Canadian Air Travel Regulation Changes Concern Trans People On Both Sides Of The Border

Air travel is a stressful enough situation for trans people to endure, especially when we have combinations of identity documents that may or may not match our current gender presentations for various reasons.  

Mercedes Allen has a post up at her Dented Blue Mercedes blog which comments about a Canadian regulatory change in the Aeronautics Act pushed through by Harper government ministerial fiat that may affect the trans communities on both sides of our shared border.  

The air travel regulation change  happened July 29.  It has trans Canadians concerned and has the potential to cause problems for transpeople of other nations either flying to, from or transiting Canada if they possess documents that don't reflect their gender presentation.

Sec 5.2(1)(c) of the ID screening regs of Aeronautics Act "An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents."



Hmm.  That's problematic to say the least.   What if you're from a province that will not allow you to change gender markers on your ID without surgery?   The Canadian government also will not allow you to change the gender marker on your passport without proof of surgical reassignment or a letter guaranteeing you will undergo SRS within a year..

So in a nutshell, our Canadian transpeeps in that mismatched gender marker situation are effectively banned from flying on airplanes inside or out of their nation.

There are also a few US states that will not allow you to change the gender marker on ID without proof of SRS either, but that is mitigated somewhat by the State Department regulations allowing us to obtain United States passports with the correct gender marker without surgical intervention.  

The regulation's unintended (?) discriminatory consequences needs to be pointed out to Transport Canada.

2012 Team USA Women's Olympic Soccer Watch- Clean Sheet To Title

The highly anticipated showdown between the USA and Canada for the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying tournament championship last night had a disappointing result for much of the record pro-Canadian sellout crowd of 25,427 at BC Place Stadium.

It was another dominating day at the office for Team USA, another USA win on Canadian soil and their third straight CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying tournament title with the 4-0 win.

It didn't take Team USA long to get on the scoreboard as Alex Morgan scored her first goal of the evening only four minutes into the first half.  Abby Wambach followed it up with a pair of goals in the 24th and 28th minutes to propel the FIFA number one ranked squad to a comfortable 3-0 halftime lead.  Morgan contributed another goal in the 56th minute as the USA kept up the pressure on their northern neighbors all night.    

The win allowed the USA to complete this CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament without giving up a goal while blistering opposing nets 38 times in five matches.  It also increased their record to 5-0-1 in matches played against Canada on their side of the border.

Shoot, save some of that firepower for London.  

Can't wait until the chase for the Olympic threepeat starts in July..

2012 Team USA Women's Olympic Soccer Watch- USA vs Canada Final

The only thing that was settled on Friday night were which two teams were going to represent CONCACAF in the upcoming Olympic women's soccer tournament.   There's still a little matter of determining who will win this 2012 Olympic Qualifying tournament

As the experts and fans predicted before it started, the final will be contested between the FIFA world number one ranked USA squad and the FIFA world number seven ranked homegirls from Canada.

They faced each other in the 2008 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying finals and it took a penalty kick shootout to decide it.   They also faced each other in the Beijing Olympic quarterfinals with the USDA emerging victorious in that instance and know that they will probably see each other again in London.

It's probably going to be just as tight in this one.   Team USA scored 34 goals in this tournament while Canada only gave up two while scoring 16.   Nine of them were courtesy of the tournament's leading scorer in Christine Sinclair.



Who said they didn't have anything to play for?  Team USA has never lost a match on Canadian soil, has played Canada five times north of the border and is 4-0-1.  

The fun will be televised on NBC Sports Network starting at 7 PM CST and looking forward to an exciting a closely contested game. 

CONCACAF 2012 Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament Starts Today

I mentioned it at the conclusion of the FIFA Women's World Cup tournament last year that Canada would host the CONCAFAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will decide which two teams from our region punch their tickets to London.

The fun starts at the newly renovated BC Place Stadium in Vancouver later today as eight teams begin play to determine who will be in the championship match on January 29 and ultimately in the Olympic Games Women's Tournament.

The eight competing teams in Vancouver will be placed in two groups and the draw shook out like this:

Group A:  Canada, Haiti, Cuba, Costa Rica
Group B:  Guatemala, Dominican Republic, USA, Mexico

Top two teams in Group play make it to the semifinal round on January 27 with the semifinal survivors qualifying for London and playing for the CONCAFAF tournament title.

The teams getting the two available CONCAFAF berths will join host nation and FIFA number 8 ranked Great Britain, FIFA World Cup champion and number 3 ranked Japan, FIFA number 9 ranked North Korea, FIFA number 4 ranked Brazil, Colombia, FIFA number 6 ranked France, FIFA number 5 ranked Sweden, South Africa, Cameroon (who knocked off Nigeria's Super Phobes) and one more nation from Oceania (possibly New Zealand) to round out the 12 team Olympic tournament.field

The three teams to watch in this tournament are the homestanding Canadians, Mexico and the two time defending Olympic champion USA who has also won the last two CONCAFAF Olympic qualifying tournaments and are working on an Olympic threepeat.. 

The FIFA number one ranked USA in the 2004 final knocked off Mexico 3-2 and in the 2008 final beat Canada 6-5 on penalty kicks after the match concluded in a 1-1 draw.

In November 2010 CONCAFAF champ Canada beat Mexico for the title in qualifying for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup after Mexico upset the USA 2-1 in the semis to claim the other World Cup auto qualifying berths   Team USA was forced to win the third place game against Costa Rica and then beat Italy in a two leg playoff just to qualify for the 2011 World Cup..

Team USA coach Pia Sundhage is bringing the same squad that finished as the World Cup runners up in Germany minus two players since you're only allowed 20 on the roster  The one they added however is Vancouver born UCLA standout Sydney Leroux. 

FIFA number 21 ranked Mexico wants to prove that the November 2010 loss they saddled the USA with in Cancun wasn't a fluke and they'll get their chance on January 24.  Assuming everything shakes out as expected it'll be a Group B finale that will probably determine who wins the group and who faces the runner up team from Group A.    

The FIFA seventh ranked Canadians have a new coach after their disappointing showing in Germany but are still just as determined to put a dent in the US soccer domination of them.

They also wish to continue the positive direction of their program in advance of their nation hosting the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.  

The USA's last loss to Canada was ten years ago and in compiling a 41-3-4 record against our northern neighbors have never lost a match on Canadian soil.
 

While pundits are expecting a Canada-USA final on January 29, there are six other national teams in Vancouver who have Olympic dreams as well and would like nothing better than to take down one of the favorites and punch their own tickets to London. 

The Canadians open up Group A play today with Haiti with Cuba taking on  Costa Rica in the other contest.  The USA opens Group B play tomorrow with the Dominican Republic and Mexico takes on Guatemala.

If the favorites slip up by taking an underdog team for granted or one of the underdog teams gets hot at the right time, anything can happen. 


But one thing is certain.   There will only be two teams representing CONCAFAF at the London Olympics when this qualifying tournament is concluded.  The rest will be going home bitterly disappointed and in a few months watching the Olympic women's football tournament on television and waiting to try again to qualify when the Games come to Rio in 2016.