New Brunswick election: Liberals promise safeguards for LGBTQ+ students – New Brunswick [Video]

New Brunswick’s Liberals say that if their party is elected, teachers will no longer need parental consent before they can use the preferred first names and pronouns of transgender students under 16.

The Liberal promise is in response to a reform imposed in 2023 by the Progressive Conservative government under Premier Blaine Higgs, who said parents must be informed if their children are questioning their gender identity.

Higgs’s changes were criticized across the country, including by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but polling suggests the policy is popular in the province.

Liberal Leader Susan Holt made the announcement Thursday in Fredericton as she released her party’s platform, which she said would cost about $1.2 billion over four years. Most of the items in the platform have already been announced, including her pledges to open 30 community clinics across the province, cap rent increases at three per cent, and eliminate the provincial …