check out the newest edition of the community
magazine called  Tr@nZ

This bi-monthly web magazine is free and for everyone interested
in the trans community and/or  trans advocacy.

What you'll find in this edition:

- The reform of the DSM-IV : What's the next the step ?

- Spotlight on a trans hero : The 519 Community Center

- News from here and abroad

- Gender

- Trans archives project

or download it at this web site : www.tranzmag.com

or click on this link:
Tr@nZ - Four.pdf 

[diffusez largement//forward widely]

(english version below)

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Changements importants dans la manière d’accéder aux chirurgie de réassignation sexuelle au Québec
Bulletin du Réseau Santé Trans du Québec – Janvier 2010
*******************************************

Il est venu à notre attention que le gouvernement du Québec a récemment fait apporté des changements aux façons dont les personnes transsexuelles et transgenres peuvent accéder aux chirurgie de réassignation sexuelle. Dans le passé, les personnes trans désireuses d’avoir leur interventions chirurgicales défrayées par la RAMQ (régime d’assurance santé public du Québec) devaient obtenir l’approbation de l’Unité de sexualité humaine de l’Hôpital général de Montréal. Depuis le 20 septembre 2009, la RAMQ n’est plus responsable d’administrer ces opération. Elles sont maintenant la responsabilité du Dr. Pierre Brassard à sa clinique privée et du Centre Métropolitain de Chirurgie Plastique à Montréal, à travers une entente avec le Ministère de la Santé et des Services Sociaux, le Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) et l’Agence de la Santé et des Services Sociaux (ASSS).

Le CHUM est présentement en charge des services administratifs entourant l’accès aux opérations et développera une clinique de services de santé trans qui est supposée ouvrir ses portes en juin 2010. Aucun détail quant à l’étendue de leurs services n’a été révélé jusqu’à présent. Jusqu’à ce que cette clinique verra le jour, les personnes trans désirant des opérations peuvent se présenter directement à la clinique du Dr. Brassard après avoir obtenu un rendez-vous de consultation. Le Dr. Brassard et son équipe accompagneront les patient-e-s tout au long de leurs démarches d’obtention d’interventions chirurgicales.

Ce processus comprend la prise de rendez-vous pour consultation, qui peut prendre au moins 6 mois, la présentation de lettres d’évaluations (décrites ci-dessous), l’approbation du Dr. Brassard d’avoir l’opération et prévoir une date pour cette dernière. Actuellement, les seules opérations couvertes sont la phalloplastie, la vaginoplastie, la reconstruction du torse et la métoidioplastie.

Les pré-requis nécessaires pour ces opérations sont que le ou la patient-e présente des lettres d’évaluation de la part de deux différent-e-s psychiatres, psychothérapeutes, et/ou sexologues; une lettre d’un-e docteur-e (un-e endocrinologue ou médecin de famille) qui effectue la prescription d’hormones (les hormones ne sont pas nécessaires pour la reconstruction du torse); ainsi qu’une lettre d’un-e médecin de famille qui indique que le ou la patient-e est apte à l’opération. Ces opérations sont entièrement couvertes seulement pour les résident-e-s du Québec (la résidence pour les résident-e-s permanent-e-s du Canada peut être établie après avoir habité au Québec pour une période de trois mois). Cependant, il est présentement impossible d’obtenir un remboursement pour toute opération effectuée avant septembre 2009 ainsi que celles effectuées à d’autres cliniques.

En ce moment nous n’avons pas plus d’information sur ces changements, mais nous vous encourageons à contacter l’une des organisations partenaires du Réseau de santé trans mentionnées ci-dessous si vous avez des informations additionnelles, des questions, des inquiétudes ou si vous avez besoin de soutien additionnel. Nous allons continuer à nous tenir au courant de tout changements futurs et de vous garder informé-e-s autant que possible.

POUR PLUS D’INFORMATIONS SUR LA CLINIQUE DU DR. BRASSARD
http://srsmontreal.ca

POUR PLUS D’INFORMATIONS ET RESSOURCES
Le Centre 2110 514-848-2424 x 7431
Project 10 514-989-4585
ASTT(e)Q 514-847-0067 x207
ATQ 514-254-9038
Stella 514-285-8889

*********************************************************
Important Changes to Access to Sex Reassignment Surgeries in Quebec
Québec Trans Health Network News Bulletin – January 2010
*********************************************************
It has come to our attention that the Quebec government has made some recent changes to how transsexual and transgender people can access sex reassignment surgeries (SRS). Previously, trans people desiring surgeries paid by the RAMQ (public health insurance of Quebec) were required to obtain approval for surgery through the Montreal General Hospital`s Human Sexuality Unit. As of September 20th, 2009, RAMQ no longer has responsibility for administering for these surgeries, and they are now being handled by Dr. Pierre Brassard at his private clinic, the Centre Métropolitain de Chirurgie Plastique in Montreal, through an agreement with the Ministère de la Santé et des Services Sociaux, the Centre hospitalier de l’Universite de Montreal (CHUM) and the Agence de la Santé et des Services Sociaux (ASSS).

The CHUM is currently responsible for administrative services related to surgery access, and will develop trans health clinical services scheduled to be opened in June 2010. Details of the extent of their services have not yet been disclosed. Until this clinical component is established, trans patients seeking surgery can present themselves directly to Dr. Brassard`s clinic upon scheduling an appointment for consultation. Dr. Brassard and his staff will accompany patients through the process of getting access to the surgery.

This process entails making an appointment for consultation, which may take at least 6 months, presenting letters of evaluation (described below), getting approval from Dr. Brassard to receive the surgery, and setting a date for the procedure. Currently the surgeries covered are Phalloplasty, Vaginoplasty, Chest reconstruction surgery, and Metoidioplasty.

The requirements for these surgeries are as follows: letters of evaluation from 2 different psychiatrists, psychologists, and/or sexologists; one letter from a doctor (an endocrinologist or family doctor) who is prescribing hormones; and one letter from a family doctor indicating good health of the patient. Hormones are not a required step for chest reconstruction surgery. These procedures are fully covered for Quebec residents only (residency for permanent residents and citizens of Canada can be established after living in Quebec for a period of 3 months). As it stands now, however, one cannot be reimbursed for surgeries done before September 2009, nor for surgeries done at other clinics.

At this time, we do not have any more information on these changes, but we encourage you to contact any one of the Trans Health Network partner organizations listed below if you have any additional information, questions, concerns or need additional support. We will continue to work to stay abreast of any upcoming changes, and will do our best to keep you informed.

FOR MORE INFORMATION FROM DR. BRASSARD`S CLINIC
http://srsmontreal.ca

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES:
Le Centre 2110 514-848-2424 x 7431
Project 10 514-989-4585
ASTT(e)Q 514-847-0067 x207
ATQ 514-254-9038
Stella 514-285-8889

Hey you! Rad Montreal activists! 

Do you wish you could make more of your group’s events physically
accessible? 

In the process of planning an event, does your group end up
compromising physical accessibility in favour of keeping costs
down?

Do you wish you could provide more detailed information about
accessibility on event promo? 

Making our events accessible to people with physical disabilities
is just as important as making them affordable/free, queer and
trans-positive, and anti-racist. As Montreal activists, we can pool
our resources to come up with information on accessible venues.

In response to the general dearth of collective information on
accessible venues in Montreal, The 2110 Centre and the Union For
Gender Empowerment are teaming up to put together an info-sheet about
planning accessible events. 

There are two ways to get involved:

The first is: Planning meetings!
The first purpose of this call-out is to gather a group of folks from
different orgs who are into attending a couple of planning meetings
during which we will solidify the info-sheet outline, as well as come up
with an action plan to coordinate venue excursions to gather detailed specs -
measurements, transportation info, ramps, chairs, etc. It would be lovely
if you could distribute this call-out out far and wide, and to anyone else
you know who is interested in helping make activism more accessible in
Montreal. This is a community-wide project – it would be so incredibly
awesome to see involvement from variety of orgs working on different
struggles!

The first meeting will be the week of February 1st, in about two weeks. If
you’re excited about helping organize, please fill out this doodle**, so we
can pick convenient meeting time: http://www.doodle.com/tpwsahtvq98eapzi.
To fill it out, click on the link, fill in your name, and check the boxes
corresponding to the time slots during which you are available to meet. 

The first meeting will either be in the 2110 Centre (2110 Rue Mackay) or
Union For Gender Empowerment (4th Floor of the SSMU building at McGill,
Room 431 – 3480 Rue McTavish) Details TBA!
(**The Doodle website doesn’t always work well with audio electronic text
or screen reader technology. Please contact me if you would like to
participate but your reading software isn’t compatible.)

2. Venue Visits!
 If you don’t think you’re up for helping organize, you can still help gather
information by signing up to visit venues! The majority of the work of the
project is contained in these sessions. We’ll help you set up the appointment
with the venue, and provide the questionnaire/outline of information to gather.
You can either sign up as a group or as individuals. You can sign up for just
one, a few, or many visits. Each excursion should take about an hour,
depending on the venue. 

Venue visit sign up will be coming to inboxes in the next few weeks!
The purpose of this project is to provide rad groups witheasy-to-access
info about the venues in which they hold their events, so they can put it
on event promo, and generally be more informed about venues and accessibility
in Montreal. Please email accessibilityproject@gmail.com
if you have any questions,
comments, concerns, love, etc!

In solidarity,
Zoe Page
The 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy
The Union For Gender Empowerment

PS Here’s the doodle link again: http://www.doodle.com/tpwsahtvq98eapzi 

Calling all young pro-choice Canadians!
Apply for Choice 101!

“Choice 101” will bring together 15 pro-choice Canadians from coast to coast
to participate in a free interactive 8-week course about pro-choice issues.
The course will link you with other individuals who want to learn, share and
contribute to the movement for sexual and reproductive rights in Canada.

You don’t have to be an expert to participate; just interested in learning
more about pro-choice issues and sharing your ideas, experiences and
questions with other people who are under 35.

We will be using conference calls to meet each week and we will create a
networking site for people to post their thoughts, videos, drawings, web
links, etc. to deepen our collective pro-choice knowledge. It’s a great way
to broaden your pro-choice horizons and to strengthen the young pro-choice
network across Canada.

Topics:

• The History of Abortion Politics in Canada

• Current Access Issues in Canada

• Healthy Sexuality

• Identity and Reproductive Rights

• Violence against Women and Choice

• First Nation, Inuit and Métis Women and Choice

• Pro-Choice Activism and Research

Presenters:

*        Gemma Bonham-Carter, Community Education Coordinator, Planned
Parenthood Ottawa (PPO), offers education, counselling and referral services
to assist and support people in making informed sexual and reproductive
health choices. PPO is a non-judgmental, pro-choice, confidential,
supportive, GLBTTQ positive, youth positive organization. Visit:
http://www.ppottawa.ca/

      •Jessica Yee, founder and Executive Director of the Native Youth
Sexual Health Network, a CanAmerica wide organization by youth and     for
youth. Learn more at: http://www.nativeyouthsexualhealth.com/index.html

*        Erin Williams, Executive Director of the Ottawa Coalition to End
Violence Against Women (OCTEVAW) is a coalition of organizations and
individuals dedicated to ending violence against women and, through
leadership, education, advocacy and political action, to promoting a
coordinated response to

women and their children who have experienced abuse. Visit:

http://www.octevaw-cocvff.ca/node/1  

*        And more! Stay tuned as more presenters are confirmed…

Details:

The course will be held from February 2 - March 23, 2010 once a week on
Tuesdays for two hours at: 14:00 (British Columbia); 15:00 (Alberta /
Saskatchewan / Northwest); 16:00 (Manitoba); 17:00 (Quebec / Ontario /
Nunavut);  18:00 (Atlantic); and 18:30 (Newfoundland).

Apply online now at: www.canadiansforchoice.ca
<http://www.canadiansforchoice.ca/>  

Please complete our online application and consent form. The consent form
must be signed, scanned and emailed; or sent by postal mail.

Participant selection will take into consideration representation of
provincial and regional diversity and diverse identities.

The deadline to apply is 

January 25, 2010 at 17:00 EST!!

--

Agathe Gramet-Kedzior

Project Officer/Chargée de Projet

Canadians for Choice

Association canadienne pour la liberté du choix

 <mailto:info@canadiansforchoice.ca> info@canadiansforchoice.ca

613-789-9958 ext. 226

fax-613-789-9960

--
Jessica Yee
Executive Director, The Native Youth Sexual Health Network
Chair, National Aboriginal Youth Council, Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network
jessica.j.yee@gmail.com
jyee@nativeyouthsexualhealth.com

www.nativeyouthsexualhealth.com

Do you have basic sign language? Want to learn more,

brush up, or have the opportunity to practice?
ASL 102 registration is now open. Classes will

begin this Tuesday, January
12th in the lounge of the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy,

from 5h45-8h45pm. We will accept new students until

Tuesday January 19th. We ask for a donation of 30-130$

Sliding scale pay-what-you-can for the
ten week session.

For more information please email psa@centre2110.org