We were treated to a scene as rare as it was unexpected in the House of Commons last Wednesday. Deputies applauded, jumped for joy, crossed the room to embrace their political opponents …
“I want to thank all members of the House for choosing the right side of history,” Justice Minister David Lametti said. Parliamentarians had just voted unanimously to pass a bill that will ban conversion therapy in Canada.
The message couldn’t be clearer: enough is enough, the charlatans who claim they can change a person’s sexual orientation. Not only do these practices not work, they also destroy lives. Often children’s lives.
The motion was brought forward by the Conservative Party, which is divided on this issue. We understand that the party wanted to avoid getting involved in this slippery ground and that a part of political calculation motivated its gesture. But whatever: it’s the result that counts.
The company is there. Some will say that it is not too early. All the same. Sometimes it’s good to stop and see how far you’ve come. If only to realize how far we still have to go.
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Perhaps the next battle will be that of trans people.
In Quebec, we are hearing worrying things about Bill 2, tabled last month by the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette.
Apparently, the militant fringe of the LGBTQ + movement is redefining what a man and a woman are. Nothing less. There would be danger in the remainder.
Some commentators are calling for public consultations to resolve such a fundamental issue. The parliamentary committee which ended on Friday was not sufficient; they require a broad debate.
They forget that we have already had this debate. We discussed the issue at length, in 2013 and 2015.
At the end of the debate, Quebec withdrew from the Civil Code the provision that required trans people to undergo an operation to change the sex designation on their birth certificate.
Today, this requirement no longer exists anywhere in Canada.
This is why the first draft of Bill 2, which reinstates this requirement, went so badly with the trans community. It is an unjustifiable, unacceptable setback.
Minister Jolin-Barrette has promised to rectify the situation. The bill will be amended; no operation will be required. He repeated it on Friday in parliamentary committee: “Every human being has the right to be who he is, who he wants. The right to be happy. ”
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The right to be happy? In Quebec, 78% of trans and non-binary youth suffer from mental health disorders, such as depression and anxiety, underlined in a parliamentary committee Annie Pullen Sansfaçon, holder of the Canada Research Chair on transgender children and their families. families.
Most trans youth do not have parental support. They get bullied at school. They live in precarious conditions; 29% sometimes go to bed hungry. Suicide rates are stratospheric.
These young people are suffering enormously. Not because they are trans, but because we do not recognize their trans identity. The nuance is important. Crucial, even.
“All of our research points in the same direction,” insisted Mme No thank you. What makes young people anxious, depressed and suicidal is the discrimination and violence they experience. It has nothing to do with their gender identity. ”
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Too often it is suggested that people get up in the morning and “decide” whether they feel like a man or a woman. And hop, like that, they change sex.
This cartoon has nothing to do with the reality of trans people. It doesn’t matter: we prefer to brandish the scarecrow. Always the same.
We are warned that sexual predators will interfere in women’s shelters, that men will rinse their eyes in the women’s locker rooms, that boys will play in women’s sports teams …
How many times has this happened, for real? What facts, what studies support these dark conjectures? Other than a couple of anecdotes halfway around the world, I mean …
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In the United States, the battle for trans rights is already well underway. It fits into the broader political context of the cultural wars that progressives and conservatives have been waging for decades.
In the past, same-sex marriages were attacked. Today, we are attacking the rights of trans youth. For a year, dozens of Republican states have concocted bills in this direction.
Several of these bills seek to prevent trans girls from playing on women’s sports teams in their schools. For the sake of justice, it is claimed.
But when the Associated Press contacted the initiators of the bills in more than 20 states, nearly all were unable to cite a single example where the integration of a transgender athlete into a team had gone badly.1 !
We call it a solution that looks for a problem …
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In The press, a letter addressed to Minister Jolin-Barrette and signed by 200 people recently warned that laws could not be made “to the detriment of the fundamental rights of the very large majority of citizens” 2.
But what fundamental rights are we violating, exactly?
How does it bother that trans people identify as they see fit?
In its current form, Bill 2 would force trans people to make a coming out, since there would be a gender marker AND a sex marker on the identity papers.
To avoid further stigmatizing trans people, Annie Pullen Sansfaçon argues that it is better to use the same marker – gender or sex – for everyone. Or, better yet, don’t use any at all.
Either way, I find it hard to see how that would interfere with the rights of the majority.
What would it be so terrible to remove boxes F and M from the driver’s license? Who would stop being called sir or madam if he likes it? Anybody.
It wouldn’t take anything away from anyone.
Let’s stop waving this sad scarecrow.