Gender identity to guide housing of Ontario’s transgender inmates

Transgender inmates in Ontario will now be dealt with based on their own gender identity, not their physical sexual traits, a policy Ontario's corrections minister is calling the most progressive of its kind in North America.

Previously, inmates were put in institutions based on a person’s “primary sexual characteristics.” Now, they will be housed according to their self-identified gender and referred to by their chosen name rather than their legal name and their preferred pronoun.

“This is the most progressive policy on the treatment of trans inmates in North America,” Correctional Services Minister Yasir Naqvi said Monday. “No other jurisdiction in Canada has such policy. In fact one of the things that I’ll be doing is sending a copy of our policy to all other my colleagues across the country.”

The policy builds on interim guidelines that were put in place last April, Naqvi said.

Read more at cbc.ca