By Estelle Grenier-Robillard, French Content Editor at CBRC
In a press release last September, the Government of Quebec announced new restrictions to the province’s official language policy. These measures aim to control the use of inclusive language and designations by anyone working within official bodies, including health and social services. The restrictions purport to “ensure coherence and avoid linguistic confusion.”
French is a heavily gendered language. All nouns are gendered, and articles and adjectives must agree with their gender. In addition, the masculine is often the default. These new restrictions will prohibit the use of gender-neutral pronouns (like iel) or combined word forms (for example, ami·e·s) in all communications from institutions related to the state.
Among the large number of Indigenous and diasporic languages spoken in Canada, English and French are the two official colonial languages. This linguistic landscape carries a heavy history of violence at the hands of today’s colonial structures. It is in that context that French is used by over a quarter of the Canadian population.
The proposed changes rely heavily on entrenched colonial structures that enforce a ''binary'' concept of gender. This exclusion of gender and sexual diversity is correlated with promoting a false ideology of ''purity'' applied to the French language. Through this attempt to suppress practices of inclusive writing, these policymakers are hindering 2S/LGBTQIA+ people's health and access to care by denying the very existence of our diversity.
If healthcare providers refrain from using gender-affirming language, the multitude of our unique identities are neither seen nor accurately reflected. The risk is that our communities are less likely to seek and access the care they need because the binary language has invisibilized/erased us.
In fact, inclusive writing is a crucial tool that shapes the healthcare experience of gender diverse people. Official written materials issued by health authority and public hospitals will be required to follow this ban. As a result, gender diverse patients seeking care will not see themselves reflected in the intake forms and informative documents. CBRC and its partners have been advocating for a more equitable healthcare system that responds to the specific needs of people of diverse sexuality and gender. This change to the linguistic policy is an intentional backslide that will negatively impact the lives of Two-Spirit, queer and trans francophones if we allow it.
In the French language there is a sexist tendency in which the masculine overrides the feminine. For example, a doctor would use the masculine form mes patients when speaking of a group of mixed gendered patients but could only use a feminine form of mes patientes if the group was all female. In response to this form of sexism, inclusive writing practices in Quebec have evolved since the 1970s and have become increasingly more widespread in the last thirty years. In tandem with the movement to “feminize” the French language, 2S/LGBTQIA+ communities have adopted an array of gender-inclusive writing practices to accurately self-identify. After all, language is an evolving resource that allows us to express who we are, talk about our bodies, and discuss our health. It is imperative that the language used when seeking and accessing health care accurately reflects our identities.
Including the linguistic practices of marginalized groups is a decision that reflects society as a whole. As explained by semiotician Dr. Loïs Crémier: “There are different gender-related linguistic practices across the French-speaking world. This isn’t a new thing for speakers: whether they are feminists, non-binary, trans, LGBTQ+ or others, folks offer new ways of speaking that are fully intelligible within their contexts. This reflects the vitality and breadth of the French language.” Neologisms (new words) are a normal linguistic process that carry and bear witness to social change. Despite a provincial government that opposes gender-inclusive writing, people in French-speaking communities have clearly embraced the idea that it is possible to identify outside of the gender binary, and have been using language to reflect that – including in healthcare settings.
Gender inclusive language has paved the road for inclusion of gender non-conforming individuals in health care and society. Despite this, Quebec is attempting to shut the linguistic window that allows gender-diverse people to exist in French. Mylène de Repentigny-Corbeil, Executive Director of the sexual rights and health advocacy organization Les 3 sex*, explains: “Banning inclusive writing poses a serious issue by failing to distinguish between two realities: on the one hand, the use of the pronoun “iel” to refer to all people, and on the other hand, the use of this pronoun as an identity-affirming pronoun for non-binary people. By flattening this distinction, it denies the very existence of non-binary people and undermines their social and political recognition. It’s a serious and direct attack on their rights.” As Mylène de Repentigny-Corbeil points out, language directly influences the recognition of social change and justice: “These bans don’t only affect trans and non-binary people. Linguistic exclusion affects everyone, even cis women, who are erased behind the generic masculine, and it compromises inclusion efforts for all marginalized groups. It is an attack on equality and equity as it reduces language to a tool of hierarchy rather than an instrument of social justice.”
From a legal standpoint, this ban can be used to harm our communities as it directly conflicts with multiple pre-existing charters regarding human rights. Lawyer Laurence Gauvin-Joyal, who specializes in gender and sexuality issues cites, “several recent decisions made at both the provincial and the federal levels illustrate the importance of respecting pronouns used by trans and non-binary patients, sometimes leading to professional sanctions as occurred in Médecins (Ordre professionnel des) v Brière in 2024 where the doctor’s refusal to respect his patient’s pronouns and gender markers led to a three-month suspension ordered by the College’s Disciplinary Council.” It is important to note that this current tension unfolds in an ambiguous social climate, where successful rights-based victories exist alongside serious political moves that threaten to roll back 2S/LGBTQIA+ protections.
History, linguistics, sociology and law all affirm the right for us to unite and support one another in our communities. Language is alive and therefore evolves with use. Ironically, the controversy around the changes to Quebec’s language policy illustrates how entrenched these practices have actually become in our French-speaking communities. Health-related issues—and language is a health issue—for sexual and gender-diverse people are being instrumentalized once again for political strategy, steering us away from our efforts towards a more just and equitable society for our 2S/LGBTQIA+ communities.
Special thanks to Mylène and Laurence for agreeing to be interviewed for this piece and to Loïs Crémier for their support regarding the conception of this article.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of CBRC or its funders.
