EDMONTON — Benita Pedersen faced cross-examination in an Alberta Human Rights Tribunal hearing regarding a complaint filed against her anti-rainbow crosswalk flyer distributed in 2023, claiming that the primary message was against children being exposed to transgender concepts. Pederson faces a human rights complaint from the Alberta Human Rights Commission over a flyer she distributed around Westlock in 2023, opposing the town's plans to paint a rainbow sidewalk. The flyer argued that there must be healthy boundaries and encouraged people to attend a town council meeting. The flyer also includes an information bulletin about the "Pride" movement and how some individuals within the transgender community are using it to push the "transgender agenda," including their goal to "confuse children about gender and sexual identity so that they are less likely to grow up and have happy, healthy, heterosexual relationships and produce children."Pedersen told the tribunal that the flyer’s primary intent was to object to the rainbow being painted on the crosswalk, but also to speak against children being exposed to transgender ideology.The AHRC and applicant Laurie Hodge, a current Westlock town councillor, claim that the flyer and other publications equated sexual minorities —especially trans people — with pedophilia, predation, grooming, and danger to children, regardless of intent.They also allege the publications spread misinformation about sexual-minority education, the harms of "gender-affirming care,” and the community’s intentions, while promoting “existential denial” of transgender ideology..AHRC counsel Dustin Klaudt resumed cross-examining Pedersen on Monday, following a break in the eight-day hearing that last convened on Sept. 17. Klaudt began by pushing Pedersen about her claims of the "transgender agenda" engaging children in an "inappropriate and insidious matter." Pederson said that she thinks exposing children to something without parental approval and knowledge is "insidious." She pointed to education initiatives like SOGI 123, which is an Alberta-developed resource about sexual orientation and gender ideology. It gives teachers resources and lesson ideas to promote an "inclusive environment."Pedersen said a mother told her about her child going to school, coming home in tears and asking whether they will grow up and become a boy or girl. She said it is one thing for schools to discuss these topics with a child's parents' consent, but another thing for it to happen without any. .Pedersen also expressed concerns about children being at drag-queen events, such as an event in St. Albert where men dressed in women's clothes danced in front of children in a "sexual manner," or a "drag queen story time" at a Spruce Grove library. She thinks children should grow up confident in who they are, and those situations could confuse a child. She believes there is a rising number of transgender individuals over the previous decades. Pedersen expressed concerns about individuals who are simply questioning their body, increasingly guided towards transgenderism and treatment. Pedersen also said rainbow-coloured crosswalks aggressively target children with bright, bold colours. .Klaudt also pushed Pedersen about the flyer's comments that said, "If the transgender agenda is successful, your children will be rendered infertile and unable to reproduce, become patients for life that require never-ending medical treatment, and live a shorter life,” and “gender affirmation“ involving "chemical castration and genital mutilation." Pedersen said some of her information came from speeches she had seen, and though she knew some individuals identify as transgender without surgery, she did not include them because the flyer's intent was to inspire political action using her own beliefs, not to be a scientific essay. The commission also questioned Pedersen about social media posts and comments she made. This included one where she shared a speech a man delivered to Westlock town council, in which he talked about elected officials' neutrality. The speaker discussed the progressive Pride flag and how it has changed as classifications and categories have been added. He questioned which assertion would be next, including bestiality, necrophilia, and pedophilia. Klaudt pushed Pedersen about her decision to share the speech. Pedersen said she disagreed with some things and thought that the examples were too extreme, but she supported his opposition to the crosswalk. The hearing will resume on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.
