Montreal Gazette - Transgender patients outed by the health-care system

For most sick people in a doctor's waiting room, a walk-in clinic or the hospital emergency, the etiquette of the receptionist, nurse and doctor is not likely the top priority. Getting better is. But for people in the years-long process of transitioning genders, the name called out and the pronouns used can be the difference between medical treatment and psychological torture. Many Quebec health-care workers routinely out transsexuals by arguing in public about their name and sex as indicated on the medicare card, advocates for trans people say.

Pierre-Paul Tellier, a family physician who is director of McGill University's Student Health Services, and who volunteers with the community group Head & Hands, said some doctors don't want to treat what they don't know. "They'll say: First, this is a difficult patient; two, they have an issue that I'm not familiar with; and so, three, I'm not going to deal with them," Tellier said. He agreed many doctors could use a big dose of sensitivity.