CALGARY—Only a few weeks have passed since the start of the new school year, but some are concerned about students feeling it’s safe to participate in their school’s gay-straight alliances this fall.

Mak Thorsell, a 16-year-old Western Canada High School student in Calgary, said he is feeling that hesitancy. He has been an active member of his school’s GSA since last year, where he says teachers and counsellors have always been supportive and protective of student privacy. But so far this fall, he said he is not seeing as many students getting openly involved.

“They’re more sitting on the sidelines, not talking as much as they were last year and kind of hesitant,” Thorsell said, adding he’s also feeling more tentative about opening up to his peers.

“I think now everyone’s just a little scared and not really up for being as open as they used to be.”

This insecure feeling comes on the heels of Bill 8, the Education Amendment Act, which was unveiled by the United Conservative provincial government earlier this year. The legislation rolled back parts of Bill 24, an act created by the previous NDP government to protect GSAs, school clubs that serve as a peer-support system for LGBTQ students.

The main concerns around rolling back Bill 24 is it meant scrapping legislation that guaranteed privacy for students in GSAs. Education minister spokesperson Colin Aitchison said via an email statement Thursday that students can still be assured their participation in GSAs will be protected under Alberta’s existing privacy laws.

But some students are worried school staff could out them to their families if they believe it’s for their own safety. Thorsell said he has seen this lead to a decline already, with only about five people signing up for the GSA at his school’s club day, down from 20 to 25 last year.

“Last year, we would talk openly about being gay and being trans and just our involvement in the community,” Thorsell said. “Now when we’re outside of the GSA, that doesn’t happen. Nobody mentions it in the hallways, nobody talks about it outside of class and spaces that they know are safe.”

Terry Soetaert is hearing similar things as executive director of Outloud St. Albert, a non-profit just northwest of Edmonton that provides a safe space for LGBTQ youth. He said he has heard from students at roughly 11 schools so far in the Edmonton area who are also seeing a drop GSA participation, with numbers in some cases down by half.

“(Students) are just worried what’s going to happen. Are they going to be as safe as they were before, or is this going to be something that is able to be used against them?” Soetaert said.

The biggest issue around this fear is that not enough adults see the value of GSAs, Sophia Turner said. Turner, an 18-year-old Edmontonian currently finishing Grade 12 courses at the Argyll Centre, volunteers with Outloud and works with LGBTQ youth.

“I went to a K-12 school, and I saw other lesbians who are successful and happy who were in Grade 11 and 12, and that hugely impacted me being able to see LGBTQ role models,” Turner said.

“Being able to see people who are growing up like you, who have experienced the same things, and live on to be successful and happy, who make it through school and don’t have to feel afraid, it’s amazing.”

Turner said some students aren’t feeling as safe around adult moderators in their school GSAs or comfortable talking about serious personal issues, adding one teacher who works with a GSA has told Outloud he’s worried about which co-workers he can trust to bring around the club.

But there’s still some excitement that students have GSAs to return to this fall at all, said Michael Green.

Green is the executive director of the altView Foundation, a non-profit supporting LGBTQ youth in Alberta based out of Strathcona County, east of Edmonton. But Green said this excitement is tempered by security concerns.

He said he has heard from several school divisions that plan to maintain policies created under Bill 24 to ensure safe spaces for students. But students don’t always take that at face value without it being backed up by assurance they won’t be outed by school staff to their families, Green said.

“Agency and being in control of one’s own narrative, and when and where and to whom someone comes out, is really important,” Green said.

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“When we jump the line in terms of doing that on their behalf, even if it’s done with ostensibly good intentions, it can cause harm.”

Soetaert believes teachers now have the responsibility to be more vocal about their support for LGBTQ students after Bill 8. But Turner is worried that even with teachers having the best intentions, if an outing happens even once, it’ll hurt GSA involvement.

“If there’s one school in Edmonton where somebody is outed, no one will want to attend that GSA ever again because they understand that they’re not safe or they will feel unsafe,” Turner said.

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