Indigenous Canadian Nation Sets Up Gender-Affirming Care Haven
It comes after the province passed a law banning gender-affirming care for trans youth.
A Canadian Indigenous group First Nations community has announced it has established a safe haven for gender-affirming health care.
The Saddle Lake Cree Nation, in Alberta, says that the right to such care is established on a treaty made between the Canadian government and Indigenous groups in 1876. It is interpreted by Indigenous communities as a guarantee of health care, according to Global News
“All children, including trans and two-spirit children and their family, will have safety under our treaty,” Saddle Lake Chief Dale Steinhauer said on Wednesday, the outlet reports.
Alberta’s government under its conservative Premier Danielle Smith passed a law last year that bans doctors from prescribing gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to trans and nonbinary youth under 16, the outlet reports.
Smith said that the law is meant to help children and their fertility, CBC News reports.
Steinhauer said the move is about protecting children and upholding their rights to health care.
“No longer will our children and families have their rights taken away,” she said, according to the outlet. “When one group’s rights are removed, we are all affected.”
Some politicians have celebrated the move.
“I commend Saddle Lake Cree Nation for following the evidence, science, and traditional teachings in providing inclusive barrier-free access to gender-affirming care for youth and families,” said Alberta Senator Kristopher Wells. “Access to essential health care services without discrimination is a fundamental Charter and human right.”
According to CBC, the nation said it’s working to get doctors who provide gender-affirming care set up on reserve land and is also raising money to fight potential legal challenges.
Dr. James Makokis, a two-spirit family doctor from the nation, said the move was necessary.
“That is a public health emergency that has to stop,” Makokis said. “When there’s a threat to the buffalo calves in the herd, all of the adult buffalo form a circle around those young ones, because they’re the next generation.”
The province has also passed other anti-trans laws targeting youth, including a ban on trans athletes 12 and older from girls sports and requiring parental consent for those under 16 to change their names or pronouns in school.
