Countries Where Trans* Rights Are Respected

[Guest megamix_my_heart]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if anyone knew of countries where Transgender people and the community have well respected and protected rights, because so often we hear about how those rights aren't established or protected and it gets so terribly depressing. An internet search on this wasn't very helpful!

Any knowledge would be really appreciated. Hope you are all having a fabulous day,

Zoe.

[Guest John Chiv]

According to Wikipedia, some rights in South Africa, Canada, U.S. (states not federal), Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, Peru,Paraguay, and Uruguay.

John

[Guest Risu]

I have heard a lot of good things about Canada. Apparently Canadas universal healthcare will pay for SRS too? Just have to wait a few years for it to happen. Israel protects its transgender people in employment and so on and not positive but I hear there is a large LGBT community in Australia and that people there are open minded. They even had a "gender illusionist" make it to third or fourth place on Austalian Idol. As for specific trans legislation it might be something to look into.

[Guest megamix_my_heart]

Wow. Thank you for your responses. To be honest, I thought (and still think) that Australia was terrible for Trans* rights, but after looking at a lot of other countries, Australia looks a bit better. How depressing.

In terms of Australia, it's hard to know heaps about the situation of Trans* people nationwide because there has been such a small amount of research done to ask the community what their life is like. For instance, there is only word- of- mouth estimates on the suicide rate. And then people need to be 'unmarried' and have had all their reproductive organs removed in SRS to get their birth certificate changed and things like that. But maybe internationally it's still comparitavely good.

But we'll all get there in the end, I guess. In Australia we do at least have some pretty asmazing and strong spokespeople that aren't that hard to find, which is great.

[Guest Wulfhere]

Canada is not too bad. SRS can be paid by OHIP, but it takes time. If you can raise your own money for surgery (talking top surgery here) it would be faster. As far as rights, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and the Northwest Territories all include trans rights in their anti-discrimination/hate crime policies, however the rest of the country doesn't. So those are the better places to live in this country if you're trans. Bill C-389 was set to amend the Human Rights Act and Criminal Code to include gender identity and expression country-wide. Unfortunately with the election of the Conservatives, that has gone down the drain.

The country that is probably one of the most advanced for trans issues and the entire LGBT spectrum is the Netherlands. Full anti-discrimination laws (employment, housing, services) are in place country-wide. Also, some of the payments for SRS and hormones can be covered by the government as far as I've heard from friends over there.

I think Canada and the Netherlands are probably among the top countries rights-wise and as far as any government support for surgery and/or hormones.

[Guest Robin Winter]

I have heard a lot of good things about Canada. Apparently Canadas universal healthcare will pay for SRS too? Just have to wait a few years for it to happen. Israel protects its transgender people in employment and so on and not positive but I hear there is a large LGBT community in Australia and that people there are open minded. They even had a "gender illusionist" make it to third or fourth place on Austalian Idol. As for specific trans legislation it might be something to look into.

That unfortunately is not true in all provinces yet. We're working on it.

[Guest Demzon]

So, I know a lady in South Africa that says that the laws are there; but the support isn't. From what I get, they have LGBT rights on the books, but they are not enforced the way they should be if at all. One thing she wrote directly relating recently was "South Africa is a pretty conservative place still, and the city I live in a little more so. It’s odd to think of such a modern city still having such a conservative small-town attitude, despite us having such a modern and advanced Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion and expression. There are many, many churches and small one-room cults split off from the Christian mainstream here where I live. Most of them are very active, charismatic, evangelical and fanatically intolerant of anything they disagree with – mostly homosexuality and other religions. Quite frankly, if you are different in any way, or stand out from the crowd, you become a target. I think you can guess that makes things harder for us."

[Guest Riana]

In the Netherlands you can get everything covered by insurance and there are a lot of laws for trans rights. But the actual TG care is terrible - all of that coverage rests with one single gender clinic that handles all cases and they're so understaffed the waiting lists have now climbed to a year and a half. They have a pre-screening which rejects people before they can even get onto the waiting list, but that's not a diagnosis and so they reject a huge amount of valid cases as well. So I think it's best to say the Netherlands is wonderful for those who have transitioned. For those who haven't it's a dehumanizing bureaucratic nightmare.