Transgender Pride flag raised at Yellowknife city hall

The transgender Pride flag was raised at Yellowknife city hall Monday to recognize Transgender Awareness Week, which runs from Nov. 13 to 19, and the transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming people across the Northwest Territories.

"It's important to show the community that we exist and that we're here," said Lane MacIntosh, vice-president of the Rainbow Coalition of Yellowknife.

Chelsea Thacker, the organization's executive director, said the advocacy group is "fighting to make this a safer and more equitable territory for all of our transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming youth."

Thacker said one of the biggest obstacles the LGBTQ community faces in the N.W.T. is the lack of appropriate health-care resources.

"Yellowknife is fortunate to have a doctor and a nurse practitioner who have training and have taken extensive steps to try to educate their teams," said Thacker. "However, in [other] communities, we really do worry about the youth who don't even have a safe medical professional to talk to about being transgender and non-binary."

We need to normalize the existence of transgender, non-binary people because we are here and we're everywhere.- Chelsea Thacker, Rainbow Coalition of Yellowknife executive director

They also noted that the changes that were made to the Vital Statistics Act in 2016 around gender identification haven't permeated through the rest of the territorial bureaucracy.

"For example, forms, letters, gender correspondence, statistic collection and more do not include appropriate and inclusive language for transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming people," they said.

Thacker said they'd also like to see some movement on solidifying gender and sexuality alliance clubs in schools. They said it's important for youth to have safe spaces in their communities.

"We need to normalize the existence of transgender, non-binary people because we are here and we're everywhere," Thacker said.

Thacker said they encourage anyone who is an ally to stand up for transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming people.