Support truly
independent journalism
Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.
Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.
Louise Thomas
Editor
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s Tatiana Maslany has criticized a new law, implemented in her native Saskatchewan, Canada, which requires school staff to obtain parental consent before using a student’s new name or gender identity.
The Parents’ Bill of Rights was signed into effect in October 2023, making it the first provincial education law that could limit gender identity in schools. The law only affects children under the age of 16.
Speaking to local reporters following her recent Canada Walk of Fame event, Maslany, 38, addressed the new legislation, saying: “It should not be in the control of the parents how a child identifies; how a child knows them self to be.”
The actor, who is a prominent LGBT+ rights activist, added: “That isn’t a parent’s place – it’s an overreach. It’s an overreach on the part of the provincial government to legislate that. It’s absurd.”
She continued: “Children have rights. Children are human beings who have knowledge and who know themselves and we should be taking cues from them. In so many ways, we should be taking cues from them. Listening to them, empowering them to know who they are and to name that.
“It’s their right. It’s not the parents’s right.”
The Orphan Black actor is known for using her platform to speak out about certain causes.
During the Walk of Fame ceremony, she used her acceptance speech to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
“I would say with whatever platform I have, that we can’t do nothing. And I would demand that our government demand a cease-fire, stop funding a genocide, stop being complicit in it,” Maslany said. “Thank you for this honor, thank you for being here. Free Palestine.”
In an April interview with The Independent, she also reacted to the revelations of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV – the much-talked-about docuseries about the underbelly of abuse at Nickelodeon from the late Nineties to the early 2000s.
“It is so hard to talk about that stuff when you have grown up in it,” the former child actor said.
“You’re taking cues from the adults so speaking up is something that you were never allowed to do. There’s this false sense of security because you’re so beloved by the people who work with you, but you’re also taught never to cross them… I was so blown away by their honesty, and by the fact that these kids, now adults, were able to unravel that learning and to speak.”
