City council to discuss requesting a report on making Regina an LGBTQ-friendly city

Regina city councillors are slated to discuss a motion Wednesday intended to improve the lives of LGBTQ people.

The motion was brought forth by Ward 6 Coun. Dan LeBlanc. If passed it would promptcity administration to prepare a report on how the city could improve the lives of LGBTQ people.

LeBlanc says there was hateful backlash when the city banned so-called conversion therapy.To him,that meant the city needed to work more on queer rights.

"Queer people have been and continued to be marginalized and often isolated within Regina," says LeBlanc.

"That's led to some of these bad outcomes, things like mental health concerns among queer people."

LeBlanc says non-queer people can make incorrectassumptions about what LGBTQpeople need, which can lead to things like them not being ableto accessappropriate health care.To his knowledge, there are no queer people on council, he says.

He said many local issuesalso exist across Canada such as queer people earning less than non-queer people on average but that he hopes this motion would address those inequities.

Members from the LGBTQcommunity will also speak at council Wednesday.

Aspen Hugginsis theformer vice-chair of UR Pride. They say city council should adopt Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), an internationally used policy and research tool.

Huggins saysGBA+ outlines the impacts of policy changes on people based on characteristics such as income level,
disability, citizenship status, raceand more.

"This tool would let the city predict how the adoption of a policy, programorservice will affect diverse groups of women, menand non-binary people," says Huggins.

Claire Carter is aneducator in queer and trans studiesin the Regina. In a letter to council, Carter wrote that as a queer parent, they have struggled accessing city facilities.

"Personally, navigating city services with my children has led to us at times feelingexcluded and/or not recognized, notably recreational services," says Carter.

Carter voiced full support for the motion, sayingit alignswith"anintersectional and decolonizing lens."

City council beginsWednesday at 1 p.m. CST.

Mayor Masters will join host Stefani Langeneggeron CBC'sThe Morning Edition Thursday morning and will discuss the outcome of today's council meeting.