TransEstrie is a community organization that supports, accompanies and represents trans, non-binary, and questioning people in the Eastern Townships. 

Based in Sherbrooke, TransEstrie was born out of the “Groupe d’action trans de l’Université de Sherbrooke” founded by a group of trans students at the Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS) in 2016. 

What started off as ensuring that trans UdeS students had their rights respected on campus eventually grew into a regional community organization. 

TransEstrie collaborates with Granby based organization Divers-Gens, which educates, raises awareness, demystifies, and helps others on 2SLGBPTQIA+ issues (14 to 25 years old), to ensure that the trans and non-binary communities and questioning people in Brome-Missisquoi have the support and services they are looking for. 

While a large region to serve, TransEstrie hopes that its work will help the Eastern Townships become a more inclusive society.  

“Over the years, the group (Groupe d’action trans de l’Université de Sherbrooke) grew and started to offer services to people in Sherbrooke and, eventually, to people all over the Eastern Townships. They quickly realized that this was a very great opportunity for a trans led community organization in the Eastern Townships,” noted Florence Gallant Chenel, assistant director at TransEstrie. 

TransEstrie offers a range of services and support to fulfill its mission. 

“We do that by offering direct services. We have a service where we distribute binders, packers, gaffs, etc. We also have support groups and everything. We also do a lot of representation both locally and nationally,” highlighted Gallant Chenel. “We’re very well known for being the biggest group outside of Montreal by and for trans people. We’ve been extremely proactive working during the bill to reform.”

 Chenel added that she's "proud" of the work that the organization does to "make our region a better place to live for them."

An important part of TransEstrie’s mission to ensure a more inclusive society is education. 

“We do a lot of conferences, a lot of training, we have stands at a lot of events all over the region to just get our message out there and remind people that inclusion is constant  work,” emphasized Gallant Chenel. “It’s not just one training that’s going to get you to where we need to be. It’s something that has to be a part of every single action that you make. We’re there to remind people of that and to accompany them to reach that goal.” 

Gallant Chenel mentioned that TransEstrie has a team of professionals that offer trainings at various institutions, including universities for specific programs.

“But we also offer a lot of trainings to community organizations, to businesses, even to bodies of government when it’s requested. Yes, it’s to teach them about what a trans person is, but also how to be inclusive, how to have an affirmative approach to policy, services, etc.,” she explained. 

Gallant Chenel noted that “hate against the LGBTQ community has only been on the rise these last few years, especially against trans and non-binary communities,” making community organizations like TransEstrie critical. 

“Canadian statistics have only gone up when it comes to transphobic violence here in the country. Even we receive a lot of threats on our social media every single week. This is a reality that we have to deal with and this highlights the fact that, of course, we need to have awareness of these realities,” she said. “We also need to understand that trans and non-binary people face discrimination when it comes to employment and access to health services.”

While TransEstrie is based in Sherbrooke, it does provide services to Brome-Missisquoi with the help of Divers-Gens. 

“We do partner a lot on a lot of issues. When possible, we try to go towards you guys and try to offer our services locally. Of course, the region is pretty big; this is always an issue. Having another organization there to be able to serve as a bridge for us to join your community is just amazing,” Gallant Chenel told CIDI. 

For more information on TransEstrie click here. 

For more information on Diver-Gens click here. 

Listen to the full interview below: