At first glance the Government of Alberta’s glowing news release seemed fairly groundbreaking: an amendment was made to the Vital Statistics Information Regulation allowing trans-identified Albertans to change their gender identity on government identification with greater ease. But Jan Buterman the executive director of the Trans Equality Society of Alberta (TESA) isn’t convinced it’s a game-changer yet.
“I wish I could tell you” he says. “It’s hard to say as the province hasn’t actually released the regulation. So we don’t know what it actually says.”
Adding to the oddness of the release was that the original — released on the afternoon of Friday February 20 — contained the phrase “will need a single affidavit from an accredited physician or psychologist” a statement that immediately caught Buterman’s attention. The process to gain such a document is difficult in the best of circumstances. TESA posted something about it on Twitter. Within two hours the government sent out a revised news release.
“Where TESA remains concerned is assuming the revised version of the media release is correct it is still requiring that you have a medical professional’s opinion [though not a legal document] before you’re allowed to get something that you need to function in modern society” he says. “It’s troubling. There are roles for medical professionals in the case of trans people. But is there any legitimate reason having one type of body over another would somehow impact your ability to drive a motor vehicle? Essentially that’s what this appears to be suggesting: somehow there’s a rational connection.”
