Canadian legislation is moving towards the final reading, which will provide basic protections against discrimination for the Trans community. The bill will add gender identity and expression to Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code. The linked article is a Toronto based article and covers both the misconceptions and some good data about the discrimination Trans people experience:

But a groundbreaking survey released last Friday by the American National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality revealed just how much trans people endure.

Not only did 41 per cent of the 6,450 respondents attempt suicide compared to 1.6 per cent of the general population, 19 per cent said they had been refused housing. One in five experienced homelessness. Nearly half has been fired or denied promotions. They also report double the national rate of unemployment and are four times more likely to live in extreme poverty.

What isn’t really addressed in the article, is that all of the claims made by opponents have been disproven many times, yet these fear mongering tactics are still used over and over again. This is why the Southern Poverty Law Project calls some anti-gay groups, hate groups. It isn’t that they push an anti-gay message, but rather that they fuel that rhetoric with outright lies and misinformation.

The statistics reported about members of the Trans community are staggering, and form a solid foundation for work at the local, state and federal levels to offer full non-discrimination protections for all, including individuals who identify as Trans.

Will ‘bathroom bill’ get flushed by Conservatives? – thestar.com.

More about the study discussed above:  http://www.thetaskforce.org/press/releases/pr_study_020411