Alberta premier holds closed-door meeting with select members of LGBTQ community

Premier's private meeting A demonstration took place outside McDougall Centre on Friday as the premier met with members of the LGBTQ community.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith held a closed-door meeting Friday morning with members of Calgary’s LGBTQ community, but more than 100 protesters outside the building say the consultation was held ‘in secret’ and with ‘hand-picked organizations.’

The protest in support of transgender rights was organized by Queer Citizens United (QCU), a local group that aims to help defend queer spaces and build solidarity amongst those who are marginalized.

The organizers of the protest say the groups involved in the meeting don’t represent all members of the queer community and worry it will negatively affect future provincial policies they call ‘transphobic’ which were announced in February.

“When they announced these policies, they didn’t invite us and that’s why we were upset today too because there were no trans health care professionals in that meeting,” said QCU member Victoria Bucholtz.

“The vast majority of the pride community is not there today and we weren’t even asked, we have been completely excluded from discussions about us," Bucholtz added.

The province told CTV News Smith would not be available for interviews after the meeting and about a dozen police officers held guard at the entrance to McDougall Centre.

Red carpet

Members of QCU rolled out a red carpet and even set up a chair for Smith to attend their meet-up, but the Premier did not show.

Earlier this year, Premier Smith announced several proposed policy changes that would affect transgender Albertans, including requiring parental consent for students 15 and under who want to change their names or pronouns.

The policies and guidelines would also include restrictions on hormone therapy, surgery and participation in sport.

Bucholtz notes that these policies are extremely harmful to trans children, many of which are struggling with their own mental health issues because of February’s policy announcements.

“I’d love Danielle Smith to just stop, listen to healthcare providers and do what they said,” Bucholtz said.

“There are already established medical guidelines on what should be happening, we don’t need the government mandating this. This is a distraction and ideological fervor that has no basis in medical science.

At the time, Smith said her government planned to put the policy changes into effect in the fall legislature sitting.

‘Really productive meeting’

Alberta’s Minister of Arts, Culture, and Status of Women, Tanya Fir held a press briefing Friday to explain the progress made during Smith's meeting with LGBTQ members.

“I thought it was a really productive meeting, I thought there was a lot of open, civil respectful conversation going on and opportunity for the premier to listen and hear what's important to the stakeholders and allies that were in the room,” Fir said.

The minister notes that the meeting was not secretive, but she wouldn’t reveal who was in attendance so as to protect their safety.

“We're not releasing names of the participants out of respect for their safety and privacy. Unfortunately with some of the previous roundtables I’ve had participants who were publicly doxxed and there were threats of violence to them and their loved ones.

“There was the parent of a trans minor in attendance. There was some private organizations and community groups in attendance and it was a wide range of community groups, organizations and individuals.”

Criticism continues however over a lack of medical experts in attendance. Fir noted that the province is working to recruit a doctor specializing in transgender care in Alberta, but could not explain why no such medical expert attended this specific meeting.

“I wanted to hear from members of the communities, allies in the community, and as I said, people with lived experiences.”

That isn’t sitting well with protesters at Friday’s demonstration like James Demers.

“I think it's inappropriate for politicians to attack children's health care, especially health care that has 80 years of backed medical research behind it,” Demers said.

“Especially research and medical care that every single college association and organization of medical professionals in this province supports full heartedly. This is an ideological choice that they are making to attack children.”

Mental health issues

Meg Hasek-Watt is a registered psychologist and founder of Heart Body Mind Psychological Services with Riverwest Therapy Collective.

She specializes in trans-affirming care and says she noticed a drastic increase in clients following the trans policy announcements made in February by the province.

“We have a lot of people who are very scared, and suicides are going up as we know that trans affirming care and gender affirming care is healthcare,” said Hasek-Watt.

“This government's policies are going to result in devastating outcomes," she added, "and they are policies based on incorrect information. It takes five years to even get on the list for bottom surgery in Montreal, like it's not just happening all over the place. So, there's just a lot of misinformation and it's just causing so much harm.”

As a result, Hasek-Watt started a no-cost therapy program because of the increase she noticed in several clients experiencing fear, trauma, and extreme anxiety.

“It’s not just kids either that are harmed by this, we’re seeing adults and elders, it’s so much worse right now because there’s this direct attack based on misinformation and on pseudoscience-based fake news. I’ve got folks who are terrified to go out in public and many want to leave the province.”

With files from The Canadian Press