LGBTQ groups challenge Canada provinces transgender law [Video]

Two Canadian LGBTQ advocacy groups have launched a legal challenge, being processed in court Monday, which seeks to overturn a provincial law they say violates the rights of transgender minors.

The case targets legislation passed by the right-wing provincial government in Alberta that sets new restrictions on the care health professionals can provide minors who identify as transgender.

Alberta’s Bill 26, which became law last week, bans sex reassignment surgery on minors and bars the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies “for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence,” for anyone 15 and under.

Children who had already begun such treatment were exempted from the provisions.

Advocacy groups Egale Canada and Skipping Stones, as well as several Alberta families who jointly launched the challenge, condemned Alberta’s actions as “unprecedented.”

“No government in Canada has ever enacted legislation prohibiting essential and life-saving gender affirming health care,” they said in …