Quebec just pledged $550,500 to tackle anti-LGBT discrimination
The Canadian province of Quebec has pledged $550,500 in funding for projects to tackle anti-LGBT+ discrimination.
The funding, which will be shared by thirty groups across the province, was announced by Justice Minister Stephanie Vallée on Monday.
It aims to support LGBT+ communities in bolstering their rights, as well as research and public awareness campaigns.
A press conference was held at which Vallée said 88 percent of the initiatives to tackle homophobia between 2011 and 2016 had already been implemented.
Media campaigns, said Vallée, had reached three-quarters of the people in Quebec.
“Again this year, numerous organisations responded to our call for project funding through our Fight Against Homophobia program,” Vallée said.
The province did something pretty amazing for its transgender teenagers back in 2016.
The bill which allows trans minors to legally change their gender, became law in the Canadian province back in June.
The Civil Code will be changed to include transgender kids and teenagers, and the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms will also be changed to outlaw transphobic discrimination.
The bill against transphobia was tabled late in May.
Teenagers will not need to undergo gender reassignment surgery to change their birth certificates.
However if they are 14 or older and one of their parents or legal guardians objects to the change, it will go to a tribunal.
If they are 13 or under the request to legally change their gender must come from the parent or guardian.
Canadian MPs earlier this month voted to make changes to its national anthem to make it gender-inclusive.
The country’s Parliament is currently addressing a bill, tabled by Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger, which tweaks the country’s national anthem O Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – who came to power in Canada last year – has put equality at the heart of his leadership: appointing a diverse, expert-led gender-balanced cabinet, speaking out against homophobia, and becoming the first Canadian PM to march at Pride.
He also made history by flying a rainbow flag from Parliament Hill, and announced a raft of new trans rights protections that will bolster anti-discrimination laws on the grounds of gender identity.
