Liberal Jennifer Maccarone on Thursday morning criticized PDF Quebec for having openly said that a person in transition who chooses a gender reassignment is self-mutilating.
At the Salon Bleu, the MNA for Westmount-Saint-Louis cited comments the organization had made before asking Minister for the Status of Women Martine Biron if she agreed with such statements.
The government uses public funds to subsidize an organization, PDF Québec, which [est] openly transphobic, lamented Ms. Maccarone, liberal critic of LGBTQ+ community files.
It’s $143,000 [en 2022-2023] which violates the Action Plan to Combat Homophobia and Transphobia,” she continued.
Radio-Canada’s English network, CBC, recently reported that it discovered PDF Quebec’s Twitter account, which shares resources encouraging transgender people to come out of transition and label surgeries as genital mutilation. He also mentions that he found a series of tweets attacking transgender activists.
The organization has declined to promote anti-trans views on its platforms.
Ms Biron responded that there was no one here who could agree with this type of statement and mentioned that consultation work was being carried out to renew government strategy in relation to LGBTQ+ communities.
She added that each group has its own opinion, […] has its goals. I think groups should be respected and listened to as a whole. They are currently being consulted and it is evident that I will ensure that it is not negative or hateful towards others, the minister stated.
Ms. Maccarone returned to the prosecution in a debate at the end of the session on Thursday afternoon. She regretted that Ms Biron condemned the comments but did not announce the end of public funding for the organisation.
In place of Ms Biron, Business Secretary Christopher Skeete listed the government’s measures to support sexual minorities.
PDF Québec has received government funding since 2019. In its first year, the organization received nearly $120,000.