Which province or territory has the most comprehensive coverage for gender-affirming healthcare?

The Yukon territory’s coverage for gender-affirming healthcare is arguably the most comprehensive and includes upper and lower surgeries, facial surgeries, body contouring, voice feminizing surgery, hair removal, and voice and communication training. British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario offer coverage for a range of

, including those involving the genitals, the reproductive organs and the chest or breasts. They also offer coverage of 

, specifically mastectomies. However, they do not fund interventions such as hair removal and facial surgeries.

Gender-affirming healthcare access 

Are all Canadian businesses required to have anti-discrimination policies protecting 2SLGBTQI employees?

In Canada, the protection of 2SLGBTQI rights in the workplace is largely governed by federal, provincial, and territorial human rights codes. While these codes prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, not all businesses are explicitly required to have distinct anti-discrimination policies in place. In the absence of such policies and awareness of human rights codes, enforcement of anti-discrimination laws is inconsistent. This highlights the need for continuous advocacy to bridge these gaps and ensure protection for all 2SLGBTQI individuals in their places of work.

Anti-discrimination in the workplace 

True or False? Canada's 2SLGBTQI asylum process mirrors Sweden's streamlined and empathetic approach, offering specialized training for officials, emphasizing personal interviews, and ensuring that refugee claimants' unique challenges and stories are heard and understood correctly.

When it comes to the asylum process for 2SLGBTQI individuals, Canada can still learn from other countries. While Canada does grant asylum based on sexual orientation and gender identity persecution, the process can be cumbersome, often requiring extensive proof of persecution, which can be traumatic for the applicants. Canada has the opportunity to refine its processes, ensuring that 2SLGBTQI individuals seeking asylum find a truly safe and understanding haven.

2SLGBTQI asylum in Canada 

Are the adoption rights of 2SLGBTQI couples equal to those of heterosexual couples in Canada?

When it comes to adoption, 2SLGBTQI couples in Canada enjoy the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts. This means there are no federal restrictions based on the sexual or gender identity of prospective adoptive parents.

Recognizing the capability of 2SLGBTQI couples to provide loving homes to children aligns with Canada's commitment to human rights and equality. The Rainbow Canada Index underscores the importance of ensuring that 2SLGBTQI people have the same family rights as others.

Despite this, gaps in reproductive rights persist. 

Adoption rights for 2SLGBTQI parents 

True or false? A country with a single-chamber Parliament of 65 seats has more 2SLGBTQI rights protections than Canada, and its bicameral system of 443 seats.

Despite its smaller size and single-chamber Parliament of 65 seats, Malta has managed to enact more extensive 2SLGBTQI rights protections than Canada and tops the list of the Rainbow Europe index.

2SLGBTQI rights and protections in Canada 

True or False? New Brunswick was the first province in Canada to create a policy requiring that parental consent be obtained before students can use preferred names and pronouns at school.

In 2023, New Brunswick’s Policy 713 was changed to require parental consent for transgender or non-binary students under the age of 16 to use a preferred name or pronouns at school. 2SLGBTQI rights’ organizations across Canada have joined in legal challenges to the policy change, including (but not limited to) the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Egale, and the New Brunswick Teachers’ Federation.

Gender-affirmation in schools 

When were gender identity and expression added to the Canadian Human Rights Act?

The Canadian Human Rights Act protects against discrimination in the federal government, First Nations governments, and federally regulated employers, like telecommunications companies and banks. Other anti-discrimination protections fall under the responsibility of provinces and territories. While these protections are fundamentally important, there is still much work to be done to ensure that action is taken to enforce them, not to mention work to build more safety and inclusion beyond merely prohibiting discrimination.

Gender in the Canadian Human Rights Act 

So-called conversion “therapy” is a practice aiming to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity. Is conversion therapy banned in Canada?

Conversion “therapy,” which is criticized for being both harmful and ineffective (i.e., not therapeutic), is a crime in Canada as of January 2022. This law was the result of years of advocacy on the part of 2SLGBTQI community leaders and conversion therapy survivors. Although the law is clear—conversion therapy is incompatible with Canadian values—there is more work to be done. We need to educate young people to affirm their 2SLGBTQI identities, and we need to support survivors of conversion therapy to recover and seek justice.

Though Canada shines in this regard, it remains crucial to continuously advocate for these rights and ensure that policies are not only in place but also practiced without discrimination at all levels.

Conversion therapy in Canada 

True or false? 2SLGBTQI parents have the same legal rights and responsibilities as cisgender heterosexual parents in Canada.

Not all provinces and territories have parentage laws, which means that not all families have the same legal rights and protections. This can be especially inequitable for 2SLGBTQI people who often rely upon sperm/ova donors, surrogates, and other methods to conceive a child. For example, there is no parentage law in Manitoba, and in some provinces and territories, intended parents must go to court to adopt a child if they are not biologically related. Even in provinces with parentage law reforms, 2SLGBTQI parents who deviate from the nuclear family norm face risks and discrimination.

2SLGBTQI parental rights and responsibilities 

Following Malta’s prohibition of non-consensual medical interventions for intersex minors in 2015, Canada implemented its own federal ban in 2019. True or false?

Intersex rights have gained international attention over the years, particularly concerning non-consensual surgeries performed on intersex infants, which can have lifelong consequences.

Canada does not have a federal law explicitly banning such procedures on intersex infants. Instead, the decisions are often left to medical professionals and parents without specific regulatory guidelines. This means that surgeries can occur based on cultural or societal norms rather than the infant's best medical interests.

 about policies and laws in place to support gender recognition and bodily integrity. 

The Rainbow Challenge