A Positive and Productive Roundtable Discussion with Premier Danielle Smith

A huge improvement over last time!

My original header was a group picture with Danielle Smith. Read on to find out why I chose not to do that.

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of attending a roundtable discussion with Premier Danielle Smith and Minister Tanya Fir about the UCP’s proposed policies relating to “trans kids” and women’s sports. It was a world of difference from the last time a discussion like this was attempted. We had a productive and overall positive discussion about the government’s proposed policies and also about other issues affecting the community.

While the protesters (yes, there were protesters) will tell you a different story, the attendees were diverse and held many different views. And yes, there were trans-identified people in attendance as well. I make this point because there is a narrative that the Premier and the government are only meeting with specially hand-selected people who agree with them completely and that they aren’t meeting with any trans people at all. Hell, last time, my friends and I were accused of being paid to take part when in reality we came up to Edmonton on our own time and expense (as some other attendees similarly traveled from further than Calgary today).

I was glad to take part again with my friends James and Jason a little closer to home!

There were people there who I probably would—and have!—gotten into an argument with online. But we had a pleasant time talking in person. Sure, things were said that I might not 100% agree with, and I’m also sure that I said things that others didn’t 100% agree with. But the point was to be able to say them. We discussed many issues, including the medicalization of trans-identified children, the complexity of providing and navigating single-sex spaces like washrooms and changing rooms, women’s sports and the importance of keeping them exclusively female, and the politicization of Pride and the gay community.

And of course, part of why it went so well was because of Tanya Fir’s direction and moderation!

For my part, I got to chime in about the story I wrote about the Nanaimo mother who was threatened with arrest after confronting a man who was watching young girls undress at a swimming pool. I got to talk about my experience with online abuse due to being a non-leftist lesbian who criticizes gender ideology. I got to share concerns about allowing children to make decisions that will impact their future sexual function and fertility. Honestly, none of that was needed because the government really does get it.

Making a devastatingly good point, probably.

All-in-all, it was the very best of what I could expect from an in-person conversation. Social media has a way of making things far more emotionally heightened. But that’s exactly the problem. The protesters outside have mostly encountered and discussed this issue on social media and—I don’t know how to put this any less bluntly—they have whipped themselves up into a frenzy over it.

A horrible, glare-filled picture of the protesters I took from inside.

Many of the people outside think that the Premier and the government hate them. As one of the attendees astutely pointed out, some of them truly believe that discussions like the one we had yesterday signal the beginning steps to concentration camps for trans and queer people. I could almost find sympathy for them because they really are making themselves miserable and fighting non-existent monsters. But who I truly do feel bad for are the children who receive this message, and I think it's highly irresponsible of adults to push it.

From the window, I could make out some signs, including one in particular that proclaimed “UCP is a Hate Group!” That's right, some of these people believe that their democratically elected government is literally a hate group. And that's where rhetoric can get dangerous. If the government is a hate group, then some might very well feel justified in taking radical and extreme actions against them.

Instagram / qcu.yyc

X / @JennyYeremiy

In fact, the protesters seemed to believe that because their government is so hateful and evil, they were entitled to trespass! At one point, they had a little “fuck the police” moment and yelled at the police for not allowing them into the McDougall Centre… which is a secure government building and not open to the public. It reminded me of a toddler throwing a fit for being asked to eat their vegetables.

Instagram / qcu.yyc

Like I said, I'd feel bad for them if they weren't so… petulant.

To be honest, it does make me quite sad how they monster the entire UCP and Danielle Smith in particular. I want to say that if they truly would listen to what she is saying, their opinions would change. They may not agree with her, but then they might actually see her as a human being doing what she genuinely thinks is best, which is exactly what they think about themselves.

But it's not so simple, because the problem goes deeper than just dislike of Smith as a person: it is a hatred of anyone who steps outside the bounds of progressive orthodoxy. They don't care that Smith wants to limit minor access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries because she genuinely cares about the well-being of children. To them, this point of view can never be anything but hateful and bigoted.

These accusations get thrown at me all the time, even though I was exactly the kind of child they would claim to support—but only if they could paint me as a “trans kid.” Today, because I feel that the best way to protect kids like this is not to lock them into medicalized pathways, I am also a bigot.

The bottom line is that anyone who sits a smidge to the perceived right of radical activists like these protesters is deemed to be every type of bigot under the sun. Danielle Smith is not just a transphobe to them, you see, she is also a raging homophobe… even though this couldn't be further from the truth. These people have taken glee in declaring to me that she doesn't care about or even actively hates me and my family—my wife and our baby on the way. This is quite simply untrue. It would be impossible for her to be more supportive of and a greater champion for people like us. And yet she and her party are banned from Pride.

Well, on this issue and in her leadership of the province, she has the full support of this married, pregnant lesbian. And if that isn’t already obvious enough, here is the current calendar photo for August, my birthday month.

I think the biggest factor that separated the people inside the meeting from the protesters outside, as well as the people I met today from those who were present in February, was that even if there is disagreement on the policies and on this issue, none of those in attendance believe that the government hates them. Neither do they believe that the government wants trans-identified kids to commit suicide, as the accusation—depressingly enough—so often goes (peep the “blood on your hands” protest sign below).

X / @JennyYeremiy

(Some of the protesters have since demanded that I reveal the names of everyone else who attended. This is what made me decide not to include our group photo with the Premier at the header of this piece. I won’t be opening up other people to such disgusting accusations.)

By the time the meeting ended, all but one lonely protester sitting in a faraway chair had left. Most of the media had left as well, but CTV was still there and asked if any of us wanted to comment. I did give some comments, from which all of five seconds were used—as it always goes!—but you can watch the segment here.

The main takeaway that I’d like to leave you with is that I am looking forward to the fall and to the tabling of this legislation. The government has done numerous consultations above and beyond the few meetings that I’ve been lucky enough to attend. They are informed and I trust that this is going in a positive direction.

The discussion included many issues besides the main ones in the policy, and while there is an attempt to strike a balance with all interested parties, I will say that I believe concerns about children and about women’s spaces are being taken seriously. I’m excited to continue to see how this develops!