Just Like That, Alberta Is Less Safe for Girls

On Sept. 1, two pieces of Alberta legislation came into effect: the new Education Amendment Act, or Bill 27, and the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act, or Bill 29. Overnight, the province became less safe for girls.

We are professors researching the impacts of these bills, as well as Alberta’s Health Statutes Amendment Act, or Bill 26, and the parental rights movement fuelling them. We are also parents of school-aged youth.

These three bills aim to limit gender-affirming health care for youth (Bill 26), limit inclusive education (Bill 27) and ban trans women and girls from female sports (Bill 29). Though most of our research focuses on 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and families who are disproportionately affected by these three bills, we think it is imperative that the public know how these bills will also negatively affect cisgender girls, girls whose gender corresponds with their sex assigned at birth.

The Fairness and Safety in Sport Act restricts participation in female-only sports to athletes who were assigned female at birth. This legislation will have devastating effects on the lives of trans girls.

Last week, the Calgary Board of Education, the largest public school district in Western Canada, issued a letter to all parents and guardians of student athletes participating in “female-only” leagues. The letter requires parents to “confirm that their child’s sex recorded on their birth registration document is female.” Parents must confirm their child’s eligibility every year.

The act required the Calgary school board to create a procedure to allow people to challenge the eligibility of an individual. This means that any girl who is perceived as too tall, strong, fast or masculine may have their eligibility to participate in school athletics anonymously challenged, then investigated by the school district.

The Fairness in Safety and Sport Act gives Alberta adults licence to scrutinize girls’ gender. These new rules will disproportionately affect female athletes of colour, who regularly face racist scrutiny and false gender accusations. And it makes all girls less safe.

The bill reminds us of a headline-making incident that took place in Kelowna, B.C., in June 2023, when an adult spectator accused a nine-year-old girl of being transgender and a boy during an elementary school athletics competition. She was so distraught that she was unable to compete.

Now, in Alberta, the new school regulations for girls in sport open the door for more such behaviour on the part of adults.

“If a student athlete’s eligibility is challenged, the parent/guardian may be asked to provide a copy of the student athlete’s birth registration document,” reads the letter from the Calgary Board of Education.

A birth registration document is not merely a photocopy of a birth certificate. It must be paid for at a registry (for a cost of $40) and takes time to arrive. It is also impossible to produce for many people, especially refugees, who have been displaced from their homes. Obtaining a birth registration document for an intersex child is even more complicated, and the policy does not explicitly state what documents are required for intersex youth to participate in sports.

Now that the province is creating a context where athletes playing on girls’ teams are at risk of their gender being challenged, some girls are rethinking their participation in school athletics, fearing both harassment and humiliation.

As researchers and as parents, we have had many conversations with concerned parents of girls.

One mother is very concerned for her daughter because she is over six feet tall and a highly competitive athlete, and could be on the receiving end of a gender challenge.

Putting all youth at risk

The Education Amendment Act requires parental consent for subject matter dealing with gender identity, sexual orientation and human sexuality. In other words, parents must opt in for their youth to receive any sexual education in Alberta.

The majority of youth identify schools as a key source of sexual health information. This policy will create huge barriers for young Albertans to learn about consent, pregnancy and how to prevent sexually transmitted infections.

In large-scale studies, teenage girls who received comprehensive sexual health education had a significantly lower risk of pregnancy than those who received no formal sexual education.

There is causal evidence of the positive role of comprehensive sex education for youth, especially for girls whose lives are most disrupted by teen pregnancy. According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, a lack of understanding about consent can lead to both assault and victim blaming.

In an effort to limit youth’s access to inclusive education, the province has now made it harder for them to access robust and scientific information about sex.

This doesn’t just affect trans kids — it puts all youth at risk.

On top of this new education bill, the United Conservative Party introduced its updated ministerial order on Monday about what books can be available in Alberta schools. After a strong reaction from parents, teachers and authors, including Margaret Atwood, the UCP government is now targeting visual images of sex in books, claiming that these depictions are “pornographic.”

The party continues to frame these new policies as improving “parental choice” in schools. But that is far from the reality.

Overwhelmingly, parents want experts, not politicians, to lead decision-making in schools.

Instead, the Alberta provincial government is relying on fringe groups and partisan politics to implement a suite of policies designed to roll back the educational rights of an entire generation of youth.

Parents want to watch their daughters compete in sports without fear of harassment if they outshine the competition. They want to see their daughters graduate high school without an unplanned pregnancy.

Make no mistake: 2SLGBTQIA+ youth are being targeted. But cisgender girls are also poised to lose in Alberta.