Protestors gather at the legislature during a rally for trans rights in Edmonton in February, 2024.AMBER BRACKEN/The Canadian Press
Canada’s transgender advocates are calling on Ottawa to provide a safe haven to gender-diverse residents of the United States after President Donald Trump signed an executive order saying Washington now only recognizes two sexes: male and female.
A person’s biological classification is “immutable,” the order says, and gender identity will no longer be acknowledged by the U.S. government.
The order effectively reverses the gender-related policies of Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden. It is expected to apply to the military, to the use of public changing facilities and bathrooms, and to prisons and publicly funded schools, as well as how a person’s sex is identified on passports and other official documents.
In 2022, the Biden administration permitted U.S. citizens to select a gender-neutral “X” on passports.
Canadian transgender advocates also want Ottawa to clarify with the White House whether Canadian passports, which also allow people to choose a gender-neutral X, will still be recognized at U.S. border crossings, and to ensure that trans travellers will continue to be permitted to enter the U.S.
Gemma Hickey, a non-binary advocate who in 2017 launched a successful challenge in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Supreme Court to obtain a gender-neutral birth certificate, is travelling to Seattle on Wednesday. Mx Hickey is unsure whether their passport, which has an X, will be accepted at the border.
“My mother messaged me today and begged me not to go.”
Mx Hickey is meeting with Canadian embassy officials in the U.S. about transgender Canadians travelling south of the border, and how Mr. Trump’s order will affect them.
The advocate also contacted Canadian government officials on Tuesday about the possibility of Ottawa issuing a travel advisory for gender-diverse Canadians wishing to visit or work in the U.S.
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They said the Canadian government and its embassies in the U.S. need “a co-ordinated approach.”
With regard to offering a safe haven for trans people coming from the U.S., Mx. Hickey said Ottawa needs “to look at all possible actions to keep people who are marginalized safe.”
Fae Johnstone, a Canadian transgender advocate, said Mr. Trump’s executive order could create anxiety not just among Americans, but also gender-diverse people who had fled to the U.S. to escape abuse and discrimination in their home countries.
On Tuesday, she contacted the office of Gender Equality Minister Marci Ien about the executive order’s implications for people in this country. She also wants Ottawa to issue a travel advisory for gender-diverse Canadians thinking of visiting the U.S., including safety warnings.
Ms. Johnstone, who said she is visiting the U.S. in March and doesn’t know if her passport will be accepted at the border, said that “there is a need for clarity.”
She called for Canada to create a special carve-out in the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States, to allow transgender people who came to that country to escape persecution to be allowed to seek a safe haven here.
Under the agreement, most people who come to a Canadian border post and claim asylum are sent back to the U.S., because it has been regarded as a safe place to live.
Ms. Johnstone, executive director of Queer Momentum, said rights for gender-diverse people are also under fire in this country and expressed concern that American ideology is seeping into the Canadian public sphere.
“Our community is already scared,” she said, adding that there has been an increase in suicides among gender-diverse people in the U.S.
Avi Kuttner, who is transgender, said the White House executive order is “quite absurd” and “states things about biological fact that are in fact anything but.”
The order says that “gender identity” reflects a “subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex” and “does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.”
The former Green Party interim leader said that “Canada should be a safe haven for trans and non-binary people needing to flee the U.S. and anyone who fled there as well – not just for 2SLGBTQIA+ people but everyone else set to be affected by this new administration.
“I don’t see how Canada keeps the Safe Third Country Agreement for the U.S. going forward,” they said.
The office of Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the issue.