While there has been improvement, Carol Allan also talks about historical differences within the LGBTQ community, where transgender people have had difficulty feeling accepted [1]. Mickey Wilson contrasts the past with the present, where “the trans community has taken its place” [2]. Although there has been some reluctance to include trans people, “there have been many champions for [trans people] in the community, great champions that are gay, lesbian, and bisexual, and they still fight every day for us” [2].
As a psychiatrist, Dr. Warneke recognized that “there was stigma within medicine and within psychiatry[. So,] in 1996 [he] opened [a gender] clinic at Grey Nuns Hospital” [3] (Pin #9). Due to the atmosphere created by the reception staff and Dr. Warneke’s involvement, the clinic “was a very safe, comfortable, secure place to be, especially if you were transitioning… Transgendered people in those days had lots of stigmatization. They would come to the clinic expecting that [the staff] were going to be a little bit rude or standoffish… but [they] weren’t. [They] were very open and inviting” [3]. Aside from the services offered in the clinic, Dr. Warneke started a support group as “a spinoff from a formal clinic” to “answer questions, and give back some positive feedback” [3]. Dr. Warneke reduced his involvement as the group grew and became self-directed. Places like the support group and clinic were pivotal for “enhancing… a sense of community [for] trans people in Edmonton” [3].
The trans rights movement has lagged behind the sexual orientation movement in term of rights, but recent years have seen improvement. For example, while Canadian Law protected sexual orientation from discrimination in 1996 [4], gender identity only recently became protected by federal law on June 19, 2017 [5]. Other developments include the proliferation of language to better describe trans-identifying people along a spectrum, similar to how sexual orientation is understood to exist on a spectrum of sexual and romantic attraction that may include both men and women. Non-binary individuals, those people whose gender identity falls outside of the typical male and female binary, can now change their gender or put an “X” (in place of indicating “male” or “female") on their Canadian passports [6, 7]. Providing additional options for birth certificates is also a consideration of some provinces, including Alberta, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador [6, 8, 9].
While non-binary individuals like B Haywood express their position in contemporary Canadian society as “kind of exhausting to try to constantly defend and explain and almost justify your existence” [10]; others, like Travis McEwen, highlight improvement: “I do think the world has caught up. There’s more language now, more vocabulary. It may be easier and better for people now who explicitly identify as non-binary or gender fluid to identify that way, and talk more authoritatively about it” [11].
[1] Carol Allan, QH project #Community.
[2] Mickey Wilson, QH project, #Community.
[3] Lorne Warneke, interview by Jason Harley, July 2017, transcript.
[4] Government of Canada, “Rights of LGBTI Persons.” www.canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1448633333972
[5] Tariq Ahmad, “Canada: Senate Passes Landmark Transgender Rights Bill.” www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/canada-senate-passes-landmark-transgender-rights-bill/
[6] Peter Zimonjic, “Canadians Will Soon be Able to ID Gender as ‘X’ on their Passports.” www.cbc.ca/news/politics/transgender-passport-x-identify-1.4261667
[7] Government of Canada, “Change the Sex on your Pasasport or Travel Document.”www.cic.gc.ca/english/passport/apply/new/change-sex.asp
[8] “‘I Feel Fantastic’: Gemma Hickey Wins Battle for Gender-Neutral Birth Certificate.” www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/gender-neutral-birth-certificatges-1.4301604
[9] Emma Graney, “Changes to Alberta Vital Statistics Adds Third Gender Marker.” http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/changes-to-alberta-vital-statistics-add-a-third-gender-marker
[10] “Neither Male Nor Female – What it’s like to Identify as ‘Non-Binary.’” www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/neither-male-nor-female-what-it-s-like-to-identify-as-non-binary-1.3241902
[11] Fish Griwkowsky, “Travis McEwen takes Gender to a New Space in Homecoming Art Show at dc3." http://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/local-arts/travis-mcewen-takes-gender-to-a-new-space-in-homecoming-art-show-at-dc3
