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Quebec gender identity report leaves trans rights at risk
This article was originally published in The Gazette.
On May 30, Quebec’s Comité de sages (literally “committee of wise people”) sur l’identité de genre, established by the province in December 2023, released its much-anticipated report on gender identity. Attempting to balance divergent viewpoints and promote social harmony, the report offers suggestions rather than firm recommendations. But on closer inspection, what may seem like a prudent approach risks perpetuating the very discrimination the committee says it wants to prevent.
Announced amid anti-trans protests, the creation of the committee served as a political shield, allowing the government to avoid taking a clear stance on contentious issues. The three-person committee’s composition also spoke volumes: no trans people, nor any cisgender experts on these realities. Although the committee promised to involve the Conseil québécois LGBT, its participation was limited. What could have been meaningful proved purely symbolic.
What’s more, the committee’s suggestions range from the trivial to the problematic. Some proposals, while laudable, reaffirm principles already enshrined in law, like protecting trans people from discrimination and conversion practices. Others — like training physicians in gender-affirming care — require political will and proper funding, without which they won’t come to pass.
More troubling, several points parrot scientifically discredited theories like “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” and “social contagion,” fuelling mistrust and reinforcing dangerous stereotypes. In so doing, the report offers ammunition to those eager to roll back recent progress.
The real impact of these suggestions will depend on the policy decisions that follow. For example, the committee claims to strike a balance by proposing that women’s shelters be allowed to refuse trans women while encouraging the government to fund community groups to establish specialized alternative shelters. The first measure would be easy to implement and reinforces the harmful myth that trans women threaten cisgender women’s safety; the second would require substantial resources and is harder to achieve.
If the government adopts the first without the second, it may invoke the report as justification, regardless of nuance. Hence, by clinging to the appearance of neutrality when faced with misleading narratives about trans people, the committee contributed to normalizing harmful stereotypes that fuel discrimination.
While the province’s response has yet to be determined, the signs are concerning. Despite having doubled funding to combat homophobia and transphobia in 2023, the government seems intent on slowing, if not reversing, certain rights. In May, Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette announced Quebec would appeal a court ruling that legally recognized multi-parent families, citing the need to protect children.
The following month, Public Security Minister François Bonnardel announced that trans inmates will now be detained according to their anatomical sex — a return to discriminatory policies abandoned over a decade ago that forced trans people to undergo surgery to legally change their gender. This echoes the controversy sparked in 2021 by Bill 2, which attempted to reimpose similar restrictions.
With the Parti Québécois and the Conservative Party of Quebec pushing for harsher stances on trans issues, it will be hard for Premier François Legault to resist the allure of a convenient scapegoat. By leaning on specious arguments about protecting children and women’s safety, the government is already giving in to this temptation. Recent polls showing a collapse in support for the Coalition Avenir Québec may well hasten this shift.
The risk is clear: If the government ignores the report’s suggestions that would protect trans rights but implements those that restrict them, it would contribute to normalizing intolerance at a time when violence against trans people continues to rise. Instead of half measures driven by electoral calculus, our elected officials must show the courage to defend the rights of all, without cherry-picking suggestions to justify regression. Alas, given the decisions that have already been made, the courage this moment demands seems more distant than ever.
Francesco MacAllister-Caruso is a Trudeau, Vanier and Concordia Public Scholar, and a PhD candidate in political science at Concordia University. Their research focuses on political representation, citizenship and policy issues affecting trans and non-binary people in Canada.
