Article content continued

“I take for granted that the health care system is there for me,” as do many Ontarians, Hoskins said. “This is an issue about treating all Ontarians equally.”

There’s no firm timeline for when the regulatory change will take effect. It’s currently posted for 45 days of public comment after which Hoskins promised to release more details. In the interim, the province will give CAMH and Rainbow Health additional funding to try and reduce wait times.

For that reason, New Democrat Cheri DiNovo — who fought to enshrine trans rights in Ontario human rights law and helped ban conversion therapy for LGBT youth in Ontario — called the announcement “a good first step” but there’s “a lot to be done.”

Glen Murray, the minister of environment and climate change and the MPP who represents the riding that includes Toronto’s gay village, said he’s been on the frontlines of gay rights for 40 years and it’s heartening to see the times change. He said trans activists have broken down society’s binary approach to gender and are now reaping the rewards for years of hard work.

This is the first time I’ve ever been in a press conference and the first question out of a journalists mouth about trans people was, ‘Can’t you get there quicker and faster and what took you so long’

“This is the first time I’ve ever been in a press conference and the first question out of a journalists mouth about trans people was, ‘Can’t you get there quicker and faster and what took you so long’?” Murray said.

For too long, Murray said, “the question has been, ‘Why are you doing this?’”

Ontario started again funding sex reassignment surgery — which the community prefers to call gender affirming surgery — in 2008, a decade after it was pulled from OHIP coverage by the Mike Harris government. That year, Ontario funded fewer than five such surgeries, at a cost of $22,000. Last fiscal year, it spent $2.33 million on 154 surgeries for 136 patients, or about $17,000 per patient.