Evidence of meeting #137 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was trans.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Rainbow Health Ontario
My understanding is that the U.K. census just this past year may have piloted asking questions around gender identity, so it may be worth looking at what they've done.
Director of Research and Policy, Egale Canada Human Rights Trust
To add to that, the U.K. also started a national action plan to address inequality among LGBT people in the United Kingdom. Preceding that was a national survey of LGBT people that they conducted, I think, from the Department for Work and Pensions. It was a voluntary survey sent out to members of the community. It's had a very high response rate, I think, in the hundreds of thousands, and a lot of the recommendations in the action plan were based on the results of that survey.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Okay, thanks.
This question may be for you Mr. Matern and Dr. Ross.
It strikes me that the stigmatization and the issues around mental health would start at a very young age. I'm not sure when our sexual identities and our gender identities develop, but it's when we're very young children.
I was struck by something you recommended, Mr. Matern, about national sexual health education beginning with adolescents and youth. Of course, it would be age appropriate, I'm sure, but would you recommend that we start right in kindergarten, preschool, grade one, making sure our educators and our children...?
Can we do a better job of making sure that we're all educated about the diversity in gender identification and sexual preferences at that early age in an appropriate manner, to sort of start attacking the early onset of stereotyping and stigmatization, and to create the conditions where people can be who they are very early? It strikes me that the process of hiding identity would be very painful and very debilitating at a young age.
Sorry. I don't mean to give the testimony, but what do you make of that?
Director of Research and Policy, Egale Canada Human Rights Trust
I can start.
I think part of what we hear anecdotally is that many people who work in the school system are scared themselves to bring up the issue. Therefore, there has to be some kind of protection for teachers and people who work in the education system, to be able to disclose or support students in creating at least the atmosphere of...either as national standards or a legal perspective where educators and people in the system are protected.
Director, Rainbow Health Ontario
My understanding is that in B.C. the Pride Education Network, which is a group of LGBT teachers, has been working with the BC Teachers’ Federation and, I think, also with the Ministry of Education to create some guidelines called SOGI 123, which are about how to do this in an age-appropriate way from kindergarten up.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Ms. Bloch, I haven't asked you a question. Would you have any comments on how we can better support...?
Board Member, Toronto Pflag
I do know that kids as young as two and three understand their gender identity, so it does need to be taught as early as we possibly can, as early as school starts.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Okay. The time's up.
That completes our round, but I'd like to ask a question of Mr. MacFarlane, if it's all right.
You mentioned you're transgender. Can you tell us your story, how your life unfolded and what are some of the challenges you've met?
Director, Rainbow Health Ontario
Maybe what I can do is broaden that a little bit. I'm just thinking about how best to get at some of the root questions and issues that people sometimes wonder about.
I transitioned about 20 years ago, which was a very different time. I was very fortunate. When I transitioned at work, my employer had, months before, adopted a human rights policy that included gender identity and expression, which for me meant that I could come out and not be fired. That was a worry. I knew that I could go and talk with my union if necessary, but it was not necessary because the organization was very proactive.
For me, accessing medical care has been fine because I work in the health care system and know how to advocate. One of the things that some trans guys like me might struggle with is, depending on what organs you have, as Giselle mentioned, getting screened. What might it be like for somebody like me going for a mammogram or going for gynecological care? Many times those are set up as women's services, so what would it look like for somebody who looks like me to be sitting in a waiting room like that? There are different things like that in terms of what it's like to access health care.
I've been really fortunate in terms of family support. It took my dad about seven years. I love him, and he was supportive the entire time, but it took him about seven years to start using my name. He didn't have access to supports. As a parent, he didn't have access to the supports that he needed, to be able to know how to wrap his head around this because, again, it was a different time.
Director, Rainbow Health Ontario
No, I was not 20. A lot of trans folks look a lot younger than they are because of having two puberties, so I'm in my late forties.
Director, Rainbow Health Ontario
It was twenty years ago, so I was about 30.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Oh, okay. Well, thanks for that.
Ms. Bloch, how did it affect you as a parent when you realized your children—I don't know. Were they gay or...?
Board Member, Toronto Pflag
When my children told me, it was a bit of an adjustment. My eldest, who had already come out as a lesbian four years earlier said—
Board Member, Toronto Pflag
He was 18 when he came out as a lesbian, and then at 22 he told us he was a transman. In the interim, our middle son came out as gay. I wanted to make sure that nothing was going to change.
In retrospect, of course, we're all brilliant. Nothing did change. This was the same child with the same wonderful qualities before he transitioned as now, except that he's a lot happier now.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
I just can't thank you enough for telling us your stories and sharing your information.
I do want to say, Mr. Ouellette didn't get a chance to ask a question.
Do you have one question you want to ask?
Robert-Falcon Ouellette Winnipeg Centre, Lib.
I have one question. I think also the parliamentary secretary might ask a question.