The first stage of an initiative to support Ottawa’s transgendered and transsexual communities has received a $26,400 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Trans-Action, spearheaded by Centretown-based Pink Triangle Services, will fund an online directory listing trans-friendly resources.
“Trans” include a range of identities. Transgender is an umbrella term for anyone who feels like their birth gender does not suit them.
Transgendered people may change their outward appearance or identify as either gender or both.
Transsexual people feel they were born as the wrong sex and may seek to medically correct this with hormone injections or sex reassignment surgery.
Transvestites, a term which has fallen out of use but refers generally to “cross-dressers,” can also encompass by the term “trans.”
The new directory is intended to help local residents find doctors who will prescribe hormones, navigate legal procedures in changing the sex category on a drivers’ permit, and seek other services.
With a large gay population in Ottawa, trans issues have been historically overlooked in the broader community, observers say.
PTS only added trans issues to its mandate in 2004, with the first trans consultation taking place in 2006.
Claudia Van Den Heuvel, executive director of PTS, has helped revamp the organization.
She says the directory has been in high demand for a long time now.
“We get a lot of phone calls from trans-people and non-trans-people looking for resources,” she says. “The most difficult resources to provide for people are trans related.”
She says some services claim to be trans-friendly without understanding what this actually means.
All resources listed on the directory will be assessed by the program co-ordinator before they are added – an essential step, according to Van Den Heuvel.
“Because of the nature of what trans people need and the degree of marginalization, it’s really important that we don’t just add people,” she says. “Gay friendly and trans friendly are two different things.”
Van Den Heuvel added that this “multi-layered” approach would include working with service providers to teach them how to serve the trans population better and to promote greater awareness.
Dr. Dan Irving, a sexuality studies professor at Carleton University, says improving services starts with organizations hiring trans people.
“Trans accessibility is not just about services themselves, but are trans people working there,” he says.
Trans-Action will benefit friends, allies and services outside the trans communities as well, he adds.
Irving has had many students approach him seeking support for themselves and their families.
He says because important services are learned about through word of mouth in the trans community, it can be difficult to break through.
“We live in such an electronic age,” he says. “This can’t help but be something that will be extremely useful.”
Though optimistic, Irving remains cautious.
Trans rights have been on the public mind in light of Bill C-389, which would add the explicit protection of gender identity and gender expression into the Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code.
The bill is now in the Senate, but even if it’s passed, Irving says, it will take much longer to change social perceptions.
“Ottawa remains a city where a lot of work needs to be done,” he says.
Van Den Heuvel says Trans-Action represents a good start to making the city more trans-friendly.
“Changing society’s perception is a much longer process and I don’t think a $26,000 grant can achieve that,” she says. “It’s a good first step.”