Rule changes allow hundreds to update their gender on N.S. identification
CBC
A steadily increasing number of Nova Scotians are electing to change their gender markers on provincial identification.
An anonymized list shows 709 Nova Scotians were approved for changes from the beginning of 2007 to May of this year.
"To look at some of those documents with the proper gender marker is a real moment of euphoria," said Shae Morse, who changed their gender marker in 2019.
"It's actually quite hard to describe what that feels like, when you had to deal with a gender marker that doesn't fit for most of your life."
Before 2015, Nova Scotians needed to have gender-confirming surgery and letters from two health professionals to switch their gender marker from 'F' to 'M' or vice versa.
"There were numerous barriers to getting your gender marker updated," said Allison Smith, who helped lead community consultations on gender amendments to the province's Vital Statistics Act.
"This was a daunting experience to go through," she said. "To have to go to medical offices, get those letters of confirmation, and in some cases, beg for those letters of confirmation."
These challenges are reflected by the statistics. From 2007 until the legislation was amended in 2015, only 39 people were successful in changing their gender markers, an average of 4.3 people a year.
Smith says she heard stories of transgender people being challenged when buying a bottle of wine at a government liquor store.
"A cashier notices that your gender doesn't seem to align with how you express yourself in the world, and then the person is getting asked intrusive questions about their body parts," Smith said.
Then in 2015, the province dropped the prerequisite for gender-confirming surgery, and required only one professional confirmation letter.
The next year, 131 people changed their designations, with an average of 90.4 approvals per year until 2019.
Smith says the immediate rush confirmed what she heard from transgender people during her public consultations.
"It was absolutely legislation," Smith said.