Against human rights violations of apparently gender variant children and adults

May 24,2008


To the Honourable George Smitherman, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care for Ontario


(La version franзaise de cette pйtition est sur: http://www.intersexualite.org/CAMH.html )

(Para leer esta peticiуn en castellano: http://www.intersexualite.org/CAMH.html )

(For the petition in other languages see: http://www.intersexualite.org/CAMH.html )


Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care - [email protected]
Suite M1-57, Macdonald Block
900 Bay Street
Toronto ON M7A 1R3
Canada


We, the undersigned, express our sincere concern regarding human rights violations and the lack of appropriate health care for children and adults living in Ontario who are intersex and/or alleged to be gender variant. We also express or concern regarding the impact that Ontario is having on the care of self-identified transsexual people and of intersex people worldwide.

Whereas the American Psychological Association has repeatedly condemned any types of therapy to alter sexual orientation and has denounced such treatments as unethical. The American Psychiatric Association has assented to this same position,

Whereas the CAMH and its servants persistently conflate sexual orientation and gender issues as well as practice forementioned condemned treatments on gender recalcitrant children,

Whereas K. Zucker and R. Blanchard are renowned worldwide for their disrespect of queer people, harmful self-serving antiquated theories of sexual and gender identity disorders and for their abusive treatment protocols,

Whereas Zucker, Blanchard and CAMH are involved in intersex issues and support early surgical assignments, use stigmatizing terminology and have manifestly failed to discourage intersex infant and child genital mutilation,

Whereas the use of traditional anatomical criteria has sometimes resulted in an unforeseen harmful iatrogenic assignment of a medical sex to a neonate - in contrast with assignment of, and raising in, the other sex which would have resulted in a happier and better adjusted child. And whereas iatrogenic sex assignment of this kind is going uncorrected and so eventually results in an adult or adolescent who self-identifies as transsexual.

We, the undersigned, affirm that for the above reasons intersex and gender recalcitrant children and adults in Ontario have been denied human rights and denied equality with other Ontarians in matters of health care.

We therefore oppose the continued existence of sexual and gender psychology practice at the CAMH.

We further call for the dismissal of the costly and unhelpful practitioners K. Zucker and R. Blanchard.

We further call for an end to all treatment based on discouragement of self-expression in gender recalcitrant children.

We further call for treatment of self-identified transsexual adults and adolescents to be based on immediate correction of their iatrogenic initial sex assignment promptly followed by voluntary same-sex (not transsexual) somatic treatments in the corrected medical assigned sex.

We further call for the establishment of common waiting lists and diagnoses whenever transsexual and non-transsexual people are to have substantially the same treatment for substantially the same reasons, for example gynaecomastia surgery in transsexual men and in non-transsexual men alike.

We further call for an end to the holding of somatic treatment for self-identified transsexual people hostage to their consenting to psychological and/or psychiatric treatments, since those have been shown to be ineffective or worse. In lieu, a pre-treatment non-specialist psychiatric clearance for absence of morbid psychopathology is suggested.

And therefore we call on the honourable minister to make his mark in history and discharge his duties by courageously and forthrightly implementing these reforms set forth above to the great immediate benefit of the people of Ontario and, in due course, to all of mankind.