The NDP Government in Alberta, has recently provided guidelines to the province’s schools to recognize and promote the transgendered. These guidelines are entitled “Guidelines for Best Practices: Creating Learning Environments that Respect Diverse Sexual Orientations, Gender Expressions and Gender Identities”. The government has mandated that these guidelines give the transgendered special privileges in all schools in Alberta, including Private, Public, Charter, Separate (Catholic) and Francophone Schools.

The guidelines provide:

  • An individual’s self-identification is the sole measure of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
  • No student may be referred for counselling to change that student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
  • A student’s personal information and privacy must be protected, including, where possible, obtaining a student’s explicit permission before disclosing information related to the student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, to parents, guardians or other adults in their lives.
  • If a human sexuality course is organized by gender, students may choose in which class they wish to participate.
  • Non-gendered, single-stall washroom is a matter of choice for students, staff, volunteers or visiting family, and not a compulsory requirement. They may also use any other washroom they wish.
  • Family members may access washrooms that are congruent with their gender identity.
  • School forms, websites, letters and other correspondence will use non-gendered language, (e.g., parents/guardians, caregivers, families, partners, etc. instead of Mr., Mrs., mother, father, him, her, etc.)

These guidelines are not acceptable because they are, in fact, an attack on parental rights, the school children, and even on transgendered themselves as it only furthers their misconceptions that are so harmful to their well-being.

According to the American College of Pediatricians in a letter dated March 31, 2010:

“Even children with Gender Identity Disorder (when a child desires to be the opposite sex) will typically lose this desire by puberty, if the behavior is not reinforced… When parents or others allow or encourage a child to behave and be treated as the opposite sex, the confusion is reinforced and the child is conditioned for a life of unnecessary pain and suffering. Even when motivated by noble intentions, schools can ironically play a detrimental role if they reinforce this disorder. . . It is also critical to understand that these conditions can respond well to therapy.” 

There is no scientific or medical basis to support the belief that an individual can change his/her gender from that with which they were born. These individuals require compassionate counselling, rather than surgery or hormone treatments to deal with their delusional belief.  This will prevent later sad consequences to their lives, as the suicide rate in post-surgical transgendered patients has been reported to be twenty times higher than in controls matched for birth year and birth sex.

Further, “sex reassignment” surgery is only superficial by way of an artificial, non-functioning vagina or penis. It does not change that person’s DNA, nor their reproductive system.  The reality is that their gender remains exactly what it was at birth.

The Alberta Catholic Bishops and  Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association Objections

Alberta’s Catholic Bishops have left no room for doubt that Catholic schools will not implement these transgender guidelines since they are completely inconsistent with the Catholic identity which permeates all aspects of the life of the Catholic school. The Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association has affirmed the Catholic Bishops’ position, also rejecting the Guidelines.

Further, it is important that pastors of Christian Churches should raise similar objections to these guidelines implemented in Christian schools.

These guidelines also ignore the fact that they will create a hostile, intimidating and offensive environment for teachers, staff and students who are not transgendered.   This is because these guidelines will require that bathrooms and locker rooms be made available according to the wishes of the supposedly transgendered individual, disregarding all others who use these facilities.  This ignores the fact that the guidelines are an invasion of female students’ privacy when males are admitted to facilities where girls are often in the nude, as well as boys in a comparable situation.  The invasion of teens’ physical privacy can be intensely painful – even traumatic to them, and this will only be exacerbated by the guidelines.

It is crucial, therefore, that the government of Alberta understand that the voters are deeply opposed to forcing schools to implement these transgender guidelines.

Please take action now as the guidelines will be implemented on March 31, 2016.  Write and encourage your relatives, friends and neighbours to write to their Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), the Minister of Education and the Premier of Alberta.

You can find out who your MLA is by calling 780-727-2464 or visit the following website Legislative Assembly of Alberta

Addresses:

Honourable David Eggen Minister of Education
MLA for Edmonton-Calder Legislature Office
 228 Legislature Building 10800 – 97 Avenue Edmonton, AB Canada T5K 2B6

Phone: 780.427.5010
email : edmonton.calder@assembly.ab.ca

Premier Rachel Notley
MLA for Edmonton-Strathcona Legislature Office
307 Legislature Building 10800 – 97 Avenue Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6

Phone: 780.427.2251
email: premier@gov.ab.ca

Please also write to your local newspaper expressing your objections to the guidelines. This will also let others know about the guidelines.

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