Alberta’s Anti-trans Proposals Appalling

by Imogen Xavier

I come before you as a trans woman, both optimistic and afraid. Deeply grateful for my rights, less than a decade of age as they may be, and filled with fear they will be taken again within my lifetime.

Below you will find an extended excerpt from Amnesty International’s reporting on the Alberta Conservative government's reactionary, transphobic policy changes. The changes are contained in the 2024 Education Amendment Act, 2024 Health Statutes Amendment Act, and the Fairness and Safety In Sport Act.  More details are provided in the Amnesty article.

Socialist Action Canada joins many other organizations in denouncing these policies and the intolerance that motivates them. After that is an introductory analysis of popular transphobic rhetoric, and its interrelation with the mechanisms of capitalism

From Article: Amnesty International Canada condemns ‘appalling’ anti-trans policy changes in Alberta

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Following the lead of Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, the Alberta government is also taking steps to impede the rights of gender-diverse children and youth in schools. However, [Premier Danielle Smith’s] proposals appear to go further and draw heavily from draconian anti-2SLGBTQQIA+ laws and curriculum changes recently imposed by some U.S. states. 

In cases where the student is 15 or younger, Alberta’s teachers will be banned from using trans and non-binary students’ preferred pronouns and gender-affirming names without the consent of their parents or guardians. For students who are 16 and 17, parents or guardians will be notified when a name or pronoun change is formally requested. In addition, Alberta will require parent or guardian consent for students to participate in any formal classroom instruction involving gender identity, sexual orientation and sexual diversity… Furthermore, all third-party resource materials 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…Alberta’s anti-2SLGBTQQIA+ measures extend to the realm of sports. Imposing restrictive regulations neglects the nuanced experiences of trans and gender-diverse athletes and fosters an environment of exclusion.

Channeling anti-2SLGBTQQIA+ hate into policy directly harms an already intersectionality marginalized group. According to a 2023 study [Misgendering and the health and wellbeing of nonbinary people in Canada, K Jacobsen et al.], trans, gender-diverse and non-binary people in Canada report much higher rates of depression, suicidal ideation and self-harm than their cisgender peers due to experiences of misgendering, invalidation and other forms of gender-based discrimination. The rights of trans and gender-diverse people belonging to racialized and historically marginalized communities were found to be at increased risk. 

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After the enshrining of gender diverse rights into the CHRA in 2016, a reactionary movement has sought to carve into those rights whatever caveats they may. In most cases this takes the form of legislating washroom access, participation in sports, and minors’ access to healthcare and education. These efforts find success because they appeal to the center-right’s fear of the unknown and discomfort with change - palatable discrimination couched in polite, moderate language with concern for the safety of women and children, so called ‘parent’s rights,’ and the most holy of capitalist ideals - the fairness of competition. While they may not seem to the layperson terribly restrictive in comparison to the hard right’s blatant exterminationism, these policies can and do have massive impacts on the lives of trans people. Those who push anti-trans narratives are quick to cherry pick anecdotes about transition regret, when in reality the vast majority of trans people only regret not transitioning earlier in life - almost always because they lacked the knowledge, resources, or support structures to do so. Dismantling gender education, access to gender affirming care, and the basic dignity of trans people serves only to create frustration and misery in our already-disadvantaged lives. Contrary to transphobic orthodoxy, making it harder to transition doesn’t stymie the number of trans people in a given population, it only makes them suffer out of sight. In the interest of fact, transition regret stats clock in under 1% and those respondents overwhelmingly cite hate, exclusion, and other social pressures as the source of their regret. We must also consider that such legislative attacks are the first step, the achievable win, for reactionaries who proudly wish not only to strip trans people of our rights and protections, but to return to barbaric ‘solutions’ like conversion therapy - recognized as analogous to torture by the UN in a 2020 report by Victor Madrigal-Borloz.

Let us too remember that transphobia is inherently classist and misogynist in its origins. There is an aesthetic association between transness and poverty, in the inability to be perceived as you intend. Wealthy trans people do not receive the same level of hatred by virtue of the ability to ‘pass’ via expensive surgeries and therapies. Moreover, prejudice against trans men, trans women, and nonbinary people alike often hinges on an essentialist view of cisgender women as being less able than cisgender men.

The questions then become; who is hawking transphobia in modern politics? Why have they chosen this fight? What do they stand to gain?

There are two camps of transphobic politicians; ideologues and grifters. The former of these groups are true believers in the ‘degeneracy’ of transness. Be they conspiracy theorists, religious fundamentalists, or cryptofascistic pseudo-academics of the Peterson persuasion, anti trans ideologues are the icons and mouthpieces for the genuine, albeit deeply ignorant, tide of opinion. As social change comes, reactionaries follow. Amid economic hardship for the working class, people see the ‘erosion of the traditional family unit’ and will listen when given a false, but uncomplicated explanation. Such grassroots fear mongers are dangerous while they hold the limelight, but doomed to fail against significant opposition. Transphobia thrives by the deprivation of education. While it is difficult to teach tolerance to someone who never learned it, it is vastly more so to teach intolerance to one who has. Time has a normalizing effect on the strange. Panic can only last so long. In the digital age, the dissemination of information is inevitable. With effort and time transphobia will pass out of the political zeitgeist, and with it will go the ideologues. That said, make no mistake, the operative condition for this victory is effort. These bigots seek to be swift and brutal with their power. These are activists as much as they are politicians; on the ground seeking and indoctrinating the ignorant. It is imperative that they are vehemently opposed on all fronts, and that our trans comrades are cared for and protected.

The other group however, grifters, are in my opinion some significant degree more alarming. These amoral opportunists see transphobia only as a vector to get votes. They will align themselves with the true believers, imitate them, for as long as it facilitates their ascension. They target education, because they understand the nature of their support. When the shift of public opinion comes though, they too will change. That is, they will select a new subject for their scare tactics. The grifters are resilient and adaptable in a way that their counterparts can’t be, not to mention much more numerous. All of this, and loyal only to the precepts of capital.

These are the intelligent foe we must be cautious of; we must not make the mistake of assuming them stupid. Capitalism breeds ruthlessness. Those who are most capable of disengaging from their own humanity are most likely to succeed. It is not in this instance that capitalism incepts bigotry, so much as it rewards the same traits which let bigotry flourish in heartless men. (As elsewhere described, capitalism does indeed incept bigotry by way of economic insecurity.) The winners of this meatgrinder become those who can believe in whatever they need to believe in, at a moment’s notice. We may yet see the day when trans rights are celebrated as gay rights are, and be wary this time when the corporations come to sponsor our parades.

Both variants of transphobic politics described above are forms of populism, leveraging hateful rhetoric and outgroup dynamics to rile up their sometimes bigoted, but more often uneducated and economically anxious constituents. Such is the insidious nature of institutional politics under capitalism. There is no incentive toward rationality, education, and decency unless they can put you in office - and such increasingly proves a losing strategy. In fact, the opposite is true. Hate and fear have been throughout all democratic history, reliable motivators.

Candidates at all levels of governance stand to gain significant wealth from holding office, be that by lobbying, or the pipeline from public office to private consultancy. 

Those of us who seek to engage in institutional politics in good faith, and for the betterment of society are severely disadvantaged. Not only do we face the resource obstacle of opposing the richest people on the planet, we must also contend against the champions of that class. Greedy, amoral, self serving grifters who will continue to spit in the eye of the disenfranchised. 

The trick is telling the two flavors of bigot apart, and unfortunately there are no hard and fast rules, only tendencies. Take advantage of public access to voting records - grifters betray their nature with inconsistency. Resolute transphobes on the other hand tend to be consistent and newer on the political scene as the flashpoint has only come into mass consciousness since 2016.

Even if we work ourselves to the bone educating enough to change public opinion, these fiends will simply move on to the next panic, bereft of any convictions beyond avarice. If only, dearest revolutionary socialists, there was another way…