 October 20, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SOCIETY FOR ADVOCACY FOR GENDER-AFFIRMING HEALTHCARE RAISES ALARM AT BC CONSERVATIVES’ PLANS TO ATTACK INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, HUMAN RIGHTS, & QUEER AND TRANS YOUTH. Today, SAGAH is raising the alarm to the 2S/LGBTQIA+ community and our allies on divisive and inciting statements from BC Conservative candidates, including Health Minister hopeful Anna Kindy and Interim Leader Lorne Doerkson. As an evidence-based, non-partisan organisation with a mandate to advocate for the human rights and healthcare of Two-Spirit, trans, and nonbinary people in BC, SAGAH is emphatic in warning of the irreversible harm to children and families which enacted legislation based on these views would inflict. We need only look to families in Alberta under Danielle Smith. Doerkson’s first public comments included his plans to “repeal” the proven anti-bullying resource SOGI 123, citing “confusion” among parents as cause to leave kids to face more bullying in schools that evidence confirms would be less safe & more violent for youth of all genders and sexualities. Doerkson’s “confused” posture on SOGI occludes his own record as an MLA, voting twice with 33 members of his caucus to bring to reading Tara Armstrong’s inflammatory bills to ban lifesaving healthcare for trans youth, as well as voting to read her repeal of the entire BC Human Rights Code. Behind this record, the leader has looked past multiple incidents from his caucus pointing to an open culture of targeting queer and trans youth and their families. The party’s candidates include Kelowna-Centre anti-vaxxer Kristina Loewen, who in a 2024 door-knocking interaction said that she believes SOGI 123 is turning students transgender “en masse” and claimed sexual education in libraries violates the Criminal Code. While silent on Loewen, Doerkson has defended Chilliwack-North hopeful Heather Maahs, who suggested in a live interview that gay people are pedophiles, and called fellow MLA candidate Elenore Sturko “immoral” for her sexuality. The BC Conservatives have made repealing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act central to their platform, endangering ongoing advocacy and ceding responsibility for the government to contend with and combat anti-Indigenous racism against Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer people in our healthcare system. In doing so, the Conservatives have further sponsored the agenda of ejected colleague & residential school denialist Dallas Brodie. In March, aspiring Health Minister and North Island candidate Anna Kindy met with the Canadian chapter of UK-born hate group LGB Alliance, posing for a photo and praising their discussion on “children, ethics, and the distinctions between sex and gender, as well as how ideology can impact medical ethics.” Kindy, a doctor who has been disciplined by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, has condemned guidelines from the Canadian Medical Association which ban racism in healthcare as “political in nature & dangerous.” At the outset of this election, Doerkson invited former leader John Rustad, who ran on suggestions to defund gender-affirming surgeries in 2024, back to the Conservative caucus. Under previous management, Kerry Lynne Findlay vowed trans youth healthcare bans would come “immediately” in a Conservative government. We urgently stress to voters that while there may be a new leader claiming a “different flavour” to his predecessors—many of the same BC Conservative candidates are vying to form this caucus. SAGAH has a responsibility through our mandate to raise civic engagement in this provincial election, ensuring voters make informed choices, have informed conversations with their families, friends, and loved ones, and come through to vote today, on October 21st, and October 24th’s election day. We furthermore implore queer, trans, and allied voters to think carefully about the strategic vote in their riding, and take the next step to vote for whom they believe best shares their values—in ridings where reactionary candidates are not competitive. -30- 
Located on the traditional, ancestral, & unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, & səlil̓wətaʔɬ First Nations. |
