Transport Canada

Blog 5

            In July 2011, transport Canada placed a new regulation which states " an air carrier shall not transport a passenger who does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents" (Gollom & Engelhardt, 2012). 

            This new regulation posted by transport Canada places transgender, and transsexual people into a discriminated population by Canadian airlines."Transport Canada allows transsexual and transgendered people to travel if they arrive with a medical certificate,and they don't understand that for many trans people, surgery is either unwanted or too expensive. In these cases, a medical certificate is not an option."(The Conservatives, 2012).

I can have an understanding of both the pro's and the con's of this regulation. The pro's include an attempt at making it more difficult for terrorists or fugitives to board a plane under false disguise. I think this pro of the regulation is a desperate grasp fro transport Canada to feel like they are doing something productive. The cons, to me, are very obvious. Segregating an already oppressed and stigmatized group under the presumption that they must be criminals.  I recently wrote a blog on the process of sexual reassignment surgery, and I learned that an individual identifying as a transsexual must first become labelled with a DSM diagnosis before they can consider the procedure. Transport Canada's new regulation now adds to this humiliation and degradation put upon these individuals by not only saying something is wrong with them, but now they are also criminals.

            In my last blog I also wrote about a two year waiting period, where an individual must live life as the preferred sex at all times in order to be considered for the surgery.  The regulation not allowing people who appear as a gender not indicated on their identification would prevent people in this category from accessing air transportation. The implications that this causes is horrendous. First, we state that transsexuals are sick, and have a mental illness, next , we place them in the same category as criminals, and now we begin to take away basic rights that are afforded to most other Canadians. What's next? How can we ever expect to overcome, and create safe spaces for people when we are continually degrading, labeling, avoiding, and hurting specific groups of peoples?"There has been substantially increased visibility of LGBT issues in public discourse and in popular culture in recent years" (Almeida, Johnson, Corliss, Molnar, & Azrael, 2009), and with this increased attention, issues within our system can be identified and changed.

Almeida, J., Johnson, R, M., Corliss, H,L., Molnar, B, E., Azrael, D. (2009). Emotional distress among LGBT Youth: The influence of perceived discrimination based on sexual orientation. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 38, 1001-1014. doi: 10.1007/s10964-009-9397-9
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Gollom, M, & Englehardt, J. (2012, February 2). Are transgender Canadians being             banned from boarding flights. CBCnews. Retrieved from                http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/02/02/transgender-airline-screening.html  

The Conservatives. (2012, February 2). States News Service. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA278770054&v=2.1&u=saul58289&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

Larissa C