The Project Continues
Since our last newsletter, we have begun the second phase of our research. With the support of funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, we are now expanding our project in a few key ways:
Conducting more focus groups in Calgary and expanding into Edmonton
Collecting responses to a survey for parents/caregivers across Alberta
Conducting virtual one-on-one interviews with parents/caregivers
Our major goal in this phase of the project is to hear from more parents and caregivers across the province, including those who live in rural and remote communities.
We continue to share our findings through presentations and publications. Most recently, we presented at a province-wide event, For the Love of Public Education.
Focus Group Findings
In November and December 2025, we held two focus groups with parents and caregivers of 2SLGBTQIA+ youth—one in Edmonton and one in Calgary.
In this newsletter, we highlight key themes that emerged across these two conversations. As always, pseudonyms are used to protect the anonymity of participants.
Note: These focus groups occurred prior to the passing of Bill 9 (“Protecting Alberta’s Children Statutes Amendment Act”) which used the Notwithstanding Clause to override the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to enact Bills 26, 27, and 29.
Safety and Conformity
For parents and caregivers of 2SLGBTQIA+ youth in Alberta, the politicalization of queer and trans lives in the province has shifted the socio-cultural environment of the province toward increased hostility and hate. Parents are concerned not just about the direct impacts of the Bills but on how two years of political debate has changed the landscape of the province, specifically when it comes to safety.
Affirming parents who were once open to their children expressing their gender in nonconforming ways are now more concerned about gender conformity as a way to protect them from bullying and harassment.
Lisa expressed:
“I just had this vision while you were talking, like you’re in the Serengeti and we’re like, all lines are zebras or whatever animal you are. But you have to hide your kid to protect them in the bush, right? Like, that’s what we’re doing. We’re hiding our kids in plain sight to make it safe. And we shouldn’t have to do that.”
Ellie jumped in:
“ Yeah, it’s like, is your camouflage good enough? No. Then you stay home.”
For another parent, Dee, the safety concerns they have for their trans kid means that their parenting strategies now diverge from their personal values, and are different from how they care for their cisgender child:
“I think we can experience both of those spaces of really, genuinely not caring how our kids look or present, but then knowing when they’re at school or in spaces where we’re not there, especially like a high school… that any dose of potential security means the world, and any loss of it is like an echo through space… like you feel it to your soul. With my cis kid, it’s like, ‘do whatever you want.’ Because it’s like it’s so different [for trans kids] right… the safety aspect is real.”
While the safety concerns for trans and non-binary youth were top of mind for parents and caregivers, parents were also adamant that the anti-trans hostility in the province was also impacting cisgender kids who don’t conform to rigid ideas of gender expression.
Emilie explained:
“We have another little boy with hair down to his nipples. And it’s to the point now where when he goes into the men’s room, people stop him and they’re like, ‘why are you in here?’ He’s a ten-year-old boy. Just let him pee! And so, there’s concern as well, going into public spaces of whether he’s going to be safe. Is he going to be safe going into the men’s change room when he has super long hair in today’s ridiculous society? And so, there’s just a lot of a lot of concern, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of fear.”
For another parent, the intention of the government’s legislation of gender and sexuality is not just about trans youth, but blaming young people’s non-conformity, in general, for other provincial issues.
“The government is…it almost feels like they’re actively scapegoating our entire future.” (Dragon).
Access to Education
The concern for the future of youth in the province was brought up again regarding access to education. Focused on Bills 27 and 29, and the province’s ‘book ban,’ parents and caregivers are worried about other parents’ involvement in the ‘parental rights’ movement, as well as the loss of school support.
Dee explained:
“The other thing that comes to mind just talking about safety is like, now that our kids are going to school, and with the changes that are likely going to happen, our kids have lost security at school, even if there are affirming teachers. Now we can’t talk about gender or sexuality. If a teacher does— trying to protect our kids— other students are now very informed, especially based [on information] from their own homes or like this is something that can be targeted. ‘Oh, I can go home and tell my parents that we were talking about gender and sexuality today.’ What’s happening when our kids are forced to go to gym class? There [are] so many things that are going on, and then we don’t have control.”
Another parent wondered about the possibility of teachers being surveilled by transphobic and homophobic students around compliance to Bill 27.
Ellie expressed her concern:
“How long until the teachers get blackmailed? Even if the kids don’t believe it. [A student could say] ‘remember when you gave me a 50 on that exam? Well, I believe you read a book. So, do you want a teacher’s hearing or do I get a 90?”
Courtney articulated that her child was “going into hiding” after changing schools this year out of fear, which has triggered a new hypervigilance around being “found out.” She explained:
“We’ve just laid low under the radar. Once she went to junior high, I’m not advocating for shit. I am not saying that she’s a trans girl. I am not talking about her gender at all. Let her be one of the other 700 children in the school, and if something comes up and they go digging in her file and they want to talk to me about it, so be it… but then you live looking over your shoulder, you know?”
The rights of parents of 2SLGBTQIA+ kids to educate and protect their children also came up when discussing how the provincial government has claimed that Bill 27 is about expanding ‘parental rights.’
“Well, parents have a right to, you know, raise their children, to protect their children, to teach their children, and to ensure that they can grow up in as safe an environment as possible. However, if you give parents a right that trumps the kid’s ability to learn about the world that they are living in, then you’re going to end up with educationally stunted children who will have no idea how to react to anything” (Dragon).
In response, a parent spoke about the conversation they had with a UCP MLA about the high stakes of the bills:
“When the legislation first got announced years ago, I contacted my MLA and had about a 2.5-hour conversation with his office-- never him, because he never calls. One of the things they kept saying was, ‘you know, we’re getting a lot of discussion on both sides. We’re getting parents on both sides calling in.’ And I was like, ‘Amazing. Can you please tell me what the parents on the other side are concerned about? I would love to hear.’ And the response? The only thing that she could tell me that they were concerned about was their children being taught things in school that they were not, that they didn’t agree with… When he asked what I was concerned about, it was obviously, you know, suicide -- my kid’s going to kill herself when she finds out about this. And the only thing that the other side could come up with was access to education” (Emilie).
Parents’ concern for inadequate education not only for their kids but kids in general was brought up again when reflecting on the province’s ‘book ban.’ One parent claimed:
“School libraries are equally important as community libraries as well. And there are professionals who should be running school libraries that would be able to properly figure out what should be on the shelves, what’s appropriate for school age children. But at the same time, access to information is a right to everybody and anybody. And if you’re getting a child who’s trying to read a biology book and they don’t understand everything in it, then that’s something where they can start to learn and ask the right questions. But if they don’t have access to that book, they’re not going to be able to ask those questions” (Joe).
Dragon interjected:
“They won’t know what they’re missing.”
Indigenous parents drew the important connection between Bills 27 and 29 and recent histories of abuses in residential schools:
Desmond explained:
“The biggest outcome of this is what we understand and know through history, through what we’ve seen within our education, within our schooling, within residential schools, is that when they have to check [what genitalia children have] there’s abuse. It makes room for abuse. They made room for abuse in residential schools by checking young girls to see if they were ‘mature enough,’ if they had pubic hair, and same young boys. Patriarchy thrives on monolithic abusive strategies and pedophilia… And it’s something that is like being made room for in our current society, especially in Alberta.”
For this participant, Bills 27 and 29 reminded them directly of the horrors in residential schools and they called-out the provincial government for specifically exposing students to possible sexual abuse. Such an analysis is essential to our understanding of how Bills 26, 27, and 29 interfere with Indigenous sovereignty.
Conclusion
Families in Alberta are experiencing the impacts of Bills 26, 27, and 29 deeply. Because Bills 27 and 29 came into effect on September 1, parents in our recent focus groups spent a lot of time discussing how schools are no longer safe spaces for their 2SLGBTQIA+ children. They are concerned about their children’s safety, and also fear for the safety of affirming teachers. Parents understand the short- and long-term negative effects that book bans and opt-in sexual health education will have on youth in Alberta.
And, importantly, the colonial context of this legislation must not go unmarked.