Introducing Xtra Explains: Trans Youth

Canada is in the midst of an anti-trans misinformation crisis. 

Things may be at their worst in this exact moment in my home province of Alberta, where Premier Danielle Smith is set to introduce Canada’s harshest anti-trans policies yet in the coming weeks. Restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, school pronoun policies and a ban on trans women and girls from women’s sports mirror similar dangerous policies introduced in the U.S. and U.K. in recent years. And Smith’s United Conservative Party has tabled a slate of even worse policies at their upcoming convention around banning trans women from other spaces and even a version of a drag ban.

But all of these policies are grounded in, to be frank, lies. Trans women aren’t dominating women’s sports. Puberty blockers don’t hurt kids. And kids aren’t getting irreversible gender surgeries in droves. And yet, actual real laws impacting actual real people—most often trans kids and youth—continue to pop up across the country. 

In many ways, we can’t stop that policy train. But, as journalists, we can fight the dangerous misinformation that many of these politicians and their allies are spreading. 

That’s why today we’re launching the first wave of our 10-part video series, Xtra Explains: Trans Youth.

The current wave of anti-trans misinformation in Canada didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s been a big, dirty, ever-growing snowball for years now, slowly picking up ideas and movement from here in Canada and countries like the U.S. and U.K. until it has become what it is now. 

Only a year and a half ago we saw New Brunswick roll back inclusive school LGBTQ2S+ policies. Alberta and Saskatchewan have introduced even more restrictive policies since. Now, Pierre Poilievre’s federal Conservatives are talking about puberty blockers and banning trans women from women’s prisons. And a historically progressive province in B.C. could be on the verge of electing a government pledging to do the same. It’s a progression that mirrors the wave of anti-trans laws that have proliferated across the United States over the past decade, and the surge in anti-trans policies across the United Kingdom. 

Now, that surge has come for Canada. With Xtra Explains, we wanted to take 10 of the hottest hot-button topics of this moment around trans youth, and break down what’s true and what’s not to help you better understand what’s going on right now in this country. 

From puberty blockers to parental rights, these are topics that we often find our coverage here at Xtra returning to in this ever-evolving news cycle. And having these brief, shareable and fact-checked resources available to embed in our content going forward will only add to our readers’ experience and knowledge base and give further opportunities for learning.

Like many of our readers, I get a lot of my news and information these days from social media, and particularly from video platforms like TikTok. But the demands of these platforms mean that often even well-meaning influencers and content creators fudge the facts—whether intentionally or in service of virality—when it comes to these issues. But even if you’re on the side of trans people at this moment, getting things wrong can have devastating consequences. Make sure what you’re sharing is fact-checked and based on truth, and not just what will easily go viral. 

With Xtra Explains, we’re bringing the award-winning journalism we are known for straight to your FYP and other social media feeds, so you can easily share them with the people in your life who need them most, and trust that the information you’re sharing is grounded in facts. 

The information compiled in Xtra Explains is based on peer-reviewed studies, industry experts and rigorous journalism you can trust. And we showed our work—we’ve compiled an intensive fact-checking resource with the nearly 200 sources cited in these videos and checked by our fact-checker.

Today we’re launching the first five videos on surgery for young people, hormone replacement therapy, social contagion theory, inclusive sex-ed and trans kids in sports. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for explainers on parental rights, puberty blockers, detransitioning, age and gender and social versus medical transition. All videos will be available here on our site and on Xtra’s YouTube channel, and will roll out on our TikTok feed in the coming weeks. 

But it doesn’t stop here, and it doesn’t stop with us. Trans people and our allies often don’t have the big donor money of these conservative politicians or the influence of these far-right advocacy groups. 

But we do have each other, and we do have the facts on our side. So, dive on in, and let’s fight this wave of anti-trans misinformation together.