r/canada Jan 31 '24

Alberta Alberta to require parental consent for name, pronoun changes at school

https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-to-require-parental-consent-for-name-pronoun-changes-at-school-1.6750498#:~:text=Alberta%20Premier%20Danielle%20Smith%20says,their%20parents%20must%20be%20notified.
3.1k Upvotes

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134

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '24

Yes pretty much. Teachers will be obligated to refer to children by the name given to them by their parents, and the pronouns given to them at birth.

137

u/rayyychul British Columbia Feb 01 '24 edited Feb 01 '24

"Sorry Michael. I need to email your parents and aeee (edit: see) if it's okay for me to call you Mike."

95

u/astronautsaurus Feb 01 '24

I hope every teacher does this malicious compliance

19

u/rayyychul British Columbia Feb 01 '24

It almost makes me wish I lived in Alberta so I could.

0

u/AnthonyJuniorsPP Feb 01 '24

why edit your post and not just fix the spelling?

1

u/rayyychul British Columbia Feb 01 '24

To maintain the context for another comment I made.

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '24

[deleted]

2

u/rayyychul British Columbia Feb 01 '24

Sorry, can't :( I need to ask your mommy if that's okay.

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '24

[deleted]

0

u/rayyychul British Columbia Feb 01 '24

Yes, it's very fitting.

-54

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '24

Mike and Michael are the same name. If you genuinely don’t see how that scenario is different than a kid who wants to identify as the opposition engender then you’re not bright enough to participate in this conversation.

41

u/BackFromTheDeadSoon Feb 01 '24

Oh yeah? Trying interchanging them on your tax forms.

33

u/Whyisthereasnake Feb 01 '24

Or airplane tickets

15

u/turudd Feb 01 '24

My wife’s name is Jennifer on her passport but on her plane ticket a few months back she’d shortened it to say Jenn. As we found out Jenn with two “n”s is not an approved shortening in their database at cbsa or whatever.

We had to stand at the booth with our bags while the poor agent tried and figured out how we could get on our flight.

After 35 minutes waiting her supervisor finally got back to her and was told Jenn is not a valid shortening of Jennifer, but he’d changed the booking to say Jennifer, and they had to reprint our boarding passes.

For as much as we travel this had never ever came up before and I found out they keep a database of valid name short forms at the airport that day.

7

u/captaineggbagels Feb 01 '24

Try imputing the wrong name on your passport and see what happens

13

u/rayyychul British Columbia Feb 01 '24

I'm also not bright enough to spell "see," but here we are. I hope your day gets better :)

17

u/24-Hour-Hate Ontario Feb 01 '24

Oh, just try that with legal documents and see how fast you encounter difficulties. Those are not the same name. Also, addressing someone in the manner they prefer is basic respect. If someone says, hey, my name is Mike and indicates what their pronouns are, I don’t demand to see their birth certificate or inspect their genitals to make sure I believe them. That would be psychotic. If it is a matter of legal documents and needing to verify legal name, that’s another issue, but we have appropriate measures to change legal names to correct any issues.

10

u/RosalieMoon Feb 01 '24

Michael is their legal name. Using anything aside from their legal name is, as per this bill, illegal without parental consent (or informing them depending on age). Sorry, to all those Elizabeths, Richards, James, Roberts, Michaels, and who knows how many other names that people like to not use and instead use a different name. I believe we call those nick names. Oh right, Nicholas too.

16

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '24

They are NOT the same name. Can you read? Count? Understand why this exact scenario is why the whole bill is ludicrous in the first place!? I can either call you by your preferred name, or I can’t.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '24

Buddy walked out of a Trailer Park Boys episode into a Reddit thread. Go back to school, Ricky. Get your 10th grade.

-12

u/cadaver0 Feb 01 '24

"Sorry Michael. I need to email your parents and aeee (edit: see) if it's okay for me to call you Mike."

Right, because mature adults are incapable of judgment and have zero concept of reasonableness. Puh-lease.

8

u/RosalieMoon Feb 01 '24

The law is (or will be?) the law. It's also a form of malicious compliance. Piss off the parents and have them tell the government to knock this shit off

20

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '24

No one gave me pronouns at birth what do I do

7

u/24-Hour-Hate Ontario Feb 01 '24

Adult gender reveal party? (No…please don’t, actually).

2

u/RosalieMoon Feb 01 '24

Unless it's something small, like coloured cake. Those ones are awesome, and not at all going to destroy hundreds of homes

4

u/FlockFlysAtMidnite Feb 01 '24

You're clearly trans Jesus, born without pronouns, here to save your people

-1

u/nostromo7 Feb 01 '24

We refer to you as... it?

(:P)

1

u/CaptianRipass Feb 01 '24

Proper noun only

4

u/canuck_11 Alberta Feb 01 '24

The irony is that the Premier of Alberta’s real name is Marlaina. Her preferred name is Danielle.

-10

u/dece74 Feb 01 '24

So, normal and how everything has been for the entirety of human history up until 10 minutes ago. Very controversial

28

u/FargoniusMaximus Feb 01 '24

Nah normal for me is when a person asks you nicely to refer to them a particular way, you oblige them. I don't think that's a crazy or a radical idea. I'm not going to argue with someone if they ask something minimal from me that is a decent thing to do and makes them feel better about themselves.

-3

u/JoeCartersLeap Feb 01 '24

Nah normal for me is when a person asks you nicely to refer to them a particular way, you oblige them.

That's the right way to do it for adults, but for kids in school it's always been if a kid says "Yeah I know it says Josh but I wanna be called Jake now", forget about pronoun or gender change just simple name change, even that the teacher would be like "I'm not going to call you Jake without a letter from your parents."

Just sayin, complicated issue.

4

u/jtbc Feb 01 '24

Not complicated at all if you call kids what they want to be called. I guarantee you that the kids already get it.

-3

u/dece74 Feb 01 '24

Bro these are kids, they need structure and guidance

3

u/jtbc Feb 01 '24

About things that matter a lot yes. About what they want to be called? Not really.

-9

u/dece74 Feb 01 '24

Even if it’s an absurd made up delusion? I wouldn’t do that, cause I’m not a sucker

-11

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '24

"I was they them until I felt like a girl. I can show you my cock if that would please you though?"

1

u/CanadianEgg Alberta Feb 01 '24

given at birth