Far right and north
Trump’s latest anti–trans statements echo those of Canadian conservative politicians
I’m sure you’ve heard by now about Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s statements about transgender students made at the Mom’s of Liberty1 Convention last week. The ramblings that come out of this man’s mouth are becoming less shocking the more we get used to his nonsense, but this time he said something so blatantly ridiculous that a Liz Lemon-level eye roll wouldn’t suffice.
For a refresher, it went like this:
“Think of it; your kid goes to school, and he comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child.”
It may be obvious, but just so it’s out there in the open, schools are not performing gender-affirming surgeries on students. Children aren’t coming home from school having had any type of surgery performed on them. Trump’s accusations are, once again, lacking all evidence of truth.
North American politics are becoming increasingly polarized–this is no secret. We see the dramatics of it in the U.S. but we can’t ignore that it’s happening in Canada, too. I’ve been living in Alberta now for almost three years, and have noticed how strong the divide is between the province’s two major parties (United Conservatives and New Democrats).
Up in Canada, we often look down at the U.S. and wonder what is lighting the country’s political dumpster fire. But, while the embers are only starting to spark, we can’t ignore that our own fire has been ignited and Canadian politicians are regularly feeding the flames. Danielle Smith, Alberta’s Premier, has been a major contributor to this heat.
Trump’s speeches–if you can call them that–during this Presidential campaign have been full of deceptive voter-base arousal nonsense similar–to some degree–to what we’ve seen in Alberta since Smith returned to provincial politics in 2022.
This past January, the Premier made statements about transgender students that she later said were not based on any evidence. In other words, our province’s political leader is spewing misinformation to the public in order to rile up her voter base, which is largely made up of rural conservatives.
Smith made the announcement in a video on social media rather than holding a press conference, where there would be an opportunity for questions from reporters–people who would hold her accountable and ask questions she didn’t want to answer. The new rules announced included a ban for gender-affirming surgeries (top and bottom surgery) for anyone 17 and younger, and a ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the purpose of gender reassignment for anyone 15 and under.
In the video, Smith said “making permanent and irreversible decisions regarding one’s biological sex while still a youth can severely limit that child’s choices in the future. Prematurely enabling or encouraging children to alter their very biology or natural growth, no matter how well-intentioned and sincere, poses a risk to that child’s future that I, as Premier, am not comfortable permitting in our province.”
There are two problems I want to address here. The first is that, in Alberta, you have to be 18 or older to receive gender-affirming surgery, and over 16 for hormone therapies, which means the statements Smith made are inaccurate and leading.
Secondly, Smith’s statement that this is her concern is not based on evidence or a current problem, which she admitted days after the original statement for which she received a lot of backlash. And this is (part of) the problem at the root of all this: Who are these politicians trying to protect, because it’s clearly not the kids.
Politicians, in general, have had long standing reputations for extending the truth, exaggerating stories and sometimes outright lying if it served them politically. It has been harmful in the past, and it remains harmful now, especially since we are dealing with a vulnerable population.
The Atlantic writer, Elaine Godfrey, put it perfectly in her article on Trump’s speech at the Mom’s for Liberty convention: “People can disagree in good faith about the policies governing schools supported by their taxpayer dollars. But disagreeing with those policies does not justify promoting conspiratorial lies.”
Is it not the responsibility of the community, adults and leaders (political or otherwise) to protect children? To provide them with the safest spaces possible to grow and learn and develop into the people they will become? Standing at a podium threatening to take away the rights of children is not keeping them safe. It is teaching them they need to hide, from who they are and the people they have been told they can trust. And it’s all to feed the ego of individuals on power trips and groups of people who remain uninterested in educating themselves on the perspective of others, inserting their voices into conversations about things about which they are grossly misinformed.
If you are seeing the facts clearly, for what they are, not what they are being made out to be, then this is your opportunity to help right these wrongs. You have voting power. You can spread the word of writers and activists and thought leaders who do see things for what they are and are calling politicians on their bullshit. Because no child should suffocate under the weight of the inflated ego of a politician.
Mom’s for Liberty is a far-right non-profit political organization founded in 2021 and based out of Florida. According to their website, the group “is dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.” They have been labeled as conservative extremists, and joined with several states in legal action to ban the advancement of Title IX, which protects the rights and safety of trans kids in federally funded schools.