Quebec’s latest bill is a direct attack on the LGBTQ+ community, and people across the province are furious.
If the proposed Bill 2, “An Act respecting family law reform with regard to filiation and amending the Civil Code in relation to personality rights and civil status” sounds complex and vague, that’s because it is.
In summary, the bill would make it compulsory for transgender people in Quebec to undergo gender-affirming surgery in order to make modifications to the gender marker on their official documents.
In other words, a transgender man who was assigned female at birth will no longer have the right under this new bill to change his documents to match his gender identity, unless he has undergone surgery on his sex organs.
The bill, according to activists and allies, is a step 6 years backward for the trans community.
In 2015, an amendment was made to Quebec legislation, allowing trans folx to change their gender marker on official documents and government IDs by filling out a sworn statement form and including a letter of attestation from a friend, family member, or trusted other party.
The proposed Bill 2 removes this right.
There are many reasons why a person may not want to or be able to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Many insurance companies only cover a small portion of the costs, and some people are uninsured altogether. Furthermore, undergoing surgery of that nature poses many risks, one of which is the possibility of facing infertility.
Under Bill 2, those who are unable to have gender-affirming surgery would have an additional category added to all official and government documents. One for biological sex, and another for gender identity. However, as you can likely imagine, this could cause significant harm to members of the trans community who aren’t “out”.
“When those documents are presented, they would reveal the fact a person is trans, if an ID card says the sex is female, it reads as woman; but if the gender identity is female, it reads as trans woman. You can see how trans people could be separated and segregated by this.”
- Celeste Trianon, trans rights spokesperson at the Centre for Gender Advocacy.
For the transgender community, having separate sex and gender categories forces them to share a private part of their identity on a daily basis. This is only exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of vaccine passports.
If you would like to express your discontent towards Bill 2, it’s now easier than ever to do so. By following the link below and including your name, e-mail address, and postal code, an automatic e-mail will be drafted and sent to your corresponding MNA expressing your disagreement with what the Bill represents.
The e-mail will also be sent to Simon Jolin-Barrette (Minister of Justice CAQ, Line Drouin (Deputy minister of justice), François Legault (Quebec Premier), Véronique Hivon (Opposition critic for justice), Alexandre Leduc (Opposition critic for justice), and Marc Tanguay (Opposition critic for justice).
Send the e-mail in one click HERE.
If you or someone you know is struggling with the proposed new bill, and what it could mean for them, check out these resources:
For more information, visit these links:
