New Brunswick high school students who identify as non-binary may exceed 1,000
Robert Jones | CBC | Posted: June 16, 2023 9:00 AM | Last Updated: June 16, 2023
The stigma has decreased in recent years, according to Fredericton psychologist
The number of New Brunswick high school students who identify their gender as non-binary has quadrupled since 2019, according to Department of Education surveys.
It's an increase that is being linked to a greater acceptance of differences in society, generally, and a growing level of comfort among students that they will not face abuse from classmates for being different, although not everyone is applauding that tolerance.
"A lot of schools are a lot safer. There's a lot more acceptance," said Alex Harris, a Grade 11 transgender student who attends Riverview High School, across the river from Moncton.
"It's not a tiny group of hypothetical students we are talking about. It's a lot of kids."
Last year, one in 29 students who graduated high school in New Brunswick reported their gender as non-binary in Department of Education exit surveys.
It is four times the number from three years earlier.
Projected over New Brunswick's entire secondary school population, it suggests that up to 1,100 or more of the province's nearly 34,000 high school students may identify as something other than strictly male or female.
It's a group big enough, were its members to attend a single high school, that would place it among the 10 largest in the province.
New Brunswick only began asking graduating students if their gender was other than male or female in 2015. In that year, fewer than one per cent of 2,549 respondents in the anglophone and francophone systems chose what was then a "gender-independent" option.
Results remained at or below one per cent through 2019, but then jumped above two per cent in 2021 and then above three per cent in 2022.
The 2023 survey has not been distributed to graduating students yet, but last year 109 graduates — out of the 3,155 who completed the survey — selected non-binary as their gender, or 3.45 per cent of the total.
In anglophone high schools the number was highest, at 4.2 per cent.
Non-binary is a term meant to describe people who do not view themselves strictly as being male or female. It does not include all transgender people, but the province does not offer options other than male, female and non-binary in the gender section of its exit survey.
Former New Brunswick education minister Dominic Cardy said this week the consensus among his colleagues is that the rapid rise in non-binary responses from students flows from their "increased comfort" with disclosing how they view their own gender.
Alex Harris agrees with that and also feels people his age have access to more information that helps them understand gender issues and how those connect to themselves.
"People who otherwise wouldn't have necessarily thought much other than, 'Oh I feel a little different' are realizing, 'Oh! That's what this is.'" said Harris.
Amy Otteson is a Fredericton psychologist who endorses the view that more tolerance in the community and in schools is freeing students to openly express a non-traditional gender.
"The stigma of being trans or non-binary or gender diverse has decreased in recent years," said Otteson.
"As it's becoming less stigmatized, more people are saying, 'Hey you know what? This might better explain how I feel about myself than just male or female.'"
But that acceptance is not being universally celebrated.
In a controversial speech in the legislature Thursday, Premier Blaine Higgs lamented the rise in gender diversity and blamed permissiveness in society for letting young people make choices he described as superficial and misdirected.
"We're seeing a rapid onset of gender dysphoria. It's expanded in the last several years and it's becoming popular and trendy," said Higgs.
"We have a situation that is growing because there is such acceptance that OK, this is fine."
Harris said the last few weeks in New Brunswick, where politicians have been focusing a spotlight on the gender identity of students, has been difficult.
Last week the Department of Education announced new rules forbidding teachers from using names and pronouns for students under the age of 16 whose parents have not approved.
Harris worries the debate and controversy around those changes has been chipping away at the tolerance and acceptance that students like him have been flourishing under.
"To be honest, its been not great," said Harris.
"It's given students some freedom to think, 'Oh if my politicians are going to question trans rights, I can too.'"