Arwyn Jordan R. criticizes Quebec for delaying allowing transgender and non-binary individuals to use the X option on common forms of ID.
After a protracted process that culminated in an out-of-court settlement with the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec, Arwyn Jordan R. was finally able to change the gender marker on their driver’s license to X. A female identity commission established by the government in 2023 will need to produce a report before other trans and non-binary Quebecers who want to use the X marker on IDs can do so. Pierre Obendrauf, a photographer from the Montreal Gazette, captured the image.
Arwyn Jordan R. just became the first Quebecer to successfully change their gender indicator on their driver’s license to X years after starting the process.
If Arwyn hadn’t been the only Quebecer with the marker on their license until at least 2025, the occasion would have been cause for celebration.
“If I’m the only one who can obtain one, what good is that?” They mentioned Wednesday.
Following a protracted process that culminated in an out-of-court deal with the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec, Arwyn was granted the new license. A female identity commission established by the government in 2023 will need to produce a report before other trans and non-binary Quebecers who want to use the X marker on IDs can do so.
“For me, that’s really unacceptable,” Arwyn remarked. “Why should I be the only person in Quebec to receive an ID that accurately describes who I am, and no other non-binary person gets that right? That doesn’t sit well with me at all.”
The Directeur de l’état civil, which authorized office controller and trans activist Celeste Trianon referred to as the first step in correcting names and gender markers on all forms of identification, allows Quebecers to alter their acts of birth to include an X indicator. That ability is the result of Judge Gregory Moore’s Superior Court ruling, which invalidated portions of the Civil Code he believed to be biased against transgender people in 2021. According to Moore’s opinion, Quebec may do away with all gender-related bias on official records.
The federal government has made the option available on citizenship documents, documents, and permanent resident cards since 2019, and transgender and non-binary people can use the X symbol on documents like birth and marriage certificates as a result of Moore’s ruling.
However, none of these options are the types of ID that are generally shown when necessary, according to Trianon.
“Who actually carries a passport around? And who is carrying a birth document around?” she remarked. “Every time someone needs to provide their ID and their sex marker does not suit who they are, it is an attack on their dignity and creates a vicious cycle that merely hurts all the trans and non-binary people who feel that M or F is the best representation of them.”
It is crucial to keep in mind that Judge Gregory Moore’s ruling only invalidated the legal status-related provisions of the Civil Code, according to a spokeswoman for Quebec’s Justice Minister.
“The reach of the decision is thus limited to acts of legal status,” said Catherine Pelletier.
Trianon remarked, “The government here is going completely against the nature of past legal views.”
“Let’s not forget that transgender people are people, and that they deserve to be respected in society for their identity and respect.”
In the meantime, the Quebec Human Rights Commission is pleading with the provincial government to permit anyone who requests it “in line with changes now in effect in the legal status” to use the X marker.
“The legal recognition of non-binary gender identities constitutes a significant step forward in respecting the rights guaranteed by the Charter to transgender people and nonbinary people, as well as to all people,” stated the commission’s director Halimatou Bah in an email.
Every other Canadian province offers an X sex symbol option on standard forms of ID. Since 2017, Ontario has offered the option for driver’s licenses. Additionally, it completely removed the part from its health cards, which human rights attorney Julius Grey described as a reasonable choice for American IDs in the modern era.
“Does gender play any role in determining a person’s identity? A person must be correctly identified, but if you have a picture and all the necessary information, such as their birthdate and other details, you can identify them,” said Grey.
“I believe that more and more, Western societies are giving less weight to things and letting people choose who they are. We can do the same thing (with gender) as we have generally done with things like race, religion, and other things.”
Jennifer Maccarone, a Liberal MNA for Westmount—St. Louis and spokesperson for LGBTQ2+ issues, denounced Quebec’s inconsistency in response to the news of his license on X (previously known as Twitter).
-Louis. Photo by CLAUDE MATHIEU; handout
She claimed that “We are the only province in Canada that forbids the use of the X marker on identity documents.” “Yet we still made it a law.” It is not typical to break the population into two groups: one with more than 8.5 million residents and the other with only one.
Before proceeding with any requests to change the mention of the sex on the vehicle’s license to the “X,” the SAAQ, according to spokesperson Gino Desrosiers, “will wait to hear the Quebec gender committee’s conclusions.”
In an effort to “make our future choices in a more informed way,” according to Pelletier, the committee was established to gather more data on the topic of gender identity in Quebec and abroad.
“The state will be more and more required to make decisions regarding the reality of trans and non-binary people,” Pelletier said. “These are delicate matters that call for careful consideration.”
However, the committee has now come under fire in part because it lacks transgender or non-binary people.
According to Arwyn, it is intolerable for someone’s right to identity to depend on an investigation committee.
“You don’t have the right to an identity because there’s something about you that some people just don’t understand,” said a small group of our society members. “You are not allowed to establish your identity, your life is in question, and your rights are up for negotiation.”
“That is not a world that we want to live in, in my opinion.”
