“It was almost imperative to their success in school because that was a place where they could feel safe,” Jackson, a 20-year-old university student and aspiring teacher, told The Washington Post. “Otherwise, they really didn’t. It helped them focus on their school more. It was very important.”
But now, New Brunswick’s conservative premier has ordered changes to Policy 713. One of the most contentious: Prohibiting teachers from identifying students under 16 by the pronouns and names of their choosing without the consent of their parents.
Those who don’t want their parents contacted would be “directed” to school psychologists or social workers “to work with them in the development of a plan to speak with their parents if and when they are ready to do so,” the revised policy says.
Jackson remains in touch with Oromocto students.
“There are a lot of kids who are kind of panicking now,” she said, because they fear the changes risk outing students who might be in harm’s way at home or who fear their parents might not be supportive. “It’s sad to see, honestly.”
The changes introduced by Premier Blaine Higgs, which go into effect on Saturday, have drawn wide opposition from LGBTQ students and their advocates, civil liberties groups, the province’s child and youth advocate — and notably, members of Higgs’s own conservative government.
Students have staged school walkouts. The union for school psychologists says it wasn’t consulted and won’t be “complicit in harm by deadnaming and misgendering” students.” Two cabinet ministers have resigned; other officials in Higgs’ Progressive Conservative Party are seeking to oust him as leader. He shuffled his cabinet Tuesday, ousting several other cabinet ministers who opposed him on this issue.
Dorothy Shephard, who resigned her position as minister of healthy and inclusive communities this month but remains a member of the Progressive Conservative caucus, said Higgs handled “sensitive” subjects “antagonistically.”
“Policy 713 and the debate that ensued in the house really kind of was my last straw,” she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s “Power & Politics” program. “I didn’t feel like I could accomplish anything more in this cabinet with this premier.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also weighed in.
“Right now, trans kids in New Brunswick are being told they don’t have the right to be their true selves, that they need to ask permission,” he said this month. “Trans kids need to feel safe, not targeted by politicians. We need to stand against this.”
That intervention drew criticism, too. Pierre Poilievre, leader of the federal Conservative Party, said Tuesday that Trudeau should “butt out” of education policy, which is the responsibility of the provinces, and “let parents raise kids.”
In the United States, Republicans are taking aim at LGBTQ rights with legislation that limits what schools may teach about gender identity and how students identify themselves.
Their Canadian counterparts have had far less success. But advocates for the LGBTQ community fear that the U.S. debate is shaping how their opponents think and talk about the issue — and the tactics they are employing.
“A lot of this is the right-wing, anti-trans movement [in the United States] that is spreading,” said Nicki Lyons-MacFarlane, an advocate with Imprint Youth Association in Fredericton, New Brunswick. “That has kind of been the launching point for it here.”
Higgs’s office declined to comment.
The 69-year-old former executive of New Brunswick energy giant Irving Oil, elected to lead the maritime province in 2018, has said he has no intention of stepping down. He has defended the changes to Policy 713, which he says are needed to safeguard the rights of parents.
“Parents are the foundation of our society; families are the foundation of our society,” he said during a debate in the provincial legislature this month. “And what we’re seeing is that erosion of the family role in children’s upbringing.”
What motivated the review of Policy 713 — and why now — is a matter of debate.
Higgs, who has voiced concerns about hormone therapy for trans youth and “drag story time” for young students, has said the policy “slid into the system” with few people noticing. He says he has received “hundreds” of complaints from “an outpouring of parents.”
But the province’s child and youth advocate reported last month that he had asked for the complaints and was provided with just three. One mentioned a debunked claim about students identifying as cats and featured conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum.
None of the complaints came from students or teachers, advocate Kelly Lamrock reported.
“I cannot think of any other case where ‘three emails in 30 months’ has been the threshold for the reversal of government policy,” Lamrock wrote. “I am not sure any government decision could survive if receiving three complaints led to reconsideration.”
In a debate this month in the provincial legislature, Higgs said that gender dysphoria is becoming “popular and trendy,” a “situation that is growing because there is such acceptance that ‘Okay, this is fine.’”
Such comments are evidence of a “very transphobic personal bias,” said Gail Costello, a retired New Brunswick high school teacher who co-chairs the group Pride in Education and was involved in the development of Policy 713.
“He has pitted parents against teachers by implying that every student that goes by a different pronoun has something wrong with them and needs counseling,” she said. “It’s harmful for those kids to make that implication. They’re not unwell because they want to use a different pronoun.”
A Washington Post-KFF poll of U.S. trans adults this year found that school is one of the greatest stressors for trans children, who are at greater risk of suicide, depression and substance use. Advocates say gender-affirming policies make schools safe for trans and nonbinary students.
Higgs has faced criticism on several fronts during the last several months, including over issues related to French immersion in the bilingual province and plans to strip power from school boards.
“And now Policy 713, a problem of the premier’s own making,” said Donald Wright, a political scientist at the University of New Brunswick. “I think his leadership style in caucus and cabinet is rubbing people the wrong way. … I think it shows poor political judgment that he wanted to target a policy that seemed to be working when there were no complaints.”
The provincial legislature passed a motion this month calling on Lamrock, the child and youth advocate, to conduct “full consultations” on the changes to Policy 713 and produce a study by Aug. 15. Six members of Higgs’s party voted in favor.
In the meantime, Costello said, students and their advocates are struggling with uncertainty.
“There’s a huge hate on for trans folks, and there’s no doubt it’s spreading,” Costello said. “We used to think we were different as Canadians. And unfortunately, we are seeing that maybe in some ways we’re not.”