Justice committee  Bonjour. I'm very honoured to be here today. It has so much meaning to be here on the Trans Day of Remembrance, which is a worldwide occasion, as you know. My name is Hershel Russell. I'm a psychotherapist in private practice in Toronto. I also do specializing in work with trans

Justice committee  I'm close to the edge? Okay. I'll just say one more little piece, then. I hope you ask me questions about health issues, because I'm very up to date on the disputes around the DSM, around the upcoming ICD, the international compendium of diseases, and on those discussions at bo

Justice committee  Thank you. One of my jobs is to go across Ontario. I'm the lead mental health trainer for a program called Trans Health Connection, ministry funded through Rainbow Health Ontario. We go across the province speaking to doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, mental

Justice committee  Correct.

Justice committee  Not a medical doctor, correct.

Justice committee  I am indeed.

Justice committee  That's a little more complicated.... I'm not sure whether I should call you “sir” or “honourable member”.

Justice committee  Okay: you don't care. That's a little more complicated, in that in Ontario, unlike a number of other provinces, there's been a kind of territory war. The psychologists have declared that they are the only people permitted to use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Di

Justice committee  Correct.

Justice committee  Not only I disagree with that characterization; the conversations have been happening of course for the last two years around what will be in the DSM-5, which will be published in 2013. In 2013 there will not be “gender identity disorder”. That will be replaced.

Justice committee  That's correct. There will be substantially different diagnostic factors, and, as a matter of fact, as we talk about gender-variant people, it will spell out that there is a broad spectrum of gender rather than just two genders. WPATH, which is the most authoritative organizatio

Justice committee  It's a terrific question. It's a lovely question.

Justice committee  Because the medical system works like this, in order to get treatment you must have a diagnosis. If you don't have a diagnosis, you can't get treatment. That's just how the system works. For example, the ICD is the international compendium of diseases, published by the World Hea

Justice committee  Housing is an enormous issue. In both of the research studies, we have extraordinarily high numbers of people who have difficulty accessing housing simply because they are visibly trans. For employment, ditto. Something like 78% of trans people experience discrimination specific

Justice committee  That's what I do for a living. Off time, that's what I do for a living, mostly to health care professionals but also in educational institutions, government bureaucracies, etc. So no, the process of education is under way. There's lots more to do. Thank you: it's very important.