With its federal funding coming to an end on March 23, TransEstrie, a community organization that supports and represents trans and non-binary people in the Eastern Townships, will be suspending its services indefinitely as of April 1 unless it can find financial aid.
According to TransEstrie co-founder Séré Beauchesne-Lévesque, the organization has benefited from Women and Gender Equality Canada’s LGBTQ2 Community Capacity Fund for nearly two years. However, they still haven’t heard whether that funding will be renewed.
“The problem is we’re just waiting and the women and gender equality, we could get a renewal, we’ve applied for it, but we don’t have an answer yet, so all of the employee contracts, other than one person, everyone’s contract ends on March 31,” Beauchesne-Lévesque said.
Beauchesne-Lévesque, who identifies with the pronouns they and them, told The Record that the organization has been stuck in limbo for several months. They have applied for dozens of funding opportunities, federal and provincial, but the replies have been few and far between.
TransEstrie was officially founded in 2019, but the organization has filled an important hole in the health and social services network since 2017, Beauchesne-Lévesque explained, holding discussion groups, offering insight to professionals and providing safe, high-end binders.
