Under the leadership of Higgs, students under 16 who seek to use different names or pronouns in schools are required to have parental consent. Higgs also enforced separate change rooms and washrooms based on biological sex and acted swiftly to ban graphic sexual education materials following parental backlash.
However, in the revised policy, students in grades six and above would be allowed to choose their preferred pronouns and names and educators will not be required to inform parents of these changes. For children in lower grades, such decisions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, with input from educators on the child’s capacity to make such choices.
Revision of Policy 713 faces backlash among parental rights organizations
In line with this, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) Political Operations Director Jack Fonseca criticized New Brunswick voters who supported Holt.
“Shame on you. Activist teachers will now produce psychosexual confusion in the minds of countless children by aggressively pushing in class the unscientific idea that you can be ‘born in the wrong body,” he said. “For many of these kids, later in life, this first step down the path of transgenderism will eventually lead to chemical castration, cutting off healthy breasts and other surgical mutilations. When many of them eventually come to regret the permanent and irreversible changes to their bodies, it will result in a dramatically higher rate of death by suicide. How can you Liberal voters sleep at night?”
Amelia Willis, projects manager of Parents As First Educators (P.A.F.E.), called the plan “an attack on the family.” Willis said: “If Holt gets her way, children as young as kindergarten could transition socially without their parent’s knowledge or consent. This disregards the fundamental role of parents in a child’s life.”
In turn, Willis urged parents to voice their opposition and pressure Members of the Legislative Assembly to reject any changes to Policy 713.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Anglophone East District Education Council filed separate lawsuits against the province in October, when Holt first announced the revision. Both organizations argued that the policy is discriminatory, unconstitutional and harmful to students.
Moreover, the organizations contended at the time that the policy would only empower parents to compel teachers to use names and pronouns that conflict with a child’s identity, causing emotional harm. They also argued that it pressures children to conceal their identity out of fear of being outed before they feel ready.
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