Yellowknife LGBTQ community wants more inclusive health care system

A group working in Yellowknife to end homophobia, harassment and bullying says the health department needs to do a better job supporting the territory's LGBTQ population.

It Gets Better Yellowknife hosted a discussion Wednesday night aimed at generating ideas that the Department of Health and Social Services can use to make the health care system more inclusive and accountable.

Organizer Jacq Brasseur told the group about the struggle to find a doctor who is respectful of pronouns. Brasseur does not identify with he or she, but instead uses them, they and their.

"When I go to a doctor and the doctor misgenders me or calls me by a name I've asked them not to call me, I don't know where to go to complain about it," said Brasseur.

"I don't know where to go to say, 'hey this doctor wasn't safe for me.'"

It's a sentiment that was echoed by others in the room.

Yellowknife musician Greyson Gritt called on the health department to change its forms to make them more inclusive of all gender identities.

"On the forms, not just male and female. Because I've definitely scratched that out and put my own [pronoun] in," said Gritt.

'There is more work than I thought'

Debbie DeLancey, the N.W.T.'s deputy minister of Health and Social Services, was moderating Wednesday's discussion.  

"I knew that we had work to do within our system to increase awareness and understanding of the challenges that LGBTQ people face when they are seeking services," said DeLancey.

"But hearing people share their stories really drove it home for me both on a very personal level and made me realize there is more work than I thought."

DeLancey says she came to the event looking for suggestions on how the system can change to better accommodate everyone, and she is committed to making that happen.  

"We need to get organized and do something to create awareness and understanding in our system," she said. "It's things like workshops, using local resources, creating workplace tool kits. It's simple things."

DeLancey said she would like to regroup next year and talk about the changes the department has implemented.

"We will start to do something, in a small way, because we won't solve all the issues in a year."