In 2024, Transgender Day of Remembrance was a sombre affair attracting around 40 people, but with recent political decisions by the Alberta government, that sombreness turned to extreme anger from far more in 2025.

On Nov. 20, transgender Calgarians were joined by allies from many different Calgary communities to rally and to protest at the seat of the government’s southern office at the McDougall Centre.

Like a recent teacher protest that saw the west square and surrounding sidewalks filled, Calgarians gathered to hear messages from transgender individuals who fear their human rights being stripped away and political figures who decried the use of the notwithstanding clause to take away rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Dr. Victoria Bucholtz, an Organizer with Queer Citizens United and Momentum Canada, said that normally the transgender community would read the names of the transgender individuals who had died during the previous year—a remembrance that has been held since 1999.

“Unfortunately, since its inception, we have seen those numbers go up every single year. The true number is never really known, because so many of us are dead, named or misgendered upon our deaths. We are here to remember those lives, to acknowledge the transphobia that affects all members of the gender diverse community,” she said.

“Normally, we would meet, we would read the names, we would reflect on what our community faces. But [Premier] Danielle Smith had other ideas for this day, and in the middle of Transgender Awareness Week, she gave us the notwithstanding clause in Bill 9. And then she had the audacity to have her Minister tell us that she’s on our side, watching out for us, and stands against anyone who’s attacked the transgender community.”

In a statement made by Minister of Arts, Culture, and Status of Women Tanya Fir, she said that the government honours the memory of all transgender people lost to acts of violence.

“As we mourn these losses, we are reminded of our shared responsibility to continue championing acceptance, respect and understanding for all. Today, we also reflect on the importance of building a safe society where everyone can live free from violence and prejudice,” she said.

“There is no place for hate or intolerance in Alberta, and our government remains a dedicated partner of transgender Albertans.”

Minister Fir joined her UCP colleagues in an all-party vote for Bill 9 on Nov. 18.

Transgender community says changes will lead to deaths, not prevent them

Dr. Bucholtz said the reality was that the policies enacted in Bill 9 would only add names of Calgarians to next year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, either through violence or suicide.

“It is frustrating, especially because we know that when they released documents, when we fought them and looked at their policy, the work that they were doing to create these policies, we know that they’re aware of the [World Professional Association for Transgender Health],” she said.

“Instead, they’re going to pseudoscience like the Cass Review that has been debunked by so many different medical institutions across the globe. It’s really disconcerting to see them lie to us and reject the evidence that’s right there.”

One of those people, both remembering transgender Calgarians lost, but also protesting the government, was Registered Psychologist Meg Hasek-Watt.

She said the Riverwest Therapy Collective, which she founded, works with many transgender, non-binary, and two-spirit individuals.

“This legislation, even from when it first started being threatened and what was happening earlier this year to this week to now, it’s just the anxiety, the suicidality, the self-harming, the hopelessness, helplessness. This is not protecting children, and it’s causing very serious mental health, psychological effects and harm, true harm,” said Hasek-Watt.

That arguments are being made to support Bill 9 that suicides and harms do not exist within the transgender community, and that gender-affirming care was actually causing harm to children, was flat-out wrong, she said.

“We see that in practice. We see that in the research. Gender affirming care is life-saving care, and gender-affirming care is medical care. Gender affirming care is psychological care. It’s mental health care. We talk about reducing mental health impact and incidents and the rates, and so this is the exact opposite of doing that,” she said.

That Bill 9 also strips the Charter rights of medical professionals treating transgender children was terrifying, said Hasek-Watt.

Teachers outraged for a second time at notwithstanding clause

Co-chair for Calgary Pride and a Calgary teacher, Riley Sogge, who had already been subject to the notwithstanding clause as a result of her profession earlier this year, said that she stood in front of other protesters as a criminal.

“I stand before you as a criminal, but the crime that I’m accused of is not one of hatred or violence, but rather one of love, acceptance and honouring anybody who comes across my care,” said Sogge.

“As an openly transgender educator, I’ve been weaponized against the safety, security, well-being, and interests of the queer and trans youth in my care.”

She said that for children, classrooms are supposed to be places of sanctuary and safety, but bills passed upend that for Calgary students.

“Let’s be clear, a child who isn’t out at home has a reason for that to be the case. We are being asked to take away their one security measure, their one means of safety and security, their one survival mechanism, and we are being asked to expose that to the world,” she said.

“Before starting this school year, we received word from several parents of our trans and non-binary students that we are not to be using their preferred name and pronouns. The school year hadn’t started yet, and we were being forced into a corner. How am I meant to sleep at night, knowing that I’m causing harm to the most vulnerable and marginalized of my students?”

The reality is one that legislation doesn’t address, said Sogge.

“These students have shown an incredible amount of resolve in the face of this mandate. I see them scratching out their dead names and writing their preferred names on every personal item. I see them write their preferred names over and over and over. I see them and their peers correct one another and their teachers when they are dead-named and misgendered.”

One of the names that was mentioned during the Transgender Day of Remembrance was that of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, an American transgender activist and community organizer who was part of the Stonewall rebellion, and who recently died at 78.

Speaking to the crowd, local LGBTQ2S+ activist and organizer James Demers said that 78 was a triumph for many of the elders in the LGBTQ2S+ community.

“Our legacy, our joy, our families are what we choose to make them. That was true then, and it is true now. We have never needed the law on our side to know who we are and what we deserve,” he said.