Nova Scotia To Cover GRS Surgeries

More evidence of the positive karmic momentum wave that trans human rights is on north of the 49th parallel.

After first saying they wouldn't cover GRS surgeries in the provincial health plan in the wake of passing trans human rights legislation in the province citing fiscal issues, after reviewing medical evidence and a chat with NSRAP, Nova Scotia's provincial health minister David Wilson reversed that decision and said they would do so.

With that decision Nova Scotia becomes the eight Canadian province to provide funding for genital realignment surgeries.

Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan are the others that offer varying levels of funding for GRS.   

Kevin Kindred, the chairman of the Rainbow Action Project, said he’s pleased Nova Scotia reversed its stance because for some people, the surgeries are medically necessary for mental health.

“This is the best and most effective method to return transgendered people to a good state of medical health,” Kindred said. "They’ll go from being a drain on the health system … to being positive, contributing members of society.”

Wilson said the province will “move as quickly as it can” to set up standards of care and negotiate funding levels for the treatment, adding that the section of the physician’s manual that prohibits funding for the surgery will be immediately removed. 

The Health Department will begin researching whether there are medical professionals in Nova Scotia who can do the operations, and if not, where they can be done, he added.

Nova Scotia Passes Trans Human Rights Law!

Add Nova Scotia to the list of Canadian provinces and legislative jurisdictions that have passed trans human rights laws

According to Mercedes Allen and NSRAP, the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project, Bill 140, the Transgendered Persons Protection Act, which adds gender identity and expression to the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act unanimously passed its third reading

It not only continues the positive momentum of trans human rights legislative wins north of the 49th Parallel, it also makes Nova Scotia the fourth Canadian legislative jurisdiction after the Northwest Territories, Ontario and Manitoba to add protections to their provincial or territorial human rights laws that include gender identity and expression.  

Meanwhile the trans human rights issue is being debated in Newfoundland and Labrador and C-273, the federal Trans Rights Bill passed Second Reading on June 6 and is now in committee.

For transpeople in Nova Scotia, you received an early Christmas present this year.  I hope the rest of Canada follows suit in recognizing the human rights of trans Canadians and the need to respect and protect those human rights under their nations laws.

And congrats Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Legislature and NSRAP for getting it done.  Your southern trans cousins in the States couldn't be happier for you.

Nova Scotia's NSRAP Pushing For Trans Human Rights

With Ontario passing Toby's Act  and becoming the first Canadian province to protect the human rights of its trans citizens, Manitoba swiftly following suit and the Trans Right Bills C-276 and C-279 making their way through the Canadian Parliament at the federal level, a group of activists in Nova Scotia thinks the time is right to push for similar legislation in their province.


The Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project (NSRAP) with the support of Halifax NDP MP Megan Leslie are pushing their lawmakers to amend the province’s Human Rights Act to include the terms "gender identity" and "gender expression.”  


The NSRAP has modeled their petition on Ontario's Toby's Act, and Kevin Kindred, the chair of NSRAP said “There is political support for taking transphobia seriously and evolving human rights laws in the right way.”


MP Megan Leslie, who is a big supporter of C-279, the Randall Garrison sponsored bill that is and winding its way toward third reading, worked with the NSRAP on trans rights issues before being elected to Parliament.

"In Nova Scotia there is an incredible openness to trans rights that I don't see in other provinces," she says in an Xtra.com interview. "When we talked to the commissioners with the human rights commission, we talked about the fact that transgender people are not covered by the Human Rights Act. They fit in the margins under gender, sexuality, et cetera.  

“They were open on the fact that they would find ways to fit trans people under the prohibited grounds when they can," she recalls. “But there was a recognition that it deserved its own listing."

Yes, trans people in Nova Scotia do.  In light of what happened to Elle Noir in June 2011, and the drama over a proposed name change bill for trans people in the province that included a fingerprinting provision, it's past time that happened and trans Nova Scotians get added to the province's Human Rights Code. . 

Here's hoping that Nova Scotia becomes the third province to enact a law protecting their trans citizens and becomes the first in Atlantic Canada to do so.