Marche Trans in Montreal demands better healthcare for trans people
File photo. Protesters demonstrate during a rally against the transgender bathroom rights repeal at Thomas Paine Plaza February 25, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Mark Makela/Getty)
The sixth annual La Marche Trans saw hundreds of transgender activists march through Montreal on Sunday (August 4) to demand better access to healthcare and social services.
Trans people and their allies gathered at the Peace Park and marched through downtown Montreal waving trans flags.
Organised by the trans rights collective Euphorie dans le genre, the political march demanded “universal access to trans-affirmative care” in Canada.
Bruna Hill, one of the people at the march, said, “Even though some institutions and big corporations support us when we take a job, many people don’t respect our rights.”
“We should have access to more information, more support from the government, from the police and also from society. Trans rights are human rights and if all lives matter, our lives also matter,” Hill said.
Montreal marchers: end the medicalisation of being transgender
The trans community in Quebec wants to “put an end to the psychiatrisation and the tendency to pathologise transness,” said Harley Vescio, a spokesperson for the collective organisers.
“We’re asking for, first and foremost, a system of informed consent because we just have to jump through all kinds of weird hoops, just in order to get access to hormones, to get access to surgeries,” Vescio said.
“I think we know what we are, we know what we need and with just a regular healthcare professional who knows what they’re doing.”
Those marching had a list of demands including coverage by Quebec’s health insurance board for all treatments related to transition, such as hormones, facial surgery, breast augmentation or removal, vocal training and laser hair removal.
“It’s not to be more attractive. It’s to affirm who we are. It’s for our safety,” said Vescio.
“There are people whose access to their bank account is cut off because, when they call to replace a card, they are told that they don’t have a woman’s voice,” Vescio added.
