Law Matters John Carpay
PT and his wife have three children, two of whom suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorder.They were kept in the dark by a Calgary public school about their vulnerable 12-year-old autistic daughter’s participation in a gay-straight alliance club, where staff and students tried to convince her that: she was actually a boy; she should transition to being a boy by taking hormones and eventually having surgery; she should use a boy’s name and the boys’ change-rooms; her parents are not trustworthy; and she should leave her church and her parents.
Like many autistic children, PT’s daughter also has other mental health issues, and struggled with social skills. As PT explains in a sworn affidavit filed in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench: “She is very vulnerable because she tends to be naïve, credulous, and will do almost anything to be liked by others.”
The parents did not learn about the indoctrination their daughter encountered at the GSA until she became severely depressed and suicidal. As PT explains: “Our daughter could have lost her life because her school chose to withhold information from us as parents.”
This frightening lesson about the dangers of secrecy was ignored entirely by Justice Johhna Kubik, who dismissed evidence in PT’s affidavit as mere hearsay. Kubik willfully ignored a significant quantity of corroborating evidence from other sources, that also shows that GSAs are ideological clubs seeking to promote a progressive creed of libertine sexuality and gender fluidity. There was clear and abundant evidence before Kubik showing that: GSAs promote an unscientific ideological view that gender is entirely subjective and not dependent upon one’s biological sex; the Alberta government’s official GSA website (directed at children as young as five) hosted explicit and graphic sexual material; the provincial GSA conference is open to students from kindergarten to grade 12; there are a growing number of GSAs in elementary and middle schools; the activist leaders of GSAs proudly show films with graphic depictions of explicit sex acts to the students in their GSAs; GSA meetings and activities are regularly held off school property, and occasionally in towns and cities other than where the host school is located; politicians and other members of the public have regular and open access to attend GSAs meetings without parental permission or even notification; and materials used in and by GSAs openly seek to discredit those who hold traditional beliefs concerning sexuality, marriage and gender.
Kubik also disregarded, without credible reasons, the affidavits of medical experts Miriam Grossman and Quieten Van Meter. A practicing child psychiatrist, Grossman informed the Court as follows: “The idea that it is possible or advisable to attempt to ‘transition’ … blurs and calls into question the most essential aspect of identity – whether one is male or female. It is confusing and frightening for the vast majority of children, especially young children, to learn that people are not necessarily what they appear to be, that doctors sometimes remove a penis and give people medicine to grow a beard or breasts. This information is often overwhelming for an adult to absorb, let alone a child. Especially in the most vulnerable children – those who already have anxiety, learning disability, lower IQ, or lack of stability at home (to mention just a few possibilities) – the exposure to frightening, age-inappropriate information may lead to more symptomatology.”
Pediatric endocrinology specialist Van Meter informed the Court that “there is unquestionable proof of harm to children by promoting affirmation therapy, hormonal and surgical treatment to outwardly change the sex of the patient.” He also cited the Dhejne study, which measured the long-term effects of people in Sweden who had cross-sex hormone therapy and surgical manipulation, and found that their suicide rate was 19 times higher than the general population.
While dismissing medical experts and the evidence about the true nature of GSAs, Kubik accepted without question the Alberta government’s evidence about GSAs being an unqualified good.
Her court ruling, which is being challenged before the Alberta Court of Appeal, leaves in place, for now, Alberta’s Bill 24, which makes it illegal for teachers and principals to inform all parents about their child’s involvement in a GSA or GSA-related activity. Based on the radical assumption that all parents are untrustworthy, Bill 24 does not distinguish between a 17-year-old and a five-year-old, and threatens the safety of kids, particularly those who are autistic, developmentally delayed or otherwise vulnerable.
Before Bill 24, Alberta law already permitted the withholding of some information from some parents in some circumstances.But the ideology of Kubik and GSAs will not tolerate nuances. Nothing must stand in the way of a progressive new world that celebrates libertine sexuality and gender fluidity, even if it means harming young and vulnerable children.
Lawyer John Carpay is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (www.jccf.ca) which represents PT and other parents, and schools, in a constitutional challenge to Alberta’s Bill 24.
