Later this year, Alberta's Premier Danielle Smith is planning to implement new laws in the province that will greatly impact the lives of transgender and gender non-conforming youth, and transgender athletes. 

These policies include:

• Transgender youth under the age of 16 will be required to have parental permission to change their name/pronouns at school
• Transgender youth aged 16-17 will not need parental permission, but their parents will need to be notified if they wish to make such changes 
• Gender affirming surgery will be banned for any minor
• Hormone blockers and hormone replacement therapy will be banned for youth 15 years old or younger, unless these have already been started
• transgender female athletes will be banned from competing in women's sports leagues

These policies will put many transgender youth at risk in schools and at home. Name/pronoun changes and hormone blockers are completely reversible, but may be life saving for transgender youth in need of gender affirming care. Hormone blockers gives transgender youth time to figure out their identity before puberty hits, and can save many transgender people thousands in future gender affirming surgeries. Students may be outed by their schools as transgender to their potentially unsafe family members. We need to stop this legislature from being put into place before it has the chance to cause damage.