Deja vu with a twist
Like Jason Kenney, Danielle Smith rode a wave of hate into the Premier's Office. Unlike Kenney, Smith knows full well what non-compliance will bring.
This Week in AB
Danielle Smith is not compassionate; she’s willfully ignorant
On January 31, Danielle Smith released a soft-spoken video introducing potential policy she may or may not use the strength of government to enforce at some unknown point in the future. In political-speak, we’d call this as a “trial balloon”. With that in mind, and because no proposed legislation actually exists, I cannot speak to what Smith may or may not actually propose at some unknown point in the future.
Instead, I’m just going to point out the facts.
If you’re online, you’ve seen the hate from these so-called “parental rights advocates”. They use antiquated terms like “mental illness” for anyone who doesn’t agree with their perceived notions of gender conformity.
They couch their arguments in “protecting” children while relying on faulty logic and refuted science.
The truth of the matter is that LGBTQ2S+ people have existed far longer than these people have been advocating against them.
Take this guy, for example:
By 1950, gender-affirmation surgery was already 20 years old. The first-of-its-kind clinic opened in Germany in 1919. Of course, by 1950, the Nazis had already burned it — and all of Dr. Hirschfeld’s research — to the ground.
Not that the act made transgender people disappear.
Fast-forward to this century — after decades more research with input from people who are transgender — and medical professionals have generally come to accept that denying gender-affirming care is far more harmful than providing it to the 0.002 per cent of the population who find themselves in need.
Those are facts.
Unfortunately, misinformation on the topic is carefully constructed and used to manipulate people who would otherwise support children in their growth and journey to discover themselves as individuals.
I am separating bad actors who are intent on imposing their will on everyone else with those who get caught up in the fear they are successfully instilling. I’m willing to offer some compassion for those who don’t know any better, but I draw the line at offering any to otherwise smart people who refuse to entertain the ample evidence to the contrary.
Being scared — or politically opportunistic — is simply not good enough.
The doctor-patient relationship doesn’t have room for the government
“As for treatments, the effects of puberty-blocking agents are not irreversible, and once treatment stops, puberty goes forward. Puberty blocking actually has benefits for gender-divergent patients by preventing development of mature secondary sex characteristics so that, later in life, the most invasive gender-affirming surgery may not be necessary if the patient moves forward with gender-affirming care. Bottom surgery in Canada is already limited to patients over 18 years.” ~Alberta Medical Association
In case anyone has forgotten, the anti-mandate folks got it into their heads that they should be able to have their doctors prescribe treatment that random politicians with no medical expertise threw out into the public domain with zero regard for the consequences.
That’s not how medical research works, but it does strike me that those same folks, to whom Alberta’s Premier is both sympathetic and indebted, are hell bent on ensuring the “unfairness” they encountered trickles down.
Their anger and frustration has been welcomed into the greater movement of social conservatism that preys on the religiously-affiliated. That may seem like a giant leap, but it’s hard to ignore that much of the pushback against women’s rights, children’s rights, and LGBTQ2S+ rights comes from documents written in defence of a vengeful overseer whose omnipotence begins with oppression by and supremacy of powerful men, and ends at preventing human suffering at their hands.
I’m biased, obviously, because my gender wasn’t afforded any “God-given” rights by the original authors; but, I digress.
Canadians are not immune to the oppressive movements targeting everyone but men in power south of the border. In fact, we’re already seeing the infection spread much too quickly in our politics.
While we are fortunate to have many supporters for the continuation of rights to healthcare, Danielle Smith has shown she will not stand with them, or those who benefit from their existence.
That puts the rest of us at risk to the whims of those who have her ear as well.
I don’t know what it’s like to be transgender
In a conversation about this topic with one of my sons when he was 17, I offered him a little thought experiment.
“Imagine you feel like you in every way,” I said. “You’re comfortable with how you see yourself inside and you like that version of yourself. Now, imagine if you felt like you in every way but you were born with a vagina.”
He responded with a wide-eyed look of what I can only describe as horror.
Lucky for him, that’s not his reality.
I have never forgotten another deeply disturbing story, however, and that, in conjunction with my own experience of hearing terms like “tomboy” and “effeminate” used as insults, brought me to a place of rejecting gender “norms” as less than ideal.
David Reimer was born in Manitoba in 1965. He was a twin. During a routine circumcision, the doctor accidentally cut the child’s penis off. The decision was made to raise David as “Brenda” instead. Despite being under the age of one when this began, David never comfortably grew into being “Brenda”.
His tragic story is how I understand the futility, and harm, of gender expectations that are still being forced on children today, either through well-meaning guidance, or more harmful means like peer pressure, advertising, and “influencers”.
I, for one, am hopeful that the movement to accept children and adults regardless of how they choose to express their gender, will one day benefit every individual whose rights were gained only by social upheaval.
Final thoughts
If you or someone you know could benefit from reading one parent’s ongoing journey with their transgender child in Alberta, this is an amazing thread.