Conservative delegates voted Saturday to add new social conservative policies to their party Playbook two of those policies concerned gender and trans issues nearly 70 percent of party delegates voted for a motion that states miners should be prohibited from gender affirming care or as the motion puts it life-altering medicinal or surgical
Interventions an even stronger majority 86 percent of party delegates voted for a motion that demands single-sex spaces that are only open to women such as prisons shelters locker rooms and washrooms that same motion defines a woman as a female person conservative leader Pierre pauliev is not bound to adopt any of the policies
That were passed at the convention but the convention’s focus on these issues has disappointed one of the party’s former candidates Hannah Hudson made history in 2021 as a conservative party’s first openly trans candidate and she is here with me in studio Hannah good to see you thanks for
Coming in thanks for having me you said this weekend that the vote against gender affirming care for minors could cost lives what makes you say that accessing gender affirm and Care is already a Minefield in this country in Ontario I mean I was lucky and I only
Had to wait a year many clinics don’t even have openings and so further restricting that is going to further hurt the ability of trans teens and kids to access the care they need and to be clear a lot of people are focused around you know surgeries that essentially doesn’t
Happen in Canada I’m sure someone could find a couple anecdotes but surgeries don’t happen on people under 18 in Canada gender firm and Care looks like social transition it looks like puberty blockers right and so the party the conservative party which you ran for and we’re a member and we’ll get to that
In just a second they’re drawing a distinction between people who are 18 on and up and minors yes what’s wrong with drawing that line in your view the Align only exists if you accept that trans people are fundamentally not are abnormal the line only exists if if you
Think that it’s not a normal thing to be or an okay thing to be because otherwise no one would be concerned because again these security medical interventions aren’t happening on people who are under 18 in Canada so the only restriction that people would want is if they don’t
See it as a valid way of living because otherwise there would be no concern over people in over people accessing gender affirming care right so going back to my original question and the comment you made that this could cost lives the care will become harder to get and the surgeries
That people talk about you argue are not happening in any significantly in Canada but going back to my question of how will this cost live so what’s the knock-on effect that you you anticipate so as we’ve seen from study after study the gender affirm and Care drastically
Lowers the rates of suicidality rates of of other harms that happen to trans kids and and the best thing a supportive parent in a supportive Community is is the best thing and access to to gender firm and care which like I say is often just puberty blockers are often just
Treating people like they want to be treated and using the names they want to be referred to right so you see it as a if they can’t get the care it’s suicide itself term NSC sort of destructive behaviors that would be as a consequence I mean trans
Youth have the highest high rates of suicide homelessness uh abuse harassment discrimination all these things are significant in the trans Community specifically among youth you Reign for this party in 2021 used to work for this party in the past you’re no longer a member of the party was it because of
This or does something else cause you to withdraw the membership the there were many factors of course but the single biggest thing was when Mr pauliev refused to admonish or criticize what the New Brunswick government was doing and now the Saskatchewan government and presumably the Ontario government in
Restricting uh the rights of trans kids to experiment with their gender and figure out who they are and come into their own identity and seeing that really was it disappointing and that was the single thing the biggest thing that drove my leaving the party Mr poliov’s argument is that this is not his
Jurisdiction it’s provincial and this is an issue uh for parents and we’re seeing uh the traction of this parental rights you know on this particular issue as it pertains to youth in New Brunswick and saskatchewans we’ve seen it I mean what do you make of that and what message you
Have for premiers and politicians who support that particular movement well I think it’s funny that we’re talking about parental rights because they’ll say well parental rights parental rights but at the same moment they’ll revoke the ability of supportive parents to go with their kid their children on a
Gender from a care Journey so they’ll say parental rights for you know me but not for thee and I think that it’s it’s a serious problem because of course we want parents included and supportive in their child’s education no one doesn’t want that but if a child doesn’t feel safe telling their parent
What is going on there and is that child in danger and many cases yes and that’s the scary part about these kind of policies on the specific policies that were adopted by the conservatives this weekend yes uh Pierre pauliev was asked in advance of this how he felt uh about
These specific policies and he made the point that look I don’t want to prejudge and influence the debate and the votes before they happen but IIs leader I’m not bound by these you know these aren’t automatically party policy I’ll look at them and consider them do you take
Comfort in that as a party you ran for that the leader would say just because this is what the Grassroots that the convention wants it doesn’t mean it’s going to become official party policy or is he dodging it what’s your take there well we’ll say I suspect that I take him
His word that housing is a bigger priority if for if he would have form government but the reality is is that political parties love to say this oh I’m not bound by things that convention and then criticize the other side for things that are past a convention you
Know because there was a point to the Liberals and say oh well this is terrible and don’t they don’t let the Prime Minister up the hook or the Liberals don’t let the conservatives out the hook the reality is is that when members decide who travel across the
Country who are devoted enough to the party to make that trip and make their voice clear I think it’s a little ridiculous to claim that oh this has no influence on me this has no nothing to do with the will of the party or ultimately What policies will pass but
You ran for this party in 2021 so is it possible this is just the cohort of the truly motivated who went here and did this I mean how different is this from the party you ran for in the last federal election unfortunately significantly from what I can tell I
Mean I will say that in the previous election big reason I ran was because I felt gains were being made in areas like lgbtq rights and other is like you know there’s a climate gains are being made and I would love nothing more than to support and talk about issues like
Housing and affordability but when human rights are at risk you can’t compromise and human rights are something we can’t compromise and I’m fighting for that here you’ve spoken out against this not just here but in other forms and I assume or I know there’s been some backlash for that
I mean how are you doing personally in all of this it can be difficult in the last few days I’ve been called several things that were not appropriate to say on the on the CBC you know I have a platform and I have a 36 year old you know white you know
Professional who has a platform most trans people in Canada don’t have that platform so I feel it’s my responsibility just to speak up and fight for the people that have no voice and the hate is tough the blowback is difficult but it’s worth it you have a platform
You have a voice do you have a political home I mean you ran for one of the two main National parties just a few years ago I mean where are you on the political scale right now I think it’s a very big challenge frankly I think that
As one looks around the the the country there is like housing and affordability or significant challenges and I frankly agree with Mr polyab on some of these issues but this is disqualifying for me to tell you the truth I don’t know if there was an election tomorrow I don’t
Know what I’m gonna do I would probably vote based on local candidate which I know is more people say than mean I’m not sure what else I can do
Conservative delegates voted Saturday to add some new social policies to their playbook, including a proposal to limit access to transgender health-care for minors. ‘As we’ve seen from study after study, the gender affirming-care drastically lowers the rates of suicidality and rates of other harms that happen to trans kids,’ former conservative candidate Hannah Hodson says.
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