Amie Kitts remembers in high school how being called the name they were given at birth bothered them.
They remember being bullied and afraid of being outed.
These are things Kitts is reflecting on after changes were made to policy 713 requiring parental consent for children under 16 to go by a different name or to use a different pronoun.
“I specifically didn’t like being called my first name because of how much it hurt to hear,” Kitts said. “Forcing trans students to be misgendered, especially to be misgendered, and to be forced to go by the name that hurts them, to hear it over the intercom, to hear their teachers say it to them, to hear bullies especially say it to them. This is not going to end well. This going to hurt kids.”
Kitts recalls hearing from friends who were also harmed by being misgendered, and said it felt gross to her that people would try to “pull them in” to masculinity.
“I didn’t know how to say that this makes me uncomfortable when I was a kid,” Kitts said.
They explained they don’t think Education Minister Bill Hogan or Premier Blaine Higgs care about the impact their words, their policy and their decisions will have on the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
“So, we have kids now who know very specifically how to ask for their dignity and how they deserve to be treated,” Kitts said. “We’ve come such a long way and what Blaine Higgs is doing is pulling us back.”
Shawn Rouse, the parent of a transgender child, agrees that the Higgs and Hogan are on the wrong side of history.
He said what they are doing will have severe consequences.
“It could result in dropouts, depression, substance abuse, suicide – all these are common in the trans and non-binary community, so the Premier could be doing real harm to children for this decision today,” he said in an interview Thursday.
For Rouse, the changes and the tone being used by both have promoted rampant transphobia, homophobia, and bi-phobia.
“I’ve definitely seen a ramp up of bullying of these children, my own child and their friends, and other parts of the province,” he said. “A couple of weeks ago, Minister Hogan talked about ‘how are girls going to feel about a biological male in their bathroom?’ Just throwing out a casual comment like that is so damaging. It promotes so many inaccurate, hurtful stereotypes.”
Rouse called the review of the policy bad faith, and based on what seems like the Premier’s personal beliefs.
“They politicized this in a very damaging way,” he said. “It gives a permissive environment to all sorts of discrimination.”
Kitts said the review and now the changes have made them angry.
“I’m furious,” they said. “But I’m also reminded that the first pride was a riot. I’m also reminded that the rights that we have were hard fought by the BIPOC queer community and over the last several years we’ve several attacks on those communities.”
But Kitts said the rights of the queer community won’t be taken away without a fight.
Looking into the camera, Kitts spoke directly to children and youth living, saying: “The world is cruel right now, but there will be a safe time for you to be out, alive and happy.”
Kitts said the personal safety of all queer kids comes first, saying they must do whatever it takes to be safe – at school and at home.
“I promise things will get better, we just might have to fight for it.”
Several other organizations have also made statements on this news, including the New Brunswick Women’s Council, saying the harm the review and the changes have done cannot be overstated.
The province’s Child, Youth and Senior’s Advocate Kelly Lamrock said he will be investigating the changes announced on Thursday.
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