Winnipeg Transgender Support Group

Burnaby MP Bill Siksay`s Private Member`s Bill, C-389, now has its own website and Facebook pages. They have some suggestions for how you can help get this legislation passed.

Transgender, transsexual, and gender-variant people suffer extremely high rates of discrim­ination and violence. But they’re not yet explicit­ly protected from discrimination anywhere in Canada except the Northwest Territories.

The product of extensive consultation with the trans community, Bill C-389 would add gender identity and expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the hate crimes provisions of the Criminal Code.

UPDATE (May 10, 2010):
Trans rights bill gets first hour of debate

The first hour of debate on Bill C-389, regarding including trans rights into Canadian human rights and Criminal Code legislation, began this morning in the House of Commons.

UPDATE (May 13, 2010)
Transcription of the debate (Hansard)

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has released the first draft of the diagnostic criteria for the fifth edition of APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).

The DSM is the standard reference used by professionals to diagnose gender identity issues.

There are a number of significant changes in the gender identity sections. Most prominently, it is proposed that

the name gender identity disorder (GID) be replaced by “Gender Incongruence” (GI) because the latter is a descriptive term that better reflects the core of the problem: an incongruence between, on the one hand, what identity one experiences and/or expresses and, on the other hand, how one is expected to live based on one’s assigned gender

Comments on the draft are invited via the DSM-V website until April 20, 2010.

CAMH in Toronto, whose services the Province of Manitoba uses for the assessment of gender identity disorder, has released a report called a Strategy to Build Relationships and Partnerships with LGBTTTQQI* Communities. The report is severely critical of the methods employed by the Gender Identity Clinic.

The Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) and the Gender Identity Disorder Service (GIDS) have not been well regarded by some members of LGBTTTQQI communities due to negative experiences, underlying operational theories, approach, and treatment philosophy.

The issues raised regarding the Gender Identity Clinic is that it has:

• Used the Medical Model (pathologized)
• A greater priority on research relative to care
• Demonstrated a lack of willingness to engage with LGBTTTQQ communities and engage in dialogue
• Exhibited poor therapeutic communication and engagement. Some identify dismissive, condescending and authoritarian attitudes of staff
• Used a surgery-only track
• Supported and promoted the theories of Homosexual Transsexualism and Autogynephelia
• Used guidelines that are four-times (for hormones) and double (for the real life experience) the current WPATH Standards of Care

Read the executive summary or the full report.

On December 18, 2008, the UN General Assembly was presented with a declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity signed by 66 countries, including Canada.

According to Wikipedia:

The declaration condemns violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatization, and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also condemns killings and executions, torture, arbitrary arrest, and deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights on those grounds.

See Wikipedia for more details.

In response to those insurance companies in the US that maintain SRS is a cosmetic procedure, WPATH (the org that maintains the Standard of Care) has issued a statement clearly affirming their position that SRS (and other procedures including hair removal for MTFs) are “medically necessary” and therefore insurable.

Read the complete statement here.