{"id":372731,"date":"2025-12-28T09:10:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T09:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/372731\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T09:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T09:10:16","slug":"montrealers-protest-for-trans-rights-as-bill-2-threatens-clinics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/372731\/","title":{"rendered":"Montrealers protest for trans rights as Bill 2 threatens clinics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montrealers braved the winter weather a day after Christmas and gathered at Norman Bethune Square for a march in solidarity of trans rights.<\/p>\n

This comes after the Quebec government introduced Bill 2 \u2013 a law overhauling doctor compensation, that has sparked controversy since its introduction in late October, as clinics face potential closures in the coming year as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrans people are people. We\u2019re people like other people and we need help and support from the government, and we need health care,\u201d said Vanessa Durand, one of the protestors at the march.<\/p>\n

With Bill 2 tightening the noose on essential funding \u2013 roughly 40 clinics across Quebec face closures if nothing changes before the bill takes effect on Feb. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"Celeste Trianon, who has organized the \u2018Trans March\u2019 for four years now, addressing the crowd of attendees who came to Norman Bethune Square on Friday Dec. 26, 2025. (Corinne Boyer, CityNews)<\/p>\n

Organizer Celeste Trianon said Bill 2 threatens health care which is a source of stability of people \u2013 trans or otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s broadly speaking panic,\u201d Trianon said. \u201cPanic over uncertainty \u2014 people not knowing whether they\u2019re going to have access to the same medication, the same healthcare treatments, etc. that they\u2019ve been getting sometimes for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts say that LGBTQ+ communities are being hit particularly hard by the new bill.<\/p>\n

Clinique l\u2019Agora \u2013 one of the clinics that caters to sexual health and vulnerable patients \u2013 announced last month that it will fail to meet its financial requirements as of April 2026, forcing it to close indefinitely.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn just one week, there\u2019s a likelihood that various clinics in Quebec, including Prelev, which tests over 100,000 people per year for STIs or L\u2019Agora, which treats 6,000 patients in primary care, including many trans patients \u2014 all these clinics, they\u2019re closing imminently,\u201d Trianon explained.<\/p>\n

Protestors marched 3 kilometres along Sainte-Catherine Street until Berri Street \u2013 ending in front of Clinique l\u2019Agora as a symbol and reminder of the stakes when Bill 2 comes into effect next year.<\/p>\n

\"\"Montrealers marching along Guy Street, as they make their way to their ultimate destination, Clinique l\u2019Agora, on Berri Street in downtown Montreal. (Corinne Boyer, CityNews)<\/p>\n

\u201cFor so many (Clinique l\u2019Agora) is a place of hope. It is a place where people finally could see a future for themselves, and now they\u2019re taking that away\u201d Trianon said.<\/p>\n

Durand called on people to demand the government to restore services cut by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need solidarity, and we need to get together to go against the government. Because if we\u2019re not crying out loud about the problems that we have, we\u2019re not getting anything,\u201d Durand said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montrealers braved the winter weather a day after Christmas and gathered at Norman Bethune Square for a march…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-372731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}