Third sex option a ‘huge step in the correct direction’, says Iqaluit activist
Vital Statistics Act amendments approved Wednesday by MLAs
Catherine Lightfoot, left, and Del Drachenberg organize Iqaluit’s Rainbow Rally for Equality in August 2024. Drachenberg applauds a recent amendment to the Vital Statistics Act to include non-binary identity. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
A new law allowing Nunavummiut to select non-binary as an option for sex designation on birth certificates is an “essential step toward dignity, equality and inclusion,” says Jasmine Oldham, administrator of Amautiit Nunavut Inuit Women’s Association.
The updated Vital Statistics Act, which passed Wednesday, adds “non-binary” as an option for people who do not identify as male or female.
“This change affirms the rights of gender-diverse people and reflects Inuit values of respect and community,” said Oldham.
“We urge the Government of Nunavut to ensure accessibility, education, and safety so that this recognition is meaningful for all.”
Nothing has changed yet, however.
The non-binary option will be publicly available to Nunavummiut in 12 to 18 months, estimates Charmaine Deogracias, communications manager with the Department of Health.
“Several regulatory frameworks, some of which are new and others that require amendments, must be finalized before this provision can be enacted,” she said.
Nunavut is the final jurisdiction in Canada to approve the non-binary option on its birth certificates.
“Many non-binary people do not feel like a man or a woman, so they would prefer to be identified as something other than that,” said transgender and two-spirit activist Delaney Drachenberg, of Iqaluit.
Indigenous people who identify as two-spirit may not feel represented by the limits of a male/female choice, Drachenberg added, and intersex individuals — those born with male and female sex characteristics or who develop both sex characteristics during puberty — also may not feel represented.
There is room for more sex options, Drachenberg said, but in the meantime, “it’s definitely a huge step in the correct direction.”
“It’s wonderful and I love it,” Drachenberg said. “But there are people who might still feel dissatisfied with it, and I believe that those people deserve a voice in the conversations.”
Parliament enacted Bill C-16 in June 2017, creating legal protections for “gender identity” and “gender expression” in the Canadian Human Rights Act, and expanded Criminal Code protections against hate propaganda.
Sexual orientation was added as a prohibited grounds for discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act in 1996. The enactment of the Civil Marriage Act in 2005 permitted same-sex couples to be married anywhere in Canada.
More than 70 countries still criminalize consensual same-sex conduct, including a dozen countries that impose the death penalty or potential death penalty for engaging in consensual same-sex sexual acts.
A baby can not be a third option. By a certain age, go ahead and change it, but please dont put non-binary option for a new born.
Surely a birth certificate can only be changed once a person is of the age of majority (19) or … I grudgingly accept … With parental consent before then. Can a parent select something other than a baby’s obvious gender?
Daron Letts should have been more informative about this critical timing aspect.
Why should I ever tell the government my baby’s sex? They can when they are adults if they want to
Doctors record whatever sex they notice when a baby is born (some people call this assignment, though that seems like an odd framing), based on obvious traits. At what point does an individual “report it to the government”?
Apparently a doctors scientifc expertise no longer matters as science has somehow evolved (devolved) into a feelings-based liberal art.
I’m so proud of the MLAs and community members who advocated and supported this positive change. Thank goodness we are now in line with the rest of Canada and those of any gender expression know they have a place here too! We love you!
Until someone shows me scientifically backed proof, it’s hard to believe there’s such a thing as a “third sex”. As Pierre Poilievre said recently, “I’m only familiar with two sexes”.
Friendly reminder that Pierre Poilievre voted against legalizing same sex marriage in 2005, and also has an openly gay father.
Your ignorance is as embarrassing as it is astounding, that you’d want to agree with a man that stood in the way of us Queer folk wanting to have the same rights as cisgender folk.
Why have GENDER as a field on Birth Certificates or any other type of identification? Is it needed?
Also gender is no longer a distinction among humans – as there are nearly infinite types of gender and gender is mutable
This is the crux of what I see as the problem with this law. Oddly few people have acknowledged or addressed this, and I can’t help but wonder if the ‘real’ questions are being censored.
Non-binary is a term that refers to gender, not sex. The designation on a birth certificate refers to sex, not gender. To me it seems this law doesn’t make sense.
What am I missing?
You are correct in noticing that gender usually isn’t on government documentation AFAIK, but instead we have sex, and the two are separate. However, people generally tend to link both sex and gender, which is very discomforting to non-binary people to always be misgendered as a man or a woman, and so the change is just to help those who see the document in say, applications for passports, interactions with state officials, and so on know the person’s gender. At least, that’s how I see things as a non-binary person, so yeah.
Pure nonsense, there are only 2 & always will only be 2 genders, woman or man, male or female .Plain & simple. Blows me away to see how ignorant the human species can be at times.
Used to be you can hunt or sew, you won’t survive. Boo
Maybe someone who is not sure which they are – or sure they are both – will both sew and hunt? How great that would be!
There is no third gender in the Bible. Where did our morals disappear to?
There is a lot of immoral stuff in the bible. You should read the book!