The hate and violence against members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Canada is a dangerous trend (20).

Let’s get our facts right 👇

1️⃣ 2SLGBTQIA+ people have always existed. We know there were (1,2,3,4):

• Transgendered clergy who were thought to be the link between humans and the gods in ancient Mesopotamia.
• Same-sex lovers in ancient China, ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire and in Japan.
• Respected homosexual Celtic, Greek, Roman and Samurai warriors.
• A third gender in many Indigenous cultures and in ancient Hindu.

Most were accepted and even respected (3).

2️⃣ It is the lack of societal acceptance that seems to cause most of 2SLGBTQIA+ youth mental health challenges, not gender-affirming care (21). That is because gender-affirming care does not aim to change the individual’s identity, but to empower them to embrace their authentic selves (15,10,22).

3️⃣ Regret over gender-affirming care is very rare (i.e. less than 1%) (23,24,25). Detransitioning individuals deserve support and care (26), but just because some may regret their choice does not mean others should lose access to gender-affirming care.

4️⃣ Gender-affirming care is a process – the majority of which is reversible and surgical affirmations are rarely offered to minors (11,15,16,19,27,28,29,30,31):

• Social affirmation, such as changing pronouns/names, dressing differently, and binding/padding/tucking are all reversible.
• Puberty will resume if puberty blockers are stopped.
• Changes from hormonal therapy take time to develop and can be reversed partially to completely if stopped.

Share these facts widely – everyone deserves to live a safe and fulfilling life as their true selves.

Sources: https://tinyurl.com/SUFFactsNotHate