Action!

The next step:
changing the rules
To revise the requirements, the Ministry of
Government Services (MGS) consulted with
several organizations with expertise in gender
identity issues and human rights. In July 2012,
we added our comments to the consultation.
We agreed that adopting the Ministry of
Transportation’s criteria for changing the sex
designation on a driver’s licence, which requires a
letter from a licensed physician, would be a better
way to proceed. However, we also suggested that
a physician’s letter should not be a necessary
requirement. As society’s awareness and understanding
of gender identity develops, we argued that people
should be recognized based on their lived and
internally-felt gender identity.
We recommended that MGS consider other criteria
that are more respectful, less intrusive and less
medicalized than a doctor’s letter. We suggested
there were many persons – psychologists, social
workers, nurses, school or college or university
officials, therapists, employers, family members, the
faith community or others – who could confirm
that a person is transgender, or is living publicly in
the gender that is consistent with the change they
are requesting on their birth registration.
It is the social presentation of one’s felt gender,
rather than a particular physical or sexual feature,
genetic makeup or medical history that is at issue
when considering a change to the sex designation
on a document.
We also commented that:
✦✦Criteria for people under age 18 should be no
more stringent than the criteria for adults
✦✦Although it would be rare, people should be
allowed to change the sex designation on their
birth registration more than once
✦✦We need to question whether a sex designation
on a “wallet” birth certificate is needed at all, and
consider removing it or including it in a coded
form in the certificate number, instead of being
printed on the face of the document.
In Fall 2012, MGS adopted new criteria, which
reflected several of our recommendations. In the
new system, people need to provide a note from
a practicing doctor or psychologist (including a
psychological associate) stating that they have
treated or evaluated the person and the change in
designation is appropriate. However, MGS did not
speak to the age concern – it still requires people to
be 18 or older before they can change the designation,
stating they need to further consult on this point.
We will continue to work with our partners and
monitor MGS’s progress.
[T]rans people have been around since the beginning of time. We’ve been going to washrooms, we’ve
been running races and competing in society and living in society… [M]y identity as Susan and as a trans
woman, that’s really mostly all you need to know about me… My physician and I,
my therapist and I and a few close friends know what’s going on inside of me.
That’s where my boundaries are.
– Susan Gapka, former Chair, Trans Lobby Group
Ontario Human Rights Commission • 2012-2013 Annual Report 11