Saanich aims to include LGBTQ voices

Saanich council unanimously approved a new committee aimed at improving the quality of life for residents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.

Coun. Colin Plant, chairman of the Healthy Saanich advisory committee, sponsored a motion asking council to undertake a one-year trial to ensure that the district is inclusive to LGBTQ communities. The committee, modelled on a similar body in Vancouver, will be the first of its kind in the capital region.

Plant hopes to have 10 members in place by the end of the year.

The issue is not so much about what Saanich needs to do, but that LGBTQ people need to be reached and their voices heard, he said. Several people addressed council on the topic. One of them, teenager Lee McFarlane, said later that many people assume that because Canada celebrates diversity, Pride festivals, marriage equality and laws that protect against discrimination to a certain extent, that everything is fine.

“They don’t seem to understand that it’s not fine,” she said.

Derogatory terms such as “fag” are still in common usage, McFarlane said. She prefers “queer,” often used as an umbrella term covering people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

LGBTQ people face issues every day that others do not, she said.

“The biggest thing that comes to mind is the high suicide and homelessness rate of queer people. People are still being kicked out of their homes, disowned, shamed.”

She cited concerns such as the scarcity of safe shelter beds for queer people and the unmet health needs of transgender individuals seeking gender reassignment surgery and counselling.

“Just because we can get married to whoever we want and have Pride [festivals] once a year, doesn’t mean the battle is won,” she said.