Hundreds gather to protest Saskatchewan’s new school gender and naming policy

Hundreds of protesters lined up in front of Don Morgan’s office in Saskatoon on Sunday afternoon to voice their displeasure about a new gender and naming policy implemented by the provincial government last week.

Last Tuesday morning, Education Minister Dustin Duncan announced the following rules for the upcoming school year:

• Parents will have to be notified when sexual health education is happening and what will be included, and parents will have the ability to take their kids out of the class if they wish;
• No third parties will be allowed to be brought in for sexual health education presentations, excepting from the ministry or Saskatchewan Health Authority. School divisions also will have to pause working with third parties on sex education programming as well; and
• Parents will have to consent before a requested name and pronoun change from a student will be honoured in the school.

Some say the new rules implemented would make school less inclusive for students who are transgender.

(Will Mandzuk/650 CKOM)

Protesters outside of Morgan’s office on Sunday said that school needs to be a safe environment for kids because they may not have that environment at home.

“I know some people that are trans and some that may not be in a safe home environment,” said drag queen Silver Phoenix.

Some protesters are now worried about the damage this policy could do to a transgender students mental health.

“It will cause a lot of mental health issues amongst our youth so I’m trying to stop that from happening,” said Skylar Forsberg.

There is also a worry about the potential of more bullying towards these kids.

“I find this policy is going to out some kids in school and paint a target on their back,” said Forsberg.

(Will Mandzuk/650 CKOM)

There has been lots of reaction since the news from Tuesday dropped as parents get ready to send their kids back to school.

The Saskatchewan School Boards Association is calling on the province to pause the policy.

One mother from Saskatchewan has said she’ll be filing a human rights complaint over the policy change.