Transgender People Banned from Flying in Canada?

Unfortunately, it seems that the Ministry of Transportation has updated the Identity Screening Regulations and banned trans people from flying on their airlines. The updates came into July 27th 2011, but have only recently been discovered by trans rights supporters. I guess nobody usually reads those types of long, boring documents. Well, one blogger finally did and found that this was recently added to the regulations:

5.2 (1) An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if …
(c) the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents;

This is absolutely insane! I can't even think of a reason why this would be a rule. This is as blatantly discriminatory as making Black people use a different water fountain. It is no surprise that the Minister of Transportation, who is ultimately responsible for this, is a part of Harper's conservative government.

Denis Lebel - Harper's right hand man?

I was happy to hear that my own MP Olivia Chow created a motion to amend this discriminatory regulation, but of course the conservatives shot this down. According to a statement from Denis Lebel's camp, this rule is necessary  "to ensure security and are applied in the same way to all passengers irrespective of their gender.". Hmm... seems more like the complete opposite of that: Clearly only passengers who's official gender on their passport does not match their appearance will be affected by this hateful rule.

Olivia Chow says it best: “If your face matched the photo on your identification, then what does it matter whether you’re male, female, gay, straight, transgender. This is discriminatory.”

For the latest on this story, check out Mississauga Trans-Activist Christin Milloy's blog:
http://chrismilloy.ca/2012/01/transgender-people-are-completely-banned-from-boarding-airplanes-in-canada/

Or Tabitha Southey's op-ed from this past Saturday's Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/tabatha-southey/gender-offender-this-airport-rule-promotes-prejudice-not-security/article2326299/