Calgary rally against Alberta government’s proposed changes to transgender policies Saturday

A demonstration is set to take place outside Calgary City Hall on Saturday to protest the United Conservative government’s proposed changes to gender identity and transgender policies.

Earlier this week Premier Danielle Smith announced new rules and restrictions on youth changing their names or pronouns at school and getting hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgery.

The province will also be clamping down on transgender female athletes competing against women and girls in sport, and mandating parental consent for all sex education instruction in schools.

The proposals have been criticized by the Alberta Teachers’ Association, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, medical professionals and the provincial NDP Opposition.

Protest organizer Dr. Victoria Bucholtz, who teaches history and gender studies at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University, calls the premier’s desire to de-politicize the conversation “laughable.”

“This is Danielle Smith and her cabinet making a unilateral decision based on — as she says in the video — what she thinks,” Bucholtz told CityNews.

There are also growing calls for the federal government to take concrete action, as the province becomes the latest one to bring in new restrictions on transgender youth.

The change is also being pushed by Saskatchewan and New Brunswick and has been criticized as dangerous for trans children by the federal government.

But Fae Johnstone with a Society of Queer Momentum says it’s time they take a real stand.

“Minister (Randy) Boissonnault knows that this a NATO moment. You know, you come for one of us, you come for all of us, but we need to see them follow through on that,” she told CityNews.

Johnstone wants the feds to legally intervene, look at constitutional options to overrule some changes or impose financial penalties under the Canada Health Act.

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Smith’s proposal the “most anti-LGBT policies of anywhere in the country,” he was not directly saying what his government could do.

“We need to be there to defend them. We need to be there to protect them and I know Canadians across the country are doing just that,” he told reporters Friday.

Premiers have argued they want to protect parents’ rights and children with changes like forcing parental consent for name and pronoun changes or restricting access to hormone therapy.

The rally begins at 2 p.m. and will go until 4 p.m.

-With files from Phil Wood