Health committee  Yes, I partnered with the University of Waterloo to do a trans wellness conference in Waterloo, which was attended by doctors. We're also working with our local hospitals and mental health professionals to improve care. On this end, however, it often means we overextend ourselves

Health committee  I don't know how accurate that is in identifying who you are. For example, for me to travel here today I had my gender marker removed from my ID, which obviously we're happy about, but I can't fly with my ID anymore even within Canada because it doesn't have a gender marker, so I

Health committee  I'm not sure, but—

Health committee  And beyond that, how do we adequately capture people who are intersex? That is erasing the identity of a lot of different people.

Health committee  I just want to add a couple of items. One is wait times. People are most at risk of attempting or completing suicide when they're told to wait. You can imagine it as being under water your whole life and finally coming up for a breath of fresh air, asking a doctor or someone to p

Health committee  First and foremost, we're going to expose young people to minority stress. From the get-go, you're being told you don't matter and you're being erased, which is directly correlated to mental health distress and suicide. On top of that, the number of requests we have from the te

Health committee  I just want to emphasize again that collecting socio-demographic data will lead to better health outcomes and how we deliver our services. Changing the form is not enough, if we don't create a system where people feel safe enough or have enough information to self-identify. I d

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the standing committee. It is a privilege to address you this afternoon and take part in this historic study on LGBTQ health. My name is Washington, and I am a transgender social worker and psychotherapist. I coordinate an LGBTQ program calle

Health committee  Mr. Chair and committee, my area of expertise is mental health. Simply put, when people are not treated well, they don't feel very good. You've heard this before, and your other report has referred to it as “minority stress”. If I could explain minority stress as a math formula,