Each of Canada’s ten provinces practices gender medicine differently, as provinces have primary jurisdiction over health care. This gives each province the ability to adapt to new evidence more quickly and respond to the demands of its local citizens better than if health care were centralized with the federal government. But this also means that it is harder to understand all the nuances of each system and to collect data from across the country. Over the coming months, we will do our best to profile the data and policies on medical transitioning for minors in each province. 

Our series is going to begin with Alberta.  

Policy 

Alberta is the lone province in the country that has taken the greatest steps to limit medical transitioning for minors. Prior to 2024, Alberta had no legal restrictions on the intervention, though “bottom” surgeries (e.g. penectomy, phalloplasty, vaginoplasty, orchiectomy) were rarely, if ever, performed on minors in practice. Pre-pubescent children received puberty blockers, and adolescents received cross-sex hormones and “top” surgeries without age restrictions.  

That changed in late 2024 when the Alberta legislature passed Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act. The new law bans “puberty suppression,” “hormone replacement therapy,” and “sex reassignment surgery” to treat gender dysphoria or gender incongruence for any minor under the age of 18. (Eighteen is the age of majority in Alberta.) However, the law permits the Minister of Health to create exceptions for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones through regulation. The government intends to use this clause to allow “minors aged 16 and 17 with parental, physician and psychologist approval” and “minors who have already been prescribed hormone replacement therapies to treat gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to receive these pharmaceuticals.  

Although the law passed the legislature, not all of these provisions banning medical transitioning are in force. In fact, only the ban on gender surgeries for those under 18 applies right now. The sections dealing with “hormone therapies” (i.e. puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones) will come into force upon Proclamation (when an order from Cabinet brings them into force). Ostensibly, the government is waiting to make this law legally binding until it has created the ministerial order that makes the exemption for 16- and 17-year-olds and minors already on puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. 

Furthermore, one Alberta judge issued an injunction to further prevent the law from coming into force. The judge opined that the law would likely touch upon the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ guarantees of “life, liberty, and the security of the person” and “equality rights.” These Charter issues must first be resolved before the law can go into effect. The government of Alberta is appealing this injunction. 

The bottom line? Alberta has banned surgical transitions for minors and set the stage to ban puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, but hasn’t implemented the full ban yet. Hormonal therapies for minors are still legal. 

Providers 

According to the Alberta Health Services’ hospital and facility directory, three main institutions in the province participate in pediatric gender medicine:  

But pediatric gender medicine is not just the purview of specialized gender clinics. It is increasingly being practiced by primary care providers, more commonly known as family doctors. Gender ideologues in medicine have taken up the slogan “gender-affirming care is primary care.” Another journal article opines that “because primary care providers often have in-depth understanding of their patients’ medical and mental health background and the greater context of their lives and support networks, they are well positioned to assess a patient’s readiness for gender-affirming hormone therapy and initiate treatment.” 

We have no idea precisely how many family doctors have begun to help children and adolescents medically transition, though the Trans Wellness Initiative has started an Alberta-centric directory of gender-affirming health care providers. 

Prevalence 

As we’ve mentioned before, it is challenging to find any data on the number of minors who are medically transitioning. The ideal dataset would list the entire number of minors currently prescribed puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for the purpose of a gender transition, plus the number of “gender-affirming” top and bottom surgeries performed on minors. But there are several factors that make such data difficult to collect. First, so many players are involved in gender medicine – children’s hospitals, specialized gender clinics, and family doctors – that it is hard to collect all the data into one centralized spot. Every participant would have to report in order for the data to be complete. Second, because all of the medications prescribed for a gender transition are also used to treat other conditions (e.g. precocious puberty, breast or prostate cancer, menopause, or naturally low hormone levels), it is difficult to isolate just prescriptions for “gender-affirming care.” And finally, the involvement of both provincial drug programs and private insurance programs in funding “gender-affirming care” makes it difficult to track the money. Hence, governments don’t publish this data anywhere. In some cases, it doesn’t even seem like the government even has the information. They simply let the system of medical transitioning carry on.  

And so we made an FOI request for the number of patients seen at Alberta’s two main gender clinics at Alberta Children’s Hospital and Stollery Children’s Hospital between 2000-2025. The government released the following data. 

The first thing to note is that this data records the number of unique patients and total visits to these two gender clinics for whatever reason. Now, not all children struggling with their gender identity and visiting a gender clinic choose to medically transition. What this data does show is the number of children and adolescents struggling with gender dysphoria and considering – if not obtaining – a medical transition. 

And these numbers have been growing over the past few years. The number of visits reached 2,020 in 2023, while the number of unique patients peaked at 702 in 2024. 

And this isn’t even everyone. It accounts for those visiting Alberta’s two largest pediatric gender clinics, but it doesn’t include those visiting the Aberhart Centre’s Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic or lesser-known pediatric gender clinics, nor those who received puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones from family doctors. What we can say with some certainty is that at least 1,600 minors have sought to medically transition in the last five and a half years in Alberta.  

Thankfully, very few of them have received sex-denying surgeries. In another FOI, the government stated that “all lower or bottom surgeries are only available for people 18 years of age or older,” and so there were no recorded instances of a minor receiving these procedures. Thirty-six minors did receive “top surgeries” between 2013 and 2023, however, before the ban on such surgeries went into effect in 2024. And yet, at its height in 2018, one of every ten “gender-affirming” mastectomies was performed on minors.

Conclusion  

Alberta may have taken the furthest steps toward banning medical transitioning for minors, but it is still far from that goal. Surgical transitioning for minors is banned. The legislature has enacted a ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapies, but the ban has not fully come into effect, and a court injunction stands in its way. At least two major health care institutions – Alberta Children’s Hospital and Stollery Children’s Hospital – are providing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors. At least 1,600 minors have sought to medically transition at these two institutions alone in the last five and a half years in Alberta. 

If you live in Southern Ontario, you may have seen a billboard or bus ad like these in your local communities. Our goal with these billboards was to bring attention to the issue of medical transitioning for minors and garner support for the campaign to ban medical transitioning for minors.  

And they’ve certainly gotten attention! 

Everything started back in December when a local group collected money, negotiated a contract, and put up LetKidsBe.ca bus ads in the city of London. Those ads received a lot of attention from the media and from pro-transitioning groups. The London Free Press, CBC, and CTV covered the bus ads in some fashion, with a heavy bias against the ads and in favour of medical transitioning for minors.  

The London Transit Commission (LTC), having previously lost a court challenge to the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada (the creator of LetKidsBe.ca), kept the ads up despite pressure to remove them.  LTC Chair Stephanie Marentette said LTC could not reject the ad because doing so would violate freedom of expression. “Unless something is egregious or amounting to hate speech. that would trigger an exception. Unfortunately we don’t have the ability to arbitrate what types of ads go on the side of our buses. This is something we don’t have a lot of control over, the Supreme Court is the highest court in the country.”  

But this action inspired more action. 

A local group of Let Kids Be supporters in Hamilton wanted to see this message featured on a billboard on the Lincoln Alexander Parkway, a high-traffic expressway for commuters. Procuring such a prime location was an expensive endeavour, but they managed to raise the funds, and the electronic billboards in Hamilton went up on Monday, August 4th.  

That Friday, August 8th, the Hamilton Trans Health Coalition posted a warning on Facebook about the billboard, labelling it “disinformation,” “a harmful message,” and “an attempt at this [anti-trans] politicization.” Late that evening, Hamilton mayor Andrea Horwath, the former leader of the Ontario NDP, posted the following message on X:  

“This afternoon, my office was made aware of a transphobic ad on a billboard along the Linc.

While the billboard is not City-owned, it sits on City-leased space, and City advertising rules were not followed. We’ve directed Astral Media to remove it and put stronger safeguards in place.

Hate-related incidents are on the rise in Hamilton. In 2024, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community were among the most frequently targeted. But we are also a community that will not stand by when confronted by hate – I certainly will not.

Love will always be louder.”

Before the end of the day, Astral/Bell media took down the billboards.  

Undeterred by this event in Hamilton, a group of Let Kids Be supporters in Niagara pressed on. After some investigation, they found an advertising company that had billboards on private land. Since putting up billboards on city-leased space enabled the City of Hamilton to get them taken down, they thought that placing a billboard on private land would ensure that it would remain up. They contacted Vann Advertising to erect three billboards. Two of the billboards were digital, located back-to-back along the QEW in St. Catharines, another high-traffic expressway. The third billboard, this one printed on vinyl, was in downtown St. Catharines.  

The electronic billboards went up on Monday, August 25th, and the physical billboard was erected shortly thereafter.  

The reaction was swift. Within days, the physical billboard was vandalized.  

Pride Niagara called “on the City of St. Catharines to take urgent action against a transphobic billboard” and claimed that “this harmful and dehumanizing message spreads dangerous misinformation and creates an unsafe environment for trans and gender-diverse people in our community.” They encouraged people to reach out to Mayor Mat Siscoe and sent a letter to city hall themselves. Mayor Siscoe then called Vann Advertising, asking them to reconsider displaying the billboards. Furthermore, Vann Advertising received some aggressive messaging from LGBTQ activists. Worried about the viability of the company and its owners’ safety, Vann Advertising removed the billboards. 

But that is not the end. A private billboard owner in Hamilton was willing to sell us digital billboard space in downtown Hamilton. More groups around the county are considering putting up Let Kids Be billboards in their local communities, and we are pursuing legal action to ensure that local governments do not violate the Charter right to the freedom of expression. 

Ironically, the efforts of activists to censor these Let Kids Be ads have caused the call to stop medical transitioning for minors to reach far more people. Billboards are seen in passing only by those who happen to pass by them. But when they become the subject of a censorship battle which media reports on, their reach extends to many more people. People see the ad on their computers and phones, just a quick search away from the Let Kids Be website. And because our messaging is so clear, direct, and respectful, even media that are biased against us tend to report what the billboard said and often show the billboard itself. This respectful advocacy starkly contrasts with the disrespect shown by the other side when they vandalize a billboard. 

So take heart. More and more Canadians are hearing the message that we need to stop medical transitioning for minors. If you or your local group want to sponsor a local Let Kids Be billboard, the graphics are available for you to use. The more billboards that go up, the more the message gets out! 

But if you do participate in this endeavour, realize that erecting a billboard isn’t the end of the project. It is the beginning of a conversation. If a Let Kids Be billboard is up in your community, use that opportunity to encourage the billboard company to keep up the ad. Urge your local politicians to not interfere with private advertising. Petition your MPP/MLA and your MP to take action to ban medical transitioning for minors.  

Sex-based violence against women and girls – violence perpetrated against females solely because they are females – is a sad reality of our world. To combat this injustice, the United Nations established a Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls in 1994. The mandate of the current Special Rapporteur, Reem Alsalem, is not only to identify common forms of violence against women and girls but also to investigate their causes and consequences. 

Late this spring, Alsalem released a report titled Sex-based violence against women and girls: new frontiers and emerging issues. The report is global in scope. It points out cases of gender-based violence in countries like Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, and Sudan that are egregious to Western sensibilities. But Alsalem doesn’t give Western countries a free pass. Sex-based violence happens here too. The most frequently mentioned Western countries in the report are Canada, the United Kingdom, and Israel.  

Alsalem touches on many forms of sex-based violence in her report. We will touch on two that relate to the Let Kids Be campaign: gender ideology and medical transitioning for minors. 

Gender ideology 

Alsalem devotes more space to discussing the abandonment of biological sex in favour of gender ideology than any other issue. Canada is one of the worst culprits. In the space of five short years, the federal government and almost every single province and territory incorporated gender ideology into their human rights statutes. Prior to 2012, these statutes forbade discrimination based on sex. But between 2012-2017, they added gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds for discrimination. This has allowed men to compete in women’s sports, men to enter women’s private spaces, teaching gender ideology to school children, and a surge in medical transitioning for minors. 

In response, Alsalem said this in a recent speech before the UN: “Let me be frank. I never imagined the day would come where my mandate would deem it necessary to prepare a report affirming that the words women and girls refer to distinct biological and legal categories.” 

“Let me be frank. I never imagined the day would come where my mandate would deem it necessary to prepare a report affirming that the words women and girls refer to distinct biological and legal categories.” 

– Special Rapporteur, Reem Alsalem

And thus, the report starts with a simple definition – or rather insisting – of terms: 

“Sex” is understood as a biological category and as a distinction between women and men, as well as between boys and girls. References to “sex” refer to the biological distinction between males and females, characterized by divergent evolved reproductive pathways through which, all else being equal, males develop bodies oriented around the production of small gametes and females develop bodies oriented around the production of large gametes. As evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins notes: “Sex is a true binary.” 

The term “gender”, on the other hand, has been defined by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women as the social meanings given to biological sex differences. It is supplementary to and built upon biological differences between women and men… In the last few decades, the term “gender” has wrongly been taken to be synonymous with the term “sex”, including in some international declarations and instruments. 

The report ends with a simple recommendation: governments must “ensure that the terms ‘women’ and ‘girls’ are only used to describe biological females and that such a meaning is recognized in law… Legislation and policies that expand the definition of sex to include ‘certified’ or ‘legal’ sex or conflate sex with gender identity or substitute one term for the other should be rescinded.” 

Medical Transitioning for Minors 

Perhaps the greatest effect of replacing sex-based identity with gender-based identity is the exponential growth of medical transitioning for minors in Canada and other Western countries. Alsalem condemns medically transitioning minors in the strongest terms:  

“The long-lasting and harmful consequences of social and medical transitioning of children, including girls, are being increasingly documented. They include: persistence or intensification of psychological distress; persistence of body dissatisfaction; infertility, early onset of the menopause and an increase in the risk of osteoporosis; sexual dysfunction; and loss of the ability to breastfeed in cases of breast mastectomy (to mention a few). That has rightly led several countries, such as Brazil, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to change course and restrict children’s access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery on sexual and reproductive organs. Allowing children access to such procedures not only violates their right to safety, security and freedom from violence, but also disregards their human right to the highest standards of health and goes against their best interests. Children are also not able to provide informed consent for such procedures. In situations in which such procedures have been found to have caused grave and lifelong harm, consent would be meaningless for both adults and children.” 

Alsalem recommends that governments: 

“Uphold the rights of children, including girls, to be free from all forms of physical and mental violence and to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including through the prohibition of legal and social transitioning of children who claim to experience gender dysphoria, as well as their subjugation to experimental, irreversible medical interventions related to gender reassignment, while ensuring comprehensive, evidence-based assessments for them to address underlying neurodevelopmental, psychological or other conditions before any intervention. Moreover, States must establish legal and policy frameworks providing effective remedies, accountability mechanisms and robust support services for all harmed by such interventions, including those seeking to detransition.” 

Alsalem touches on several key issues around medical transitioning for minors: it is harmful, irreversible, has long-term effects, lacks meaningful informed consent, and is experimental. And notice the language that she uses. She doesn’t present this as a question of choice for children or even mature minors. Instead, she refers to children’s “subjugation” to these procedures. Who Alsalem has in mind as the subjugating party – medical professionals, governments, activists, or parents – isn’t clear. But what she does make clear is that this isn’t an issue of freedom, choice, or consent. This is an issue of harm, violence, and subjugation.  

This isn’t an issue of freedom, choice, or consent. This is an issue of harm, violence, and subjugation.  

Because of this harm, many people will choose to detransition. Rather than pretending that the desistence rate is low or ignoring detransitioners altogether, Alsalem insists that governments need to support detransitioners. Detransitioners will need health care, certainly. But they also deserve justice against those responsible for harming them and restitution for the bodily harm that they have suffered. Hence, the Rapporteur recommends that governments “establish legal and policy frameworks providing effective remedies, accountability mechanisms and robust support services for all harmed by such [medical transitioning] interventions, including those seeking to detransition.” 

The report also hints that government should do the opposite of medical transitioning. Governments must provide the “highest attainable standard of physical and mental health” and ensure “comprehensive, evidence-based assessments for [gender dysphoric children] to address underlying neurodevelopmental, psychological or other conditions.” In other words, governments should provide other interventions such as counselling to children with gender dysphoria.  

And finally, governments shouldn’t just stop at banning medical transitioning for minors. She recommends that government prohibit “legal and social transitioning” as well. This would include policies that prohibit adolescents from changing their sex designation on government-issued ID or to adopt a new name or pronouns at school. Instead, Alsalem recommends that governments begin education campaigns to reverse the growing acceptance of gender ideology. 

All of this is necessary if we are to let kids be. We’ve been pushing for action like this here in Canada. It is heartening that even the United Nations joining the cause. 

A couple of weeks ago, an Alberta judge issued an interim injunction stopping the Alberta ban on medical transitioning for minors from going into effect. This marks the first time that a court in Canada has weighed in on medical transitioning for minors. 

Alberta’s Bill 26, the Health Professions Act, passed last year, banned puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors under 18 to treat gender dysphoria. Egale and the Skipping Stone Scholarship Foundation, described in the decision as “two leading 2SLGNTQI organizations,” as well as five children (aged 6 to 12) who claim to be transgender, and their parents challenged the legislation. They asked the court to strike down the law as violating the Charter rights to security of the person and equal protection under the law. 

The Alberta justice did not issue a final ruling on the constitutionality of the law. Rather, she found that there are serious constitutional issues to be resolved at trial, and that the prospect of harm to the applicants justified an interim injunction, preventing the law from taking effect before the case is fully resolved. 

The advocates in favour of medical transitioning argued that gender identity – a person’s internal sense of their own gender – is fundamental to their personal identity. And yet their personal identity cannot be entirely realized without puberty blockers. Specifically, withholding puberty blockers, the court ruled, 

Will have a serious and profound effect on the psychological integrity of transgender and gender diverse youth because it will: (a) take away medically necessary gender affirming care for gender incongruence and gender dysphoria; (b) take away a young person’s option to delay puberty (and the associated stress and fear) so that they can have more time to consider their gender identity and options; (c) subject them to the irreversible changes associated with puberty, which may result in more difficulty transitioning at a later date; (d) deny gender diverse young people autonomy over their own bodies; and (e) make it more likely that others will identify them as trans, increasing the risk of bullying, discrimination, violence, depression, suicidal ideation and self-harm. 

Since when does the “security of the person” include a right not to go through puberty? Will future cases find that Canadians have a right not to age in other ways too? Aging – or going through puberty – is not an experience that the government forces on people. They are natural, normal parts of the human lifecycle. 

If there is any violation of the security of the person at issue here, it is medical transitioning. The Alberta government pointed the court to the Cass Review, and the UK’s subsequent ban on medical transitioning for minors. Alberta also noted, in defense of its law, that: 

Egale and company dismiss or minimize these risks by claiming medical transitioning in Canada is done carefully and always follows international guidelines. But the claim that Canadian doctors are slow to prescribe puberty blockers or hormones seems unlikely given that 62% of children and young adolescents referred to gender clinics were provided with hormones on their very first visit. And yet, the justice opines that there is a serious threat to the security of the person in restricting access to medical transitioning.  

She also found that a ban on medical transitioning may violate the equality provisions of the Charter, a finding that diverges from that of a recent US Supreme Court decision/. The judge opined that gender identity is an immutable personal characteristic and that people who identify as gender diverse are “undeniably a marginalized group in Canadian society.” Both parties in the American case, however, admitted that gender identity is not immutable, but can change over time. Also, the US Supreme Court did not find a history of legal discrimination against people who claim to be transgender, and so they found that a ban on medical transitioning was not discriminatory. Although a powerful rhetorical and political argument, the existence of detransitioners demonstrates that gender identity is not immutable. 

But there is more to this case than just disputes over science and rights. A much broader clash of worldviews and ethics is involved too. One of the expert witnesses on the pro-medical transitioning side was Dr. Palmert, a co-founder of the Transgender Youth Clinic at the Hospital for Sicks Kids in Toronto. In his opinion, “efforts to change a youth’s gender identity are harmful and unethical and should not be undertaken.”  

Let Kids Be holds a different position: efforts to change a youth’s sexual identity (through medical transitioning) are harmful and unethical and should not be undertaken. A person’s sex (male or female) is immutable, even if his or her body can be medically manipulated to appear more masculine or feminine.  

At the end of the decision, the Alberta justice grants the injunction because it “is necessary to ensure that Albertans under the age of 18 who want medical treatment are not denied the protection of their constitutional rights while the case works its way through trial.” 

This case demonstrates just how deeply entrenched medical transitioning is among Canadian institutions and how much work is left for Let Kids Be to do. Although most Canadians want limits on medical transitioning for minors, most politicians, journalists, professional associations, and perhaps judges are firmly in favour of the practice. We need to keep up the work to advocate for society to let kids be. 

More good news for the movement to let kids be in the United States! The US Supreme Court just upheld a Tennessee ban on medical transitions for minors in United States v Skrmetti. 

In 2023, Tennessee prohibited prescribing, administering, and dispensing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for the purpose of medical transitioning for minors. The reasons for this ban are the same that every other jurisdiction has used to curtail medical transitioning for minors. As the official summary of the Court ruling explains: 

“Tennessee determined that administering puberty blockers or hormones to minors to treat gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder, or gender incongruence carries risks, including irreversible sterility, increased risk of disease and illness, and adverse psychological consequences. The legislature found that minors lack the maturity to fully understand these consequences, that many individuals have expressed regret for undergoing such treatments as minors, and that the full effects of such treatments may not yet be known. At the same time, the State noted evidence that discordance between sex and gender can be resolved through less invasive approaches.” 

This law was challenged based on the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment to the American constitution, with the plaintiffs arguing that the law discriminated on the basis of sex and “transgender status.” 

Six out of nine justices upheld the ban, but for different reasons and with different emphases. 

The Legal Theory in the Majority Opinion  

The majority opinion largely side-stepped the substantive questions of the case and instead based its decision on the appropriate legal standard of review to judge the case.  

In U.S. constitutional law, not all classifications are treated equally. Some—such as race-based classifications—are considered suspect and receive “strict scrutiny” from the courts. This means the government must show a compelling interest and prove the law is narrowly tailored to achieve that interest. Other classifications—such as those based on age or medical use—are subject only to a “rational basis review,” where the law merely needs to be rationally related to a legitimate government objective. A third category, such as sex-based classifications, receives “intermediate scrutiny,” a middle ground between deference to lawmakers and judicial review. 

The plaintiffs argued that Tennessee’s law discriminated against them based on their sex and “transgender status.” Tennessee argued that any discrimination was based on age or medical use. So, the Court had to decide which characterization of the main issue was correct – and consequently which standard of review (rational basis or intermediate scrutiny) applied.  

The majority is quick to side with Tennessee, saying there is no discrimination based on sex or “transgender status.” The law doesn’t prohibit certain medical treatments for members of just one sex. For example, it didn’t only ban boys from taking puberty blockers or girls from receiving cross-sex hormones. So, there is no sex discrimination. The law also doesn’t ban people who claim to be transgender from accessing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for reasons other than to medically transition (e.g. to treat precocious puberty). That is, the law doesn’t target “transgender” persons per se. And so, there is no discrimination on the basis of “transgender status” either.  

Instead, the majority agreed that any discrimination in the ban on medical transitioning was based on age. The law only applied to minors (not adults), and it only banned puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the purpose of medical transitioning (but not other treatments). In these cases, the precedent was to apply only rational basis review to the case at hand. Using this standard, “where there exist ‘plausible reasons’ for the relevant government action, ‘our inquiry is at an end. SB1 [the ban on medical transitioning for minors] clearly meets this standard” (21).  

Noting that there is much scientific uncertainty and low-quality evidence in this area (the opinion cites Finland, England, Sweden, and Norway’s review of the evidence and changes to clinical care), the Court found it entirely appropriate for government to restrict a medical procedure in the name of safeguarding the health and safety of a segment of its population. 

In other words, the majority decided to defer to the elected branch of government on this one. 

But certain justices within the majority had more to say. 

The State’s Interest in Regulating Medical Transitioning – Justice Thomas’ Concurring Opinion 

Justice Thomas, who signed onto the majority opinion, wrote a concurring opinion that focuses on the practice of medical transitioning for minors rather than what standard of review to use. He discusses the harms of both puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery; the inefficacy of these treatments in relieving gender dysphoria; the unethical nature of these treatments, particularly the inability for minors to give informed consent; the increasing number of detransitioners; and the activist nature of the World Professional Association on Transgender Health (WPATH). Given all of this, he opines the state has good reason to ban medical transitioning for minors. He concludes his opinion by saying, “[E]xperts and elites have been wrong before — and they may prove to be wrong again” (23). 

The Place of Gender Identity in Discrimination Law – Justice Barrett and Justice Alito’s Concurring Opinions 

Although the majority opinion and Justice Thomas’ concurring opinion definitively settle the legality of the bans on medical transitioning for minors – the primary issue for the Let Kids Be campaign – there is another issue at stake in this case that will impact a far wider set of cases: whether gender identity or “transgender status” should be added to the list of classes of people who receive greater protections against discrimination. Should a transgender identity more analogous to race or age, sex or disability?  

In the opinion of Justice Alito, this “important question has divided the Courts of Appeals, and if we do not confront it now, we will almost certainly be required to do so very soon.”  

Rather than waiting for another day, Justice Barrett and Justice Alito decide to tackle this broader issue in this case. 

Both justices agree that “transgender status does not qualify under our precedents as a suspect or ‘quasi-suspect’ class” (10). A “‘suspect class’ status is reserved for those groups whose members tend to ‘carry an obvious badge’ of their membership in the suspect class, which in part explains ‘the severity or pervasiveness of the historic legal and political discrimination against’ the group. Suspect class status is therefore generally inappropriate for ‘large, diverse, and amorphous’ groups that do not share ‘obvious, immutable, or distinguishing characteristics that define them as a discrete group’” (14).  

American courts have only considered race (along with its corollaries, ethnic and national origin) to be an inherently suspect classification. Even sex, disability, age, and poverty have been dismissed as suspect classes. For example, sex is an important and, in some contexts, a legally relevant and legitimate classification. Disability and poverty are too large, diverse, or amorphous to capture an inherently suspect classification.  

In the opinion of Justice Barrett, “transgender status” should not be considered a “suspect class” needing special protections against discrimination because persons who identify as transgender have not experienced discrimination de jure (in law). She concludes by saying 

Because the litigants assumed that evidence of private discrimination could suffice for the suspect-class inquiry, they did not thoroughly discuss whether transgender individuals have suffered a history of de jure discrimination as a class. And because the group of transgender individuals is an insufficiently discrete and insular minority, the question is largely academic. In future cases, however, I would not recognize a new suspect class absent a demonstrated history of de jure discrimination (10-11). 

In the last sentence, however, she leaves the door open to changing her mind in the future if new evidence came to light. 

Justice Alito comes down more firmly on this question. Although many citizens, activists, and judges compare every form of discrimination to racism, Alito states that he does “not think that transgender status is sufficiently similar to race, national origin, or sex to warrant a higher level of scrutiny” (19). Persons who identify as transgender have not suffered a long history of discrimination in law. They have not been excluded from participation in the political process. They do not necessarily carry an obvious badge for their transgender identity. They are too diverse and amorphous a group (given claims that there are possibly an infinite number of genders). And even the parties in the case admit that transgender status is not an immutable characteristic. 

And so, Justice Alito firmly contends that “transgender status” should not receive extraordinary legal protections. If adopted by the majority of the court, such a stand would have far reaching consequences far outside the issue of medical transitioning for minors. 

What All This Means 

First, Skrmetti signals to every American state that, if crafted the right way, the Supreme Court will uphold laws banning medical transitioning for minors.  

Second, while declining to give “transgender identity” special protections against discrimination, almost every justice used terms laden with gender ideology (e.g. “transgender boy”) in their reasoning, giving tacit endorsement to core tenets of gender ideology. While the American executive branch has explicitly stated that there are only two sexes and rejected gender ideology, the judicial branch hasn’t been willing to go so far yet. 

Third, while this decision is a victory in the battle to end medical transitioning for minors, the court didn’t squarely deal with whether there was discrimination against “transgender identity” or gender identity. Hopefully the Court will take a firmer stance on the issue in the future. 

Skrmetti, of course, doesn’t apply anywhere in Canada and Canadian courts rarely look to legal opinions outside our country for guidance. But the growing body of academic studies, legal cases, and democratic laws that support limiting medical transitioning for minors should encourage Canadian governments to follow suit. 

On January 20, 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order titled Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation. This order required the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “publish a review of the existing literature on best practices for promoting the health of children who assert gender dysphoria, rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or other identity-based confusion” within 90 days. 

That review has now been published. Although compiled much more quickly and with less emphasis on systematic reviews of the academic studies on the topic, this HHS Review is the United States’ version of the Cass Review. It reaffirms the Cass Review’s central findings that medical transitioning for minors is not supported by evidence. Instead, psychotherapy (or talk therapy) is a superior approach to treating gender dysphoria. 

Much of what is reported in this HHS report has already been presented elsewhere, but there are a few new matters we haven’t considered yet. Two overarching themes of the report are the need for evidence and the need for ethics in this field. 

The Need for Evidence 

HHS stresses the need to rely on evidence-based medicine rather than intuition, personal experience, or hoped-for results in “pediatric gender medicine” (the report’s preferred term for medical transitioning for minors). Evidence-based medicine makes use of systematic reviews – academic exercises that analyze all the studies available on a certain topic. Ordinary academic studies have differing methodologies, settings, researchers, and findings, but systematic reviews analyze the evidence of many studies. 

The HHS report analyzed 17 systematic reviews on the effects of social transition, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, surgery, and psychotherapy for minors. While there are many individual studies on these interventions, and many suggest that medical transitioning can have benefits, the systematic reviews expose major flaws in methodology. The review found a distinct lack of randomized controlled trials, small sample sizes, small effects, inconsistent study findings, and publication bias. 

HHS concluded that, in all these areas, the quality of evidence surrounding the benefits of these interventions is very low.

HHS concluded that, in all these areas, the quality of evidence surrounding the benefits of these interventions is very low. (The assessment tool they used grades the certainty of evidence as high, moderate, low, or very low certainty. Very low certainty means that we have no idea what the true effects of medical transitioning are.)  

There is very low certainty that puberty blockers lessen gender dysphoria or improve mental health. There is also very low certainty that cross-sex hormones reduce gender dysphoria or improve mental health. Likewise, there is very low certainty that surgeries (predominantly mastectomies among minors) ease gender dysphoria or enhance mental health, particularly when it comes to suicidality and depression. Little quality research has been done on the effects of psychotherapy either, leading to little certainty about whether talk therapy will achieve desired results either. 

The same is generally true of the harms of all these interventions. Because of the bias in the medical community and academia in favour of medical transitioning, researchers have tended not to evaluate various harms associated with pediatric gender medicine. While all sorts of harms – from lower bone density to reduced IQ to cardiovascular disease – have been documented, there is low certainty that medical transitioning causes these outcomes. 

Psychotherapy (talk therapy), however, has virtually no known risks or harms. And so, while there are both uncertain harms and benefits of medical transitioning, there are only uncertain benefits for talk therapy. The lack of the risk of harm in psychotherapy is one of the reasons why the review recommends this treatment for gender dysphoria. 

Another point in favour of psychotherapy is that the highest quality clinical practice guidelines – what health care professionals depend upon in their day-to-day care of patients – recommend this over medical transition. The guidelines issued by Sweden and Finland are ranked the highest quality standards of over a dozen standards around the world. Both recommend psychotherapy over medical transitioning for minors. 

Many of the guidelines that recommend medical transitioning are deeply flawed. For example, the HHS report devotes a whole chapter to critiquing the World Professional Association on Transgender Health (WPATH) and their Standards of Care 8. These standards carry great weight in the United States, Canada, and many other countries. However, in developing the latest standards, WPATH suppressed systematic reviews of the evidence because they didn’t yield the desired results.  

Every member of the guideline development group arguably had a conflict of interest, making them biased in favour of medical transitioning. In order to participate in the guideline drafting process, researchers were required to submit their “planned results and conclusions” to WPATH before even beginning to write their manuscript. The group replaced mentions of patients’ “wishes” with “needs” to frame them as “medically necessary” solely to qualify for insurance funding. And the group removed minimum age recommendations not because of evidence, but because of a stakeholder’s ultimatum that their support for the standards was conditional on leaving age restrictions out.  

In developing the latest standards, WPATH suppressed systematic reviews of the evidence because they didn’t yield the desired results.  

The Need for Ethics 

As focused as the report is on ensuring that treatment for gender dysphoria is based on evidence, the report also stresses the need for ethical judgement in this area.  

Advocates for “gender-affirming care” seem to apply few ethical considerations to their work. Does a minor want to medically transition? If yes, according to the model of gender-affirming care, then they are morally entitled to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgery.  

But there are many more ethical considerations that the HHS report touches upon: 

An ethical practitioner of medicine must consider all of these questions before even considering recommending a medical transition. If even one of these ethical tests is failed, a medical transition is ethically wrong. 

If even one of these ethical tests is failed, a medical transition is ethically wrong. 

Additional Points 

It has been well documented for decades that over 80% of cases of pre-pubescent gender dysphoria resolve naturally after puberty. These studies were based on cases of gender dysphoria (largely in pre-pubescent boys) before transgenderism became mainstream and before rapid-onset gender dysphoria was a recognized phenomenon. Because of the novelty of this new presentation of gender dysphoria in a new group (largely in mid- or post-pubescent girls), there was little data on whether this new form of gender dysphoria would persist or also go away naturally. The HHS report cites a German study of insurance claims and found that “over 70% of adolescent females aged 15-19 no longer had the diagnosis five years later” (70). 

So, not only does gender dysphoria in young children tend to go away naturally, so too does gender dysphoria in adolescents. This is another blow to the claim that medical transitioning is an appropriate response to gender dysphoria. 

Another important point made in the report is that, “because contemporary gender medicine countenances a multiplicity of ‘genders,’ [there is a] newer emphasis on embodiment goals [that] moves beyond the ‘sex change’ framework of previous decades” (231). In other words, clinicians aren’t always trying to turn a “full female” into a “full male” by giving her give puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and every possible surgery. Many people who identity as non-binary or queer or agender might want various combinations of these interventions to achieve their desired appearance.  The greater the variation in the treatments and surgeries demanded, the harder it will be to collect and evaluate high quality evidence on the outcomes of various interventions. 

Conclusion 

This HHS report supports the growing consensus around the world that medical transitioning for minors needs to stop. Canada’s two largest English-speaking peers – the United Kingdom and the United States – have come out against the practice. And two countries that routinely rank as the happiest, most developed, and most progressive countries in the world – Sweden and Finland – have also curtailed the practice. It is time for all of Canada to follow suit. 

Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on January 20, 2025. The same day, his new administration issued an executive order titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.  

The short executive order will have a massive impact for the better on how the federal government addresses gender ideology.    

The order states that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality… ‘Sex shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”   

“Sex shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”   

The White House has taken a stance rejecting gender ideology. The executive order states that gender ideology “replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true. …Gender ideology is internally inconsistent in that it diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body.”  

This executive order is very clear about anchoring its position in the principle of sex being definitively connected to biology. By calling gender ideology “ever shifting” and “internally inconsistent” the order shows the pointlessness of trying to ground policy in an unstable foundation.   

Of course, it bears mentioning that a very small percentage of people are born with some disorder of sexual development (DSD), such as an extra or missing chromosome, abnormally high or low levels of sex hormones, or physical deformities in their genitalia. But these rare disorders are exceptions that prove the rule, not evidence that there are additional sexes besides male and female.  

What will change? 

This order will impact many aspects of the American federal government’s approach to sex and gender. For example, the policy clearly says that “‘Sex’ is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity.’” All federal policies and documents will now use the term “sex” rather than “gender.” All federal government-issued IDs, such as passports, will only list a person’s biological sex. Entry into single-sex spaces such as bathrooms or change facilities will be similarly determined by biological sex rather than gender. All federal agencies will be banned from promoting gender ideology and the federal government will not be used to promote gender ideology.  

A strong stand against medical transitions for minors  

The initial executive order set the stage for a second executive order a week later. Entitled Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation, this executive order makes it the policy of the United States federal government that “it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures” for those under 19 years of age.  

The executive order on protecting children refers to medical transitioning minors as “chemical and surgical mutilation.”

The executive order on protecting children refers to medical transitioning minors as “chemical and surgical mutilation.” It also refutes the work of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) which tries to find evidence supporting medical transition for minors. The new policy explicitly rejects WPATH’s “gender-affirming care” approach and requires a review of the literature on best practices for treating gender dysphoria.  

While the executive order doesn’t directly ban medical transitioning for minors, it uses every tool in the federal toolkit to discourage everything from puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones to surgical transitions. For example, it defunds medical transitioning and excludes medical transitioning from coverage under federal health insurance plans.  

Another country heading in the right direction on gender ideology  

The United States joins many other countries moving in the right direction on the issue of gender ideology. As we’ve shared in a previous article, many countries are questioning the evidence and putting the brakes on medical transitions for minors. The Cass Review in the United Kingdom has recommended against medical transitioning for minors and is now beginning to investigate medical transition for adults as well. Australian states are beginning to limit medical transitioning for minors. The government of New Zealand has recognized that there is a lack of good quality evidence to support puberty blockers for minors.  

Canada seems to be moving in the right direction as well. Alberta recently passed three bills removing gender ideology from children’s education, health care, and sport. A recent Canadian study found little evidence to support medical transitioning. And Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative party leader and current frontrunner for Prime Minister in the next election, said that he is only aware of two genders.   

With growing momentum building against the inconsistent and dangerous approach of modern gender ideology, let us continue to work towards a society that recognizes a biological view of sex and gender.  

The ARPA Oxford chapter, a local group of volunteers affiliated with ARPA Canada, recently ran bus ads in London, Ontario calling for Canada to “put the brakes” on medical transitions for minors. These bus ads directed people to LetKidsBe.ca for additional information. As soon as the eye-catching ads went up, they garnered attention and sparked conversations in the community. 

Multiple news media have covered the bus ads, and a transgender activist group worked to place their own bus ads promoting their perspective. Despite activist rhetoric about these ads being hateful and negative, the ads in fact advocate for the protection and care of minors. It is clear from the majority of feedback we have received on social media and via email that many Canadians share our concerns and want to see kids better protected from transgender ideology. 

The Let Kids Be ads have been viewed tens of thousands of times on social media, amplifying their impact far beyond the city of London. The initiative has led to more than 20,000 flyers and nearly 1,800 postcards being ordered through Let Kids Be’s Take Action page over the past couple weeks! We are working hard to fulfill demand and respond to questions that reflect the strong interest in this issue. It is wonderful to see momentum behind this important conversation. 

Many other countries are following the evidence and halting medical transitions for minors, prioritizing caution and further research. However, Canada continues to promote “gender-affirming care” as an essential approach for young people with gender dysphoria, despite evidence that this may not align with the best interests of youth. The Let Kids Be campaign advocates for body-affirming care and mental health support that honors and values the bodies we are given. 

Childhood should be a time for exploration, play, and growth – not a time for irreversible medical interventions. Medical transitions for minors should be taken completely off the table to protect the well-being of vulnerable young people. The Let Kids Be campaign encourages Canadians to engage with this issue thoughtfully and to advocate for solutions that prioritize the holistic health and development of children. 

By fostering these conversations, we hope to influence public opinion and policy, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to thrive without the weight of premature medical decisions. LetKidsBe.ca remains a key resource for those seeking to learn more and take meaningful action to end medical transitioning for minors.

The Alberta government has tabled three bills worth celebrating!  Bill 26 protects children from harmful “gender affirming” pharmaceutical and surgical interference. Bill 27 prevents schools from socially transitioning children at school without their parents’ knowledge and provides greater parental control and oversight over children’s education on topics related to sexuality and gender. Finally, Bill 29 protects female-only sports for students. More on these bills below.

If you’re an Albertan, we encourage you to send a note to your MLA urging him or her to support these bills. You might also send a note of thanks to the Premier. If you live outside Alberta, send your MLA or MPP a note making them aware of these policies and asking them to follow Alberta’s lead.

Bill 26: Health Statutes Amendment Act

If passed into law, Bill 26 will prohibit healthcare professionals from prescribing puberty blockers and hormones to treat gender dysphoria for those 15 and under. The bill would allow minors aged 16 and 17 who are already receiving these drugs to continue, and allow other 16- or 17-year-olds to receive such drugs only if they have approval from a parent, physician, and psychologist. There are no restrictions for those aged 18+.

Bill 26 would also prohibit surgeries on minors (17 and under) for the purpose of “gender affirmation.” The bill lists 10 surgeries that would be prohibited, including mastectomy (breast removal), breast implants, hysterectomy, and penectomy (penis removal).

The bill is “entirely reasonable” and “wholly in line with safeguards being introduced in a number of European countries.” – Dr. Edward Les

Dr. Edward Les, a Canadian paediatrician, calls the bill “entirely reasonable” and “wholly in line with safeguards being introduced in a number of European countries.” But he would like to see it go further, by not making exceptions for children who are already on puberty blockers or hormones before the bill becomes law, since it’s harmful to them too. “Poison is poison,” he says. Dr. Les’s commentary is worth reading in full.

One weakness of the bill is that it uses the term “sex assigned at birth.” Although this terminology is common in our culture and government, it can and should be avoided. It implies that sex is a socially constructed concept, a label assigned by a doctor rather than a biological reality. Several states in the US have legislated on this subject using the terms “biological sex,” “genetic sex,” or simply “sex,” which can be defined in law as being based on a person’s biological reproductive system at birth.

Nevertheless, we celebrate this bill as a giant step in the right direction that all Canadian provinces should follow to protect children from irreversible medical gender treatments.

Bill 27: Education Amendment Act

Let Kids Be has called the promotion of gender ideology in schools a gateway to medical transitioning. Alberta’s newly introduced Bill 27 is therefore an important policy piece in preventing harm to children through ideologically based gender education.

The bill would require teachers, principals, and school staff to get parental consent before agreeing to a student’s request to change his or her preferred name or pronouns. Parents of students aged 15 and under must give consent before allowing the use of the new preferred name or pronouns. For students aged 16 and up, the school board will not need to get parental permission but will still have to notify parents.

Bill 27 would empower parents to choose whether or not their child would participate in lessons that deal with gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality.

Bill 27 would empower parents to choose whether or not their child would participate in lessons that deal with gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality. School boards will be required to implement policies for parents to be notified and provide consent well before any such lessons. Parents would have the option to opt their child in for all, some, or none of the instruction.

If passed, the legislation is not expected to come into effect until September 2025.

Bill 29: Fairness and Safety in Sport Act

Bill 29 is less directly related to our campaign’s policy goal of protecting minors from medical transitioning, but we are still encouraged to see the Alberta government acknowledging important biological realities with yet another bill introduced last week.

Bill 29 is designed to ensure biological female athletes are able to compete in divisions that only allow biological females to participate.

Bill 29 is designed to ensure biological female athletes are able to compete in divisions that only allow biological females to participate, and also seeks to ensure that transgender athletes have meaningful opportunities to participate in sports through the establishment of mixed-sex leagues or divisions.

The bill requires schools to establish and implement policies for each relevant sport, and these policies must comply with government regulations – but those regulations are not yet clear. The bill itself does not actually establish any rules regarding female-only sports, but it opens the conversation for schools to find a solution.

Legislation worth supporting

We’re very pleased to see this suite of bills in Alberta pushing back on gender ideology and the damage it’s doing to children and youth. Please encourage Alberta MLAs to press ahead and pass these bills and encourage other provinces to follow suit.

A few months ago, we documented the exponential growth in the number of children who question their gender and seek to medically transition. Based on the “Trans Youth Can!” study’s figures from 2004-2016, we extrapolated that there may be as many as 10,000 youth referred for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones each year. And that doesn’t count those who are questioning their gender but either aren’t mature enough to begin medically transitioning or have chosen not to medically transition. 

Why the exponential growth in trans-identifying youth? The Cass Review, a landmark review of the gender identity service in the UK that we discussed recently, states that gender dysphoria “like many other human characteristics, arises from a combination of biological, psychological, social and cultural factors.” So, there is no single cause of gender dysphoria. There are many factors at play. In this blog post, we explore the role of one of those factors – public education, which plays a major role in shaping children’s belief systems, including their understanding and experience of gender. 

There is no single cause of gender dysphoria. There are many factors at play. In this blog post, we explore the role of one of those factors – public education, which plays a major role in shaping children’s belief systems, including their understanding and experience of gender. 

SOGI in Schools 

In 2016, the Vancouver-based ARC foundation created SOGI 123 in collaboration with the BC Ministry of Education, the BC Teachers’ Federation, local school districts, and LGBTQ organizations. ARC’s mission is “to foster Awareness, Respect and Capacity through SOGI-inclusive K-12 education.” SOGI stands for sexual orientation and gender identity. 

SOGI 123 focuses on three things. 

Policies and Procedures largely revolves around anti-bullying policies in schools. The BC Ministry of Education requires every school to adopt an anti-bullying policy that lists prohibited grounds for bullying. Prior to 2016, such policies listed gender, race, culture, and religion. But the provincial government added sexual orientation and gender identity to that list in 2016. By adding these terms, the provincial government co-opted schools into recognizing modern gender ideology and elevating gender identity above other identities or characteristics – body type, age, and ability, just to name a few. 

Inclusive Environments mainly refers to pronouns, bathrooms, and extra-curricular activities. Teachers are encouraged to ask students for their preferred pronouns and use them. Bathrooms, changing facilities, and showers are redesigned to be gender neutral. Participation on boys’ and girls’ teams is based on students’ self-identification, not their biological sex. 

Teaching Resources are offered by ARC to help teachers teach gender ideology in every subject and every setting at school. For example, one lesson plan designed for grade 2, 3, 4, or 5 teaches students to reject all stereotypes, be true to themselves, and celebrate gender freedom. Other lessons plans suggest that teachers read books like I am Jazz that promote and normalize the idea that a boy could be trapped in a girl’s body. 

The ARC foundation now boasts that SOGI 123 had been adopted by all 60 public school districts in British Columbia and reaches over 2500 educators. While it began in BC, ARC’s networks are growing to the Prairies, the Maritimes, and Yukon. It is funded by the Government of BC and the Government of Canada. 

In the central and eastern parts of the country, the Canadian Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity aims to defend “gender and sexually diverse communities” through education, research and advocacy. In 2022-23, they boasted of delivering 200 presentations on topics such as comprehensive sexuality education, intersectionality, and diversity, working in 100 schools, and formally partnering with 26 school boards. Although located in Ontario, the Center claims to reach into the Maritime provinces and Saskatchewan as well. 

The Canadian Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity is frank about its view of education. “Education is advocacy: it is widespread and helps us all learn about each other and our unique experiences of privilege and oppression so that we can build an equitable, accessible, participatory and rights-based world without discrimination together.” 

Of course, if you see education as advocacy – one might call it indoctrination – there is no reason to stop with promoting gender ideology. In its Pride Pledge, the Center expands their list of advocacy topics to include racism, misogyny, and ableism, and insists that everyone who disagrees with them is a fascist: “Whether at their school, local library or their city council, trans youth have been targeted relentlessly by transphobic and fascist rhetoric that aims to extinguish them from public spaces… This pushback from the far-right displays a key facet of their political organizing; using racism and misogyny as tools to consolidate white power. Regardless of whether the tool is ableism (i.e. anti-mask and anti-vax rhetoric), racism, or transphobia the goal is always the same — mobilize the cultural majority to dehumanize and eradicate people who are a “threat” to Canada’s white, non-disabled, and cis-hetero norms” (emphasis added). 

The Canadian Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity isn’t an organization supported by regular, grassroots Canadians. It is funded by arms of all three levels of government: the Government of Canada (Health Canada, the Canadian Department of Justice, the Canadian Department of Heritage) the Government of Ontario (Ministry of Education, Youth Opportunities Fund), and the City of Ottawa. 

These organizations support and teach the confused anthropology of the Genderbread Person and the Gender Unicorn created by gender ideology advocates in the United States.

These cartoons teach that gender identity is separate from sex and that sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexuality are all variants that fall somewhere along a continuum. They teach children that everyone is some combination of male, female, or other. Identity and expression, they teach, is solely up to individual choice and assertion. It is not connected to biological sex in any way. Sex is not a foundational and unchangeable biological reality, but a mere label “assigned at birth”. Gender stereotypes are oppressive, false, and constraining. 

If we truly want to Let Kids Be, that doesn’t just mean banning active interventions like hormone therapies to change the body. It also means removing active interventions like promoting modern gender ideology in schools. 

Impact on Students 

If this understanding around gender identity is what is being taught in schools (as it is in all 60 public school districts in British Columbia), is it any wonder that an increasing number of young people are confused about their gender? Plenty of adults are confused about all the modern categories of identity and what they mean. Do we expect first graders to understand better? 

The way that Canadian schools are teaching gender these days is analogous to throwing out the rules of algebra in mathematics, grammar in English, or notation in music and replacing it with the suggestion to just compute, write, and play according to the heart. That doesn’t work. Understanding reality in those subjects is indispensable. 

So too when it comes to gender. Understanding gender’s connection to biological sex puts boys and girls on the road to success. Ignoring these connections sets them on a road of questioning. This questioning and confusion can lead to significant distress or dysphoria and prompt students to socially transition (to adopt new pronouns, cross-dress, conform to the opposite sex’s stereotypes). For many kids, this social transition demands the next step: medical transitioning. 

If we truly want to Let Kids Be, that doesn’t just mean banning active interventions like hormone therapies to change the body. It also means removing active interventions like promoting modern gender ideology in schools. 

We encourage you to reach out to your provincial MLA or MPP as well as your provincial education minister and ask them to remove harmful gender ideology from public schools.