Harassment, discrimination, problems accessing health care, housing and legal services. A new study shows that “two-spirit, non-binary, trans and gender non-conforming (2STNBNCG) people” experience widespread harm in Canada.
“Participants were denied jobs, housing, competent health care, and access to safe communities because of their gender identity and/or gender expression,” the statement reads. study, led by the organization JusticeTrans. This has led to problems with unstable housing, poverty and health, including mental health problems. Participants were also refused access to toilets and changing rooms. When they were able to access these spaces, they often experienced microaggressions and violence. »
Among the “disturbing findings” cited in the study, we note that 93% of people who responded to the survey had faced legal problems during their lives. “Of the legal issues studied, the most common issues are harassment and discrimination, both specific to 2STNBNCG (73%),” the research team writes. More than half have also faced discrimination or harassment based on other grounds, such as racism, homophobia or xenophobia.
Transphobia in health
Problems with access to health care were noted by 43% of participants. “Transphobia on the part of medical staff was extremely widespread, particularly in psychiatric care,” summarizes the research team.
“A doctor directly told me that transgender does not exist and they refused me health care,” says a person cited in the study. “I went to hospital for an arm injury, and the first thing the doctor suggested was to stop taking HRT [traitement hormonal substitutif] before examining me,” says another person.
Updating identity documents was also noted to be difficult for 40% of people. “Participants described the process of changing their ID documents as unnecessarily difficult, frustrating, expensive and time-consuming. »
Housing is another source of problem, named by more than 37% of people. The gap is particularly glaring among young people, with 86% of them having revealed that they have already been in a situation of residential insecurity during their life.
Finally, employment discrimination is also raised by a large number of people (32.6%). “I was constantly expected to dress in a way that made me feel dysphoric. There were no gender-neutral restrooms, no one was trained on anti-oppression issues, etc. », Indicates one person.
Distrust of the justice system
“Despite encountering a large number of legal problems, 2STNBNCG participants often felt powerless and dehumanized by the justice system, regularly avoiding legal processes, systems and agents because of a sense of distrust or a lack of material conditions, such as stable housing, employment, or income necessary to access and engage with the legal and justice systems,” the research team concludes.
Based on these findings, the report notably proposes free health care for all transition-related health care, the elimination of financial and bureaucratic obstacles to changing one’s name or gender identification and the creation of more non-gendered spaces.
As part of this study, more than 700 2STNBNCG people responded to the survey distributed on social media and through community organizations across Canada in the fall of 2021. Additional interviews were conducted with around sixty people.
Quebecers are under-represented in this sample, but the main problems mentioned by 2STNBNCG people in Quebec are the same as those that were highlighted in the rest of Canada, specifies Guillaume Bouchard Labonté, communications manager at JusticeTrans.