puberty blockers/cross sex hormones for the purpose of gender affirmation before 16, except for those who have already started them.
o Minors who are 16 and 17 can take puberty blockers/cross sex hormones for reassignment/affirmation purposes, but need parental consent.
o School lessons on identity, sexuality, or gender need parental opt-in. All 3rd party educational material must be approved by the Ministry of Education before being taught in the classroom.
o Minors 15 and under need parental consent to change their name and pronouns.
o Minors 16 and 17 do not need consent to change their name and pronouns, but parents must be notified.
o Women will get the option to compete in a female-only bracket. There will also be a co-ed bracket.
As you can see, most of the individual policies do not follow from the argument’s conclusion. Females playing with males or having others refer to you with a different pronoun/name are not “life altering decisions.” A separate justification for these policies would have been good.
The two policies that were justified in the video were banning top/bottom surgery and banning puberty blockers/hormone therapy. These were, in my opinion, the most important ones, and also the ones that the media and most people seemed to focus on.
Banning top/bottom surgery seems like a no-brainer. When you remove your ovaries and womb, you become infertile. When you remove your vagina and clitoris, you lose sexual sensation. When you remove your breasts, you lose your ability to breastfeed. When you create a fake penis out of your own flesh, you lose the muscle from the body part that the flesh is removed from and become frail (see phalloplasty and vaginoplasty).
There’s no going back from surgery, which is why such permanent decisions must be considered very carefully before going through with. Kids cannot make such decisions rationally, and should thus be protected from the consequences of choosing incorrectly. The parents of kids with gender dysphoria are emotionally manipulated by gender affirming psychologists with the question: “do you want a trans kid or a dead kid?” And thus, in a situation as irrational and emotional as this, it is important that the government lays down guard rails to prevent irreversible damage.
Preventing puberty blockers and gender-affirming cross-sex hormones from being used on kids is also a very good idea. Contrary to the misinformation spread by the Alberta Medical Association, puberty blockers do cause irreversible changes and are not safe. Kids who do not go through puberty will have weaker bones because puberty blockers stop calcium from being laid down in bones (see 1, and also pg. 65 of 232 from Trans by Helen Joyce). The loss of sexual feeling or desire is another one. One drug used to block puberty, Lupron, is also used to chemically castrate sexual offenders. There is no proof that stopping puberty blockers means that puberty will resume as usual. The government should prevent doctors from giving kids drugs that cause them harm, and prevent kids from making these trade-offs before they are mature enough to do so.
The claim that trans medical care should remain between doctor and patient completely ignores how ideologically corrupt this field of medicine has become. Doctors, nurses, parents and therapists who even question, let alone push back against, the model of gender affirming care are subjected to a barrage of hate, socially ostracized, and risk losing their livelihoods and kids. Dr. Eithan Hain is one such surgeon who was threatened with prosecution after blowing the whistle on child sex-change surgeries being continued at Texas Children’s Hospital after the hospital promised they’d stop. A BC father was charged with “family violence” for referring to his daughter with her birth name after she started to transition into a man. The Trudeau government also made conversion therapy illegal in 2021, making talking someone out of transitioning illegal. And a Muslim mother who exposed queer activist Jeffrey Marshall as a child groomer was doxed and threatened along with her two daughters by other trans activists. If medical care is to be politicized and doctors muzzled, then let it be politicized in favour of what is right.
Skipping a media release and going straight to twitter was great! Jyoti Gondek wrote that this was a calculated move that lets Smith avoid journalistic engagement. This seems implausible. Smith has been criticized in the media, by other politicians, on social media, and in other press conferences. It is good that she skipped the media because the media is biased towards allyship. We now know this empirically. When the CBC covered Saskatchewan’s parental rights law a few months ago, they covered critics of the law 5x more than supporters. The CBC always cited experts who were critical of the parental rights law, never experts who thought the bill was good. If the media cannot present a story neutrally, then politicians should stop granting them the opportunity to break the story.
Lastly, I found the language she used to refer to men and women to be deeply confused and muddled, suggesting that Smith herself is deeply confused on such fundamental questions as “what is a woman.” Sometimes she refers to trans women as biological females, even though trans women are biological males. Sometimes she refers to trans women as “transgender females” instead of transgender women. It can be quite funny because she contradicts herself in the speech. At the start of her speech, she refers to the “unfair advantages that young women and girls are experiencing when competing with biologically stronger transgender females.” Later on she says “unfair disadvantages...” Despite her muddled use of terms, I doubt she would consider a woman to be an adult human female: she considers trans women to be women, and says so clearly at 5:44:
“It is not beneficial for those women, including those who are transgender, for this divisive and sometimes dangerous situation to continue.” (emphasis mine)
She confuses terms for gender (man, woman, boys, girls) with terms for sex (male, female) and uses them interchangeably. She does not understand that one’s biological sex is either male or female and cannot change: you’re still a female even if your uterus is removed (whether it be to eradicate cancer or to transition), and always will be. She also considers trans women (males who appear female) to be women.
Overall, her decision to make policy on children with gender dysphoria was courageous, and a step in the right direction. I hope one day that a journalist asks her to define what a woman is. It would likely reveal that her speech and her personal opinions are shared by the same trans activists who vociferously oppose her new policy.
TRANSCRIPT
(0s):
My fellow Albertans, today I wish to address a very sensitive issue involving our children and gender identity. This is not always an easy conversation to have. I strongly believe that we as a society must support and reach out with kindness and inclusion to those who identify as transgender and work to eliminate the discrimination they often experience in their lives. As premier of this province, I want every Albertan that identifies as transgender to know I care deeply about you. And I accept you as you are. As long as I lead this province, I will ensure you are supported and your rights are protected. In the case of children age 17 and under who identify as transgender, I also want you to know that you are loved and supported as you work through your often changing emotions, feelings, and beliefs.
(44s):
As we all know, children and teenagers are in a constant state of biological, social, emotional, and sexual development and change. They're constantly learning about themselves, trying new things, dealing with biological changes, and trying to understand a wide range of new thoughts and feelings. It's a very complicated time. In my view, one of the greatest responsibilities we as parents, teachers, and community leaders have is to preserve for our children the right to grow and develop into mature adults so that they are better prepared to make the most impactful decisions affecting their lives. Decisions like choosing a career, a partner, raising children, their interaction with legal drugs like alcohol and cannabis, their sexual activities and preferences, and many other adult choices.
(1m 28s):
It is my view that list of adult choices includes deciding whether or not to alter one's biological sex. Making permanent and irreversible decisions regarding one's biological sex, while still a youth, can severely limit that child's choices in the future. 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. Similarly, the risks and unfair advantages that young women and girls are experiencing when competing with biologically stronger transgender females in sporting competitions have also grown too high.
(2m 9s):
After much discussion, the government caucus and I have therefore decided to implement the following policies and guidelines as it relates to transgender minors and athletes, including additional supports to assist transgender adults to secure the healthcare they need, and the counseling support for youth identifying as transgender to ensure they can successfully work their way through their complex feelings and emotions as they grow to adulthood. First, on the issue of gender reassignment treatments for minors. For minors age 17 and under, top and bottom gender reassignment surgeries will not be permitted. For children age 15 and under, puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the purpose of gender reassignment or affirmation will also not be permitted with the exception of those who've already commenced their treatment.
(2m 55s):
At this time. Minors age 16 and 17 will be permitted to commence hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes, so long as they are deemed mature enough to make these decisions and have parental physician and psychologist approval. For transgender adults, our government is currently working to attract one or more medical professionals to practice in Alberta who specialize in transgender surgery to ensure those individuals transitioning have access to an expert in Alberta to assist them with their extremely unique and complex medical needs, rather than going to Quebec, which is now the practice. We'll also be building a private registry of medical professionals who specialize in this field to better support the lifelong healthcare needs of transgender Albertans, including access to needed hormones and surgery aftercare.
(3m 42s):
When it comes to classroom instruction on subject matter involving gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality, we will be requiring parental notification and an opt-in requirement for each instance a teacher intends to give formal instruction on these subjects. Furthermore, all third party resource materials or presentations related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality in our K through 12 school system will need to be pre-approved by the Ministry of Education to ensure the materials are age appropriate. For a minor age 15 and under, the government will require parental notification and consent for a school to alter the name or pronouns of a child.
(4m 24s):
For 16 and 17 year olds who choose to alter their name or pronouns, parents do not need to give consent, but they must be notified. We know that nearly all parents, even those who may disagree with the decision of their children, will love and care for their children no matter what choices they make. However, in the handful of rare situations where one or both of the parents reject or become abusive to a child who identifies as transgender, we have child protection laws that will be strictly enforced. The government is also designing a pilot project to provide appropriate counseling services to support parents and youth identifying as transgender to work through the unique challenges these families face. We encourage all teachers, parents, classmates, and youth volunteers to be on the watch for any instances of bullying of youth or children for any reason, so adults can assist with putting a stop to it the moment it is detected.
(5m 15s):
Our government also needs to deal with the emerging issue of the unfair disadvantages that young women and girls are experiencing when competing with biologically stronger transgender female athletes in sporting competitions. I strongly believe that those who were born male, but have transitioned to or identify as female are owed the opportunity to meaningfully participate in sport. However, there are obvious biological realities that give transgender female athletes a massive competitive advantage over women and girls. It is not beneficial for those women, including those who are transgender, for this divisive and sometimes dangerous situation to continue. That is why the Alberta government will work with sporting organizations active in our province to ensure that women and girls have the choice to compete in a women's only division in athletic competitions, and are not forced to compete against biologically stronger transgender female athletes.
(6m 9s):
We'll also work with those same sporting organizations to ensure transgender athletes are able to meaningfully participate in the sport of their choice through the expansion of co-ed or other gender neutral divisions for athletic competitions. I understand how controversial and divisive discussions on topics of sexuality and gender can be, especially when those conversations involve children. I would therefore ask that as we work through implementing these policies, that we as adults in this province do all we can to depoliticize the discussion and focus on the wellbeing of the children involved. Whether they're young people identifying as transgender or who find themselves attracted to those of the same sex, or simply trying to understand the complex and often changing emotions and feelings of being teenagers, they all need our unconditional love and support, and it's to those children and teens that I wanna say just how much we love you and support you in becoming the person you want to be.
(7m 5s):
You never have to feel alone or isolated. If you do, reach out to your parents, family members, teachers, a coach, or other trusted adults and ask for support. We as the adults in your life will be there for you to make sure you know just how amazing and precious you are. Thank you for listening.