More referrals for gender reassignment surgery

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Ontario wants to make it easier for transgender people to get a medical referral for sex reassignment surgery. There will still be long wait times and patients will still have to leave the province for the procedures.

Danica Rain is currently transitioning. She still has one more surgery to complete the long process. “When I transitioned up in Northern Ontario, I was the very first there was. No one had any information for me, I had to come to Toronto.”

Currently, only the gender identity clinic at the centre for addiction and mental health in Toronto can refer a patient for sex reassignment surgery, which is covered by OHIP.

Eric Hoskins is Ontario’s Health Minister. “These purposed amendments will allow medical referrals for insured sex reassignment surgery to be health care providers anywhere.”

There are currently over a thousand individual on a wait list at CAMH to have sex reassignment surgery. it takes about two years just to get onto that list and then another few years to see the doctor.

Danica will still have to go to Montreal to have the the procedure performed. Caitlyn Jenner thrust the transgender community into the spotlight but advocates like Melissa Hudson say it is hard work that’s pushed for change.
“The changes that we are seeing in this province are a result of real people contributing on a much quieter level.”

In 2012 “gender identity” and “gender expression” were included in the Ontario Human Rights Code. But, Rain says there is still a lot of work to be done to ease discrimination. Before transitioning, she used to be a paramedic.

Rain says accessibility to the referral process for sex reassignment surgery is a start and hopes employers will accept her for who she is.