CALGARY—Hundreds rallied in Calgary in support of gay-straight alliances on Thursday evening, days after the United Conservative Party said, if elected, it would roll back protections for those who join the clubs.

The rally outside the campaign office of Doug Schweitzer, the UCP candidate for Calgary-Elbow, came a day after hundreds of people gathered at Alberta’s legislature grounds in Edmonton to protest the UCP’s plans to remove Bill 24. The legislation requires school administrators to approve the formation of a gay-straight alliance, or GSA, if students ask for one and forbids them from telling students’ parents if they’re a member.

GSAs provide a supportive environment for LGBTQ youth and their allies, and advocates for the LGBTQ community describe them as essential, supportive spaces for students. While the UCP has said it intends to retain strong protections for GSAs if elected as the government, critics say the language in the legislation the UCP intends to use — the unproclaimed 2012 Education Act — isn’t as strict as Bill 24.

UCP Leader Jason Kenney said he believed the rally in Calgary was organized by “friends of the NDP,” noting that the Edmonton event was organized by an NDP staffer. (The creator of the Facebook event for the Calgary rally is an NDP supporter, but is not a party staffer.)

“I can understand why they want to produce events like that in an election campaign, because the NDP doesn’t want to talk about the economy,” Kenney told reporters in Calgary on Thursday.

“They want to create a bright, shiny object for you guys to go down there and have people call my diverse party a lot of defamatory names. We won’t be distracted by that.”

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In a statement Thursday afternoon, Schweitzer gave his support for the LGBTQ community, but said the issue of GSAs had been turned into a divisive topic by his political opponents.

“I am committed, along my United Conservative colleagues, to ensuring that Alberta has the strongest legal protections for gay-straight alliances in Canada,” his statement read.

The crowd included individuals from high school and university students to seniors, teachers to religious leaders, the provincial finance minister to the parents of LGBTQ children.

Here are a few of those who took part:

Cass Howlades, 21, broadcast student at Mount Royal University

On most evenings, Howlades, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said they don’t have the energy to go out. Thursday’s rally was a different story. There wasn’t a GSA at their high school in Maple Ridge, B.C., one of the more conservative towns in the Lower Mainland. As such, Howlades didn’t have a lot of exposure to the LGBTQ community.

“It was fine,” Howlades said. “I didn’t have any problems, because I just didn’t think about any of my queerness and didn’t talk about any of my queerness.”

While they don’t follow politics too closely, the UCP’s proposal to remove Bill 24 and the protections it grants to GSAs worries them. However, seeing hundreds of demonstrators standing in opposition to the move “makes me happy — that at least there’s going to be support for people.”

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Keith Murray, 36, affirming co-ordinator at Hillhurst United Church

Supporters of GSAs often say the acceptance and community offered by the clubs save lives. The lack of one at Murray’s high school in Calgary during the 1990s led to a friend’s suicide. As an affirming co-ordinator, Murray leads the LGBTQ ministry at his church. He came out along with others at Hillhurst United Church, including his minister, to show support for GSAs and the acceptance and community they bring. Religious communities haven’t always done this, Murray acknowledged, but the United Church intends on offering a safe space for all members of the LGBTQ community.

“It’s vital that we stand up for safe spaces for youth to have in schools. Absolutely,” Murray said.

One of his major concerns about the UCP’s proposal is the removal of restrictions on informing parents about their child’s involvement with a GSA. Murray said this would severely infringe on an LGBTQ kid’s right to decide where and when to identify themselves.

“The only person who should be outing themselves, is themselves,” he said. “It is not a school’s job to out a kid. It is not a parent’s job to out a kid.”

Calum, 25, and Julia Johnson, 27

Only two members of Calum and Julia Johnston’s family showed up to their wedding four years ago: one of Calum’s sister and her boyfriend at the time. The couple are both transgender and never found acceptance from their conservative Mormon families. Having a sense of community is incredibly important to both of them, which was part of why they showed up to Thursday’s rally.

“It’s just one of those things that we want to be able to be here to support,” Calum Johnston said. “It’s fun to come out for Pride or whatever — that’s not the whole story.”

Having a GSA at her California high school wasn’t enough for Julia Johnson. Despite her trans identity, she never joined out of fear some of her teachers would tell her conservative Mormon family. Technically, this was forbidden in California, but Johnston said the fear of being outed was nonetheless there.

“I don’t want other people to ever feel like that,” Julia Johnston said.

Nik Jarvis, 24

As a 17-year-old lesbian who kept her identity hidden from her conservative family, Jarvis recalls campaigning alongside her politically-active conservative father who she described as homophobic. She said growing up with a GSA at her school — something she didn’t have — would have made a huge difference for her. It would have given her a sense of community and an understanding of her identity. So, she decided to hop on a bus Thursday afternoon and join the rally.

“I have to be there to support those kids because they have to see adults,” Jarvis said. “First of all, they have to see gay adults in their city because I didn’t see any.”

In her view, the UCP’s proposal would hurt the children of socially conservative parents such as hers especially hard. Many of these kids are not necessarily going to be open with the families about their identity, Jarvis said. The UCP’s proposed removal of Bill 24 would make it even harder for these LGBTQ kids to join a GSA and be confident that their participation would be kept from a potentially unaccepting family.

“It’s not like UCP people don’t have a gay kid,” Jarvis said. “They just don’t know they have gay kids.”

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