In June of this year, a transgendered Alberta boy named Wren Kaufman successfully lobbied to have the gender designation on his birth certificate changed. Kaufman, who was assigned a gender of "female" at birth, became one of the first beneficiaries of a decision the preceding April. The April case saw Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Brian Burrows rule that an existing law requiring transgendered individuals to present proof of surgery, before such changes could be made, was "inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution of Canada." This places Alberta on track to become one of two provinces (the other being Ontario) and six U.S. states that do not require proof of surgery before a trans* person is entitled to change the notation of their gender on their birth certificate.

Baby steps.

South of the border, U.S. President Barack Obama also made meagre progress. Using his executive powers for good (and not, for once, to send drones to bomb Yemeni weddings), Obama ordered anti-discrimination measures be put in place for QUILTBAG employees of the U.S. Government and its contractors. And though this executive order still contains provisions that allow religious organizations to hire based on religious identity – a loophole that would allow employers to argue for a broader spectrum of discrimination – it does set an impressive precedent at a time when congressional Republicans seem dead-set on mindlessly naysaying every scrap of legislation the Democrats have to offer.

Baby steps.

Canada has had its own attempt at basic recognition for the rights of trans* people, desperately trying to wriggle its way though parliament for just shy of ten years, since being introduced by NDP MP Bill Siksay in 2004. In its current form, it is known as Bill C-279, and was reintroduced in 2012 by NDP MP Randall Garrison of the Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca riding in B.C. The long and the short of it is that it aims to add "gender identity" as a protected class under the Canadian Human Rights Act, and as an identifiable group under the Criminal Code. Very basic, uncontroversial stuff, one might think.

In fact, only this past June, the Ottawa Citizen published a piece optimistically titled, "Human-rights victory draws close for transgender Canadians." And, from a cursory glance at the bill’s progress on the government transparency and accessibility website, openparliament.ca, it would seem that this is indeed the case. Near the bottom of the page tracking Bill C-279, there is an encouraging block of green, indicating successful motions in the bill’s favour. Reintroduction into the parliamentary process: Passed. Amendments and clarifications: Passed. Motion that the bill be read a third and final time: and Passed.

Baby steps.

What open parliament doesn’t show is the massive red brick wall into which the bill has now run: the senate, and its shockingly partisan, and appallingly cavalier opposition, to what seems like a self-evidently necessary piece of legislation. Unlike the Ottawa Citizen, Vice takes a much dimmer view of C-279’s chances for success.

In a thorough and fatalistic piece entitled, "The Harper Government is Thwarting a Bill Designed to Protect the Transgender Community from Hate Crimes," Vice journalist Justin Ling chronicles the myriad ways in which this bill – this attempt to safeguard and validate the lives of real human beings – has been turned into one of the ropes at the centre of a political tug-of-war being played between the Torries and, well, virtually everyone else in Ottawa.

"That this bill has been held up by the parliamentary process is accurate," Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth told Ling in an interview. "So have other bills. Is there a discriminatory feeling in the Senate against people who are trans, on some people’s part? Maybe. Is it enough to defeat the vote? I don’t know." Ling also relates, in his piece, that Senator Ruth admits not to judging the bill on its face, but also considers it to be, in essence, a cudgel to be wielded against the NDP, who are in favour of senate abolition.

"They’ve been smearing us for a couple of years, like everybody else, and they want us to do their business?" Ling records Ruth as saying, and notes that she did so while laughing. One can hardly blame the NDP for their position on the Senate. In addition to stalling C-279 in the Senate, federal Conservatives also rejected an amendment that would have added protections for transgender individuals to bill C-13 – a measure designed to combat bullying.

Ling goes on to point out that, if these protections were enshrined – if discrimination on the basis of gender identity was made expressly illegal – this would open up a means by which trans* people could submit legal challenges against a system riddled with blocks, hurdles, and gatekeeping, and argue that treatment ought to be covered as it is in the case of any other medically necessary procedure. Given that rates of depression, suicide, and violence against trans* people is disproportionately high, in no way could the word "necessary" be seen as hyperbolic. And though the cost of transition can be anywhere in the realm of $30,000 to $50,000, the proportion of trans* individuals in the overall population means that full coverage would likely cost less than what the Canadian government contributes annually to fighter jet development. For all that we use those so frequently.

At the core of this grisly opportunism, though, is a familiar narcissism. The facts of the situation don’t matter. The desires of the Canadian population, and even the self-evident fact that transgender people shouldn’t be discriminated against simply by virtue of innate identity, are irrelevant in the face of Stephen Harper’s plan. This is a government marching in tighter lock step than any Canadian administration in recent memory. Harper’s vitriol toward those who deviate from party lines is infamous. This is, after all, the Prime Minister who is gutting the CBC, who is responsible for gag orders issued to employees of government agencies and scientists operating on federal grant money. This is the man who, as the Toronto star bluntly reported in May, is "no longer taking advice."