Airdronian Kiersten Mohr, who is a transgender woman, is sharing her thoughts on the recently announced new provincial policies that will affect the LGBTIQA+ community.

At the beginning of the month, Premier Danielle Smith announced policies that according to her are meant to preserve the rights of kids to be able to make decisions as adults.

Mohr, who is also the Treasurer for the Airdrie Pride Society believes the province didn't do enough research when it came to this decision.

"I think the biggest challenge and the most unfortunate part of this, is that the Alberta government did quite literally zero consultation with anybody when it comes to medical groups. I find it so unfortunate that this is something that is happening in 2024."

The Airdrie Pride Society posted a statement to social media shortly after the new policies were announced.

One of the main points of these policies Mohr brought up is that they are about parental rights. As a parent herself, Mohr believes some of these policies do the opposite, for example, the prohibition of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment or affirmation for children aged 15 and under.

"For any treatment related to gender identity for those under 16, this takes away parental consent because before anybody could receive the treatment the parents had to ok it. Now it's not even an option."

With that being said, Mohr always hopes that parents know what's going on in their child's life, but sometimes those youths are just not ready to share or are unsure yet of what they feel.

"If for whatever reason, my kids aren't feeling like they're ready to talk to me, I would hope they would find the right person to talk to at school."

Mohr went on to talk about how having to now get the parent's consent to be called different pronouns in school could have a bad effect on teenagers.

"In so many cases, we're going to be outing that child possibly before they are ready to have the conversation with their family which is something we should not be doing. School is a space where youth are supposed to be able to figure themselves out and explore. There's no harm going by different names or different pronouns."

Mohr stated there are decades of medical and mental health research on what the right harm-reducing approach is to support youth. Everything put out by the Alberta Government is not congruent with that approach.

Mohr is advocating for an approach focused on harm reduction rather than impeding access to healthcare.

"Why would we risk a population of very vulnerable youth with suicide attempts and rates that are so much higher than the rest of the population?"

Even when it comes to homelessness, Mohr stated it is hugely disproportional in this community, because youth are leaving unsupportive homes concerning their identity.

Mohr finished off by saying if anybody in the  LGBTIQA+ community is having a hard time please do reach out the the Airdrie Pride Society.

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