MLAs pledge support for LGBT community as Health P.E.I. updates gender-affirming surgery policy

Members of the P.E.I. Legislative Assembly have unanimously pledged to express "unreserved support" to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and urge government to ensure stable funding to allied groups and improved access to gender-affirming care.

The vote came after Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker and MLA Karla Bernard put forward a motion on the topic.

"We all need to become better allies, and to be sincere and willing leaders in this and the change we want to see," Bevan-Baker said.

"We have to listen up, then we have to show up, we have to speak up, we have to lift up, and we have to ante up."

Bernard said people in the transgender community need better financial support and gender-affirming care that is now available only off-Island.

Health P.E.I. has approved a new policy that would expand the number of gender-affirming surgeries covered by the province, but it's up to the provincial cabinet to decide whether that policy will result in action.

A spokesperson for the agency told CBC News in an email that details on the new policy couldn't be shared "due to cabinet confidentiality."

But the agency confirmed the new policy would "broaden the scope of what is considered medically necessary surgeries to increase access to more services, including out-of-province surgical procedures."

Health P.E.I. also confirmed what the group Gender Affirming Care P.E.I. (GACPEI) has claimed: that an internal government review concluded the province's existing gender-affirming surgery policy, dating back to 2019, is "at odds with peer-reviewed scientific evidence and accepted standard medical practices."

Jocelyn Adams, co-founder of GACPEI, said a review was conducted by the province's interministerial women's secretariat after her group raised concerns about the policy being out of date "and enforcing a male/masculine gender bias."

The results of that review have not been made public. But Adams said the new policy includes standards "supported by the Canadian Medical Association as well as the Medical Society of P.E.I., so we hope that the political process does not interfere too much with the delivery of this health care."

Wednesday's motion came two months after a recording of Premier Dennis King speaking to a constituent during the spring election campaign became public. When the constituent raised the topic of trans issues, King could be heard saying: "You don't gotta drive everything down everybody's throat."

Around that time, a drag storytime event scheduled for the Kings Playhouse in Georgetown had to be postponed because of online hate toward the performer.

King later apologized for the remarks captured on tape, but Pride P.E.I. nonetheless effectively banned all politicians from taking part in the Island's annual Pride Parade.