In classrooms across Alberta, teachers do more than deliver curriculum—they create belonging. Every day, teachers help show young people how to paint a life for themselves where they can learn and grow and be part of something larger than themselves. Now, in a moment when Two-Spirit, trans and gender-diverse students are being legislated into silence through measures such as Bill 9 and the use of the notwithstanding clause, the work of creating belonging has never been more essential.
This is certainly not the first time, nor likely to be the last, that teachers find themselves navigating the tension between the politics they operate within and the students they support. At the heart of that tension lies a resistance that seems to surface any time our society begins to expand its circle of care to include equity-denied groups, and the goal of that resistance always seems to be the same: to control whose stories are told, whose humanity is seen as legitimate, and whose narratives and histories are socially acceptable.
Equity and inclusion are not luxuries; they are acts of everyday courage.
With our Two-Spirit, trans and gender diverse students vulnerable to this form of systemic invalidation, we must stand firm for these youth to ensure that their lives, experiences and humanity do not fall victim to erasure.
Giving voice to trans narratives matters because in them lies the truth that gender diversity is not a problem to be solved but has always been an essential piece in the fabric of human diversity. We see evidence of gender diversity going back at least five millennia. Many Indigenous communities around the world have long held the knowledge that more than rigid binary genders exist, including here on Turtle Island, where Two-Spirit people have often played core and sacred parts of community lives. These truths anchor students to a lineage of strength, resilience and joy, and set the groundwork for them to thrive.
Teachers understand this instinctively. They know that safety is not an ideology. It is the condition that makes learning possible. When students feel safe, their curiosity expands. When they are erased, their energy goes to survival instead of exploration. Inclusion is not political activism; it is pedagogy. It is the everyday practice of ensuring that every child can show up fully in their classroom, ready to learn.
The current public debate can make that truth easy to forget, but inclusion has always been part of teaching. With every lesson that is adapted so a student can participate more fully or to make room for diversity of cultural or lived-experience perspectives, inclusion is being fostered. Supporting Two-Spirit, trans and gender-diverse students is a continuation of that same ethic.
None of this is easy work. Alberta’s teachers are carrying extraordinary burdens: heavier workloads, shrinking resources and increasing complexity. Yet in the middle of all that, it’s clear that teachers are continuing to choose compassion over compliance and curiosity over fear, and that matters.
For a Two-Spirit, trans or gender-diverse young person, acceptance from one person can be the difference between despair and possibility. It can be the first moment they believe they have a future. In the face of fear, your steadiness matters.
At Skipping Stone, we see every day what happens when young people encounter teachers who make space for them to exist. Confidence grows. Learning returns. Life expands. Those small, consistent acts of inclusion ripple outward into families, schools and communities.
Equity and inclusion are not luxuries; they are acts of everyday courage. They ask us to remember that the classroom is one of the last public spaces where truth, compassion and complexity still meet. As this province debates who belongs, your classrooms quietly model the answer.
For every student who walks through your door, Alberta teachers are showing that education can still be an act of care. And in this moment, that care is revolutionary.
Amelia Newbert (she/her) is a founder and co-executive director of Skipping Stone, a nationally recognized nonprofit that supports trans and gender diverse youth, adults and families to ensure they can access the supports and services they need and deserve.
Co-Executive Director, Skipping Stone
