Warning for Trans Youth in Southern Ontario
Avoid Dr. Kenneth Zucker of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. He will not help you in any way and upon asking many invasive, disrespectful, and irrelevant questions, he will suggest you undergo “reparative therapy” to “fix” you (pictured above). When he finishes writing his “report”, which can take months, he will refer to you in an extremely dehumanizing manner that makes you out to be some kind of oddity (eg “He seems very interested in having breasts.”) and he will not respect your gender or use the correct pronouns whatsoever. Not only that, but when he requests your report cards and school pictures (???) he will really take his time in giving them back when you ask him to. Good luck contacting him outside of an appointment, too, as he very rarely, if ever, responds to emails or phone calls. He has stated he considers trans women a “bad outcome of gay men.” Don’t waste your time with this transphobic piece of shit.
SIGNAL BOOOOOOOST
Yes yes yes I’m so happy people are talking about this. That clinic works under the old DSM criteria. If you are looking for physical health or mental health or family support around gender please contact Rainbow Health Ontario or the new trans clinic at Sick Kids.
A lot of parents especially go to that clinic with their kids because it’s affiliated with such a well know national agency and they assume it will be the best support. If you hear anyone talking about it please correct them, it is very harmful. :(
I wrote a post last year about an amazing Ontario doctor who specializes in health-care for trans youth, Dr. Carys Massarella. She is the lead Physician of the Transcare Program at Quest Community Health Centre in St. Catharine’s, and is currently one of only three ‘non-pathologizing’ trans-care health providers in Ontario. ‘Non-Pathologizing’ means that when a trans-patient comes in to speak with her about care and care options, their trans identity is:
- not questioned
- not treated as something needing to be fixed
- not pathologized as a mental illness which requires a psychiatric evaluation before proceeding with care options.
If you’re a trans youth looking for health-care (or know any trans youth whose families are hoping to get medical support for them), please DO NOT go to/recommend Dr. Zucker at CAMH. He is severely transphobic and is only looking to ‘fix’ trans kids who he thinks are ‘confused’. Instead, two hospitals that are doing good work for transfolks in the GTA and surrounding area are St. Mike’s in Toronto and St. Joseph’s in Hamilton. Both are (surprisingly) Catholic hospitals, but have made reputations for themselves as providing ethical care for the LGBTQ community. Carys herself is a member of the St. Joseph’s health staff, and says that her transition was embraced at the hospital and its catholic staff, including its nuns. As well, Dr. Massarella’s practice, Quest Community Heath Centre, is a fantastic resource if you can get out to St. Catherine’s.
