“I’m afraid for my life”: Queer and Trans Youth Surviving Far-Right Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws in Alberta, Canada

• In Event: Sociology of Sex and Gender Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 13. Family Regimes, Demographic Anxiety, and Governance

Abstract

This paper examines how queer and trans youth in Alberta, Canada navigate and resist an escalating wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and far-right political rhetoric. Drawing on data from participatory arts-based workshops with over one hundred 2SLGBTQ+ youth, we show how recent policies restricting gender-affirming healthcare, inclusive sex education and schooling, and sport participation produce concrete harms alongside conditions of fear, uncertainty, and disruption to youth’s sense of the future. These policies operate through material restriction but also by shaping how youth understand safety, belonging, and what kinds of lives feel possible. Participants describe heightened vigilance, shrinking horizons, and destabilized life trajectories, while also mobilizing practices of queer rage, softness, and queer joy to contest exclusion and sustain community connection. These findings demonstrate how resistance emerges under conditions of political hostility and underscore the urgent need for policy interventions that protect youth safety, autonomy, and belonging.

Authors

• JJ Wright, MacEwan University

• Emilie Maine, MacEwan University