Bill C-389 needs your support (crossposted)
Hey, fellow Canadians!
The first hour of debate on the third reading of C-389 is coming up on Tuesday, December 7, and it's important that our MPs hear from us on the subject, especially with some of the media giving Mr. McVety a platform for bleating about bathroom panic. Mercedes Allen has pointed out that the Association for Reformed Political Action has kindly provided us with an easy-mail letter template for contacting MPs: just go to http://arpacanada.ca/index.php/action-items/current-action-requests/1103-new-easy-mail-letter-bill-c-389, type in your postal code, delete the transphobic nonsense they want you to submit and write your own thing. Pass this information on if you can.
I wrote a letter this morning. It follows below for those who are interested.
Dear Honourable Pat Martin,
Thank you for your ongoing service as my representative in Ottawa.
In the five years since beginning my social and medical transition, my experiences have shown me that Bill C-389 is desperately-needed legislation.
When I began seeking transition-related care, there was only one clinic in Winnipeg that would take me as a client. When I have had to seek medical care through emergency rooms and walk-in clinics, I have often been abused and denied treatment. Health care professionals have called me a 'drug addict', a 'freak' and 'delusional' to my face because of my decision to treat my condition in the only way that has been proven to work. Some of them have even gone so far as to brag about their lack of knowledge, then tell me that I, as a trans person, knew less about my medical condition than they did and 'couldn't be trusted to have the facts'. When I have attempted to lodge complaints following these episodes, I have been met with shrugs and denials that anything ever happened. The follow-up often includes being asked to come in and teach Trans 101, because 'we just don't know how to deal with people like you. Maybe if you came in and gave a talk, we could provide you with better care.' Why a medical institution should expect its patients to teach its staff about their conditions is utterly beyond me, and why people who refuse to believe me because of my medical condition would be receptive to what I might say in an information session is just as unclear. Understandably, I have become terrified of seeking medical care anywhere outside of my current GP's clinic.
After years of fighting depression and anxiety I am now on disability and unable to work. Both anxiety and depression occur with extremely high frequency among trans people, especially those who are denied appropriate medical care for their condition. Although some trans people never seek medical intervention, hormonal and/or surgical intervention is recognized to be the only treatment that alleviates the type of dysphoria that most of us experience, and thus to be essential medical treatment. As a Canadian, my essential medical care is technically covered under national and provincial law. However, the chest reconstruction I need isn't covered by Manitoba Health; if I want my top surgery paid for, I have to undergo a bilateral mastectomy with a 10% chance of nipple loss and 60% chance of major sensation loss. Furthermore, the surgeon will not make an effort to create a chest that is male in appearance. Chest reconstruction costs over eight thousand dollars and I (barely) live on less than eight hundred dollars a month. I would need to get a job in order to (someday be in a position to) cover the costs myself, but my disability prevents me from doing so. This means that order to solve a medical issue that is a large part of what prevents me from working, I will have to re-enter the workforce.
Medical care is not the only area in which I continue to face discrimination but a comprehensive list would take pages. I am almost at the end of my resources trying to stay alive and make tiny steps forward at the same time. And yet for all that, I've been lucky. Unlike many of my friends and peers, my family has neither disowned me nor forced me into reparative therapy. I've never had to live on the street. I have not yet been forced into the sex trade to support myself. I have not been beaten up, sexually assaulted, or murdered. Although it's been close too often, I am not yet in the approximately 50% of trans people who have attempted suicide.
Mr. Martin, trans Canadians are desperately in need of the protections Bill C-389 will afford us. We need to see ourselves reflected, acknowledged and supported by the laws of our country. Without this, we will continue to be second-class citizens at best. As your constituent, neighbour, and fellow Canadian, I urge you to give this important bill your full support.
Sincerely,
[name redacted]
The first hour of debate on the third reading of C-389 is coming up on Tuesday, December 7, and it's important that our MPs hear from us on the subject, especially with some of the media giving Mr. McVety a platform for bleating about bathroom panic. Mercedes Allen has pointed out that the Association for Reformed Political Action has kindly provided us with an easy-mail letter template for contacting MPs: just go to http://arpacanada.ca/index.php/action-items/current-action-requests/1103-new-easy-mail-letter-bill-c-389, type in your postal code, delete the transphobic nonsense they want you to submit and write your own thing. Pass this information on if you can.
I wrote a letter this morning. It follows below for those who are interested.
Dear Honourable Pat Martin,
Thank you for your ongoing service as my representative in Ottawa.
In the five years since beginning my social and medical transition, my experiences have shown me that Bill C-389 is desperately-needed legislation.
When I began seeking transition-related care, there was only one clinic in Winnipeg that would take me as a client. When I have had to seek medical care through emergency rooms and walk-in clinics, I have often been abused and denied treatment. Health care professionals have called me a 'drug addict', a 'freak' and 'delusional' to my face because of my decision to treat my condition in the only way that has been proven to work. Some of them have even gone so far as to brag about their lack of knowledge, then tell me that I, as a trans person, knew less about my medical condition than they did and 'couldn't be trusted to have the facts'. When I have attempted to lodge complaints following these episodes, I have been met with shrugs and denials that anything ever happened. The follow-up often includes being asked to come in and teach Trans 101, because 'we just don't know how to deal with people like you. Maybe if you came in and gave a talk, we could provide you with better care.' Why a medical institution should expect its patients to teach its staff about their conditions is utterly beyond me, and why people who refuse to believe me because of my medical condition would be receptive to what I might say in an information session is just as unclear. Understandably, I have become terrified of seeking medical care anywhere outside of my current GP's clinic.
After years of fighting depression and anxiety I am now on disability and unable to work. Both anxiety and depression occur with extremely high frequency among trans people, especially those who are denied appropriate medical care for their condition. Although some trans people never seek medical intervention, hormonal and/or surgical intervention is recognized to be the only treatment that alleviates the type of dysphoria that most of us experience, and thus to be essential medical treatment. As a Canadian, my essential medical care is technically covered under national and provincial law. However, the chest reconstruction I need isn't covered by Manitoba Health; if I want my top surgery paid for, I have to undergo a bilateral mastectomy with a 10% chance of nipple loss and 60% chance of major sensation loss. Furthermore, the surgeon will not make an effort to create a chest that is male in appearance. Chest reconstruction costs over eight thousand dollars and I (barely) live on less than eight hundred dollars a month. I would need to get a job in order to (someday be in a position to) cover the costs myself, but my disability prevents me from doing so. This means that order to solve a medical issue that is a large part of what prevents me from working, I will have to re-enter the workforce.
Medical care is not the only area in which I continue to face discrimination but a comprehensive list would take pages. I am almost at the end of my resources trying to stay alive and make tiny steps forward at the same time. And yet for all that, I've been lucky. Unlike many of my friends and peers, my family has neither disowned me nor forced me into reparative therapy. I've never had to live on the street. I have not yet been forced into the sex trade to support myself. I have not been beaten up, sexually assaulted, or murdered. Although it's been close too often, I am not yet in the approximately 50% of trans people who have attempted suicide.
Mr. Martin, trans Canadians are desperately in need of the protections Bill C-389 will afford us. We need to see ourselves reflected, acknowledged and supported by the laws of our country. Without this, we will continue to be second-class citizens at best. As your constituent, neighbour, and fellow Canadian, I urge you to give this important bill your full support.
Sincerely,
[name redacted]