Accused of bringing Quebec back years with his gender identity bill, Simon Jolin-Barrette is preparing to rectify the situation, has learned The duty. It will amend all aspects deemed “transphobic” of its measure, in addition to eliminating the requirement of an operation to change the designation of sex, he promises.
In an interview on Monday, the Minister of Justice agreed to have heard the grievances of trans and non-binary communities. By reviewing various articles of his bill 2, he wishes to “reassure” them.
“The goal has never been to complicate the process of affirming trans people,” he said.
Concretely, the elected member of Borduas will “withdraw” from the bill the passage which provided for the imposition of an operation to change the reference to sex appearing on government documents. According to several LGBTQ2 rights groups, this demand threatened to create ” coming out forced ”by removing a whole section of the community: people who have not gone under the knife.
“We are coming to clarify the provision to prevent it from being perceived that way. For me, it is really important that the elements of the law be inclusive, ”said Mr. Jolin-Barrette.
A response to the Court
Introduced at the end of October, Bill 2 aims to respond to a judgment rendered earlier this year by the Superior Court of Quebec. In his decision, Judge Gregory Moore stated that the current provisions of the Civil Code “prevent[nt] that the gender identity of transgender or non-binary people who are domiciled in Quebec is reflected on the identity documents ”.
The CAQ legislative measure was intended to remedy this legal vacuum by enshrining in law the possibility of adding a gender identity to civil status documents. This new entry could have been accompanied by an F, an M or an X. The mention of sex remained.
However, the revisions provided for in this mention risk to push back Quebec to its reality of the mid-2010s, highlighted the organizations in broad strokes in the days following the filing of the PL 2. The obligation to undergo an operation had officially been abrogated in 2015. “We thought we had won,” said the coordinator of TransEstrie, Séré Beauchesne Lévesque, to the To have to at the end of last month.
Without indicating in detail how he will amend his bill, Minister Jolin-Barrette confirmed his intention to “equate gender identity with the question of sex”. The amendments should “allow non-binary people to express themselves” on their birth certificates regardless, he said.
Accused of having tabled a transphobic legislative text last month, Simon Jolin-Barrette “does not believe [qu’il] deserves this qualifier ”. The CAQ member maintains that he was constantly listening to the parties concerned, before and after the bill was tabled.
The presentation of Bill 2 led to an outcry in the National Assembly at the end of the month. “Going back six years to the rights of LGBTQI2 people is not an accident or a mistake,” the official opposition spokesperson for the LGBTQ2 community, Jennifer Maccarone, protested at the Salon Bleu.
“Many people do not want these interventions, which can be dangerous for their health, sterilize them or which, quite simply, are not accessible in their part of the country”, observed in turn the co-spokesperson for Quebec solidarity Manon Massé.
Faced with popular anger, Simon Jolin-Barrette pledged to “find a solution” with the groups concerned. “During the last two weeks, we have heard [leurs] concerns, ”added the Minister in an interview with The duty. Several organizations had also been consulted before the presentation of PL 2, he said.
To explain the delay he took before revising his bill, the minister said that “it is a complex subject nonetheless”. “It brings opposing interests within the community. The claims of transgender people are not the same as those of non-binary people. It is not unanimous, all that, ”he said.
Suites
It is at the clause-by-clause study stage of the bill that Simon Jolin-Barrette will be able to concretize his intentions. In the meantime, the elected representatives of the National Assembly have yet to receive various groups in particular consultation. The opposition groups recently sent the minister their proposals from experts and organizations they would like to hear.
Bill 2 also addresses issues of parentage. In fact, the majority of its pages deal with the reform of family law that Quebec intends to undertake. If he continues to make it a “priority” file, Minister Jolin-Barrette says he already has a lot of work to do.
“Currently, we are in the specialized court [en matière de violences sexuelle et conjugale]. I am waiting for the collaboration of the oppositions to be able to adopt it quickly, too, he said. The faster we adopt it, the faster we will be able to work on other projects as well. “