Trans rights advocates are sounding the alarm about new legislation proposed by the provincial government that they say would roll back Quebec on transgender issues.
Silently proposed on Thursday by the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, Bill 2 It sets out to amend the civil code and only allow trans people who undergo gender affirmation surgery to request an official sex change on their birth certificate.
“This would definitely make Quebec the most regressive country for trans rights,” said Florence Ashley Paré, a doctoral student at the University of Toronto School of Law who studies how science is used in legal cases involving trans youth.
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Paré said that there is no other province or territory in the country that requires trans people to undergo surgery to access the change of marital status of their identity.
“This bill will take us back 15 years,” said Manon Massé, from the Québec solidarity group, who promised that his party will fight the Avenir Québec Coalition (CAQ) bill in the National Assembly.
Paré, who is trans, told Global News that the legislation stands out as the most regressive bill proposed on trans rights in Canadian history. “All the other bills had to do with progress. This is an exceptional case where we would go back to rights. “
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The legislation, which contains 300 articles, will be the subject of public consultation and would essentially create separate sex and gender sections on birth certificates. If a trans person had not undergone surgery, they would have to assign their sex at birth and would only be eligible to select their gender.
According to Paré and Massé, this would generate a constant dangerous exit of trans people that would make them vulnerable to discrimination. “[It would create] situations where people could have surgery that they might not otherwise want just to meet the government’s prerequisite. “
Massé said the bill is rolling back on trans, intersex and non-binary rights in Quebec.
According to data published by the Quebec government in 2017, more than 40% of the population of the surveyed province has witnessed an act of homophobic or transphobic discrimination.
A 2020 report Trans PULSE Canada suggests that trans and non-binary Canadians face higher levels of harassment, physical violence and sexual assault.
–With files from Canadian Press
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Reference-globalnews.ca