Tru Wilson had to fight her Catholic school in Delta for the right to wear a girl’s uniform. Harriette Cunningham endured taunts and derogatory comments that forced her to switch schools in Comox.
Now, the two 13-year-old transgender girls are joining forces with the NDP to fight for better protections for people like them whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
On Wednesday, the pair travelled to Victoria, where they appeared at a news conference outside the B.C. legislature and spoke in support of a private member’s bill by NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert.
It’s the fourth time in five years that Chandra Herbert has introduced the bill that would include explicit language in the B.C. Human Rights Code barring discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression.
“When a minority is abused, attacked and discriminated against, the majority must act,” the MLA for Vancouver-West End told the legislature. “Transgender people face some of the highest rates of violence and discrimination in B.C. We can and must end that.”
Tru told reporters that, while transgender people are technically protected under the human rights code, the language needs to be more explicit.
“It needs to be really clear so that everybody knows that we have the same rights as every other human being,” she said.
Harriette said that including the words “gender identity” and “gender expression” in the code would make a significant difference.
“I think that it would help make the everyday life of trans people a lot easier by helping to create appropriate bathroom designations as well as lots of education in schools,” she said.
“I think people will start to realize that lots of people are born with different gender identities.”
Attorney General Suzanne Anton dismissed the need for the bill, arguing that transgender people are already protected from discrimination on the basis of sex.
“They are covered,” she said. “You can look at the human rights tribunal’s website — absolutely crystal clear that they’re covered.
“And I think that the member from Vancouver-West End does people a disservice by creating alarm, by suggesting that there’s an issue. There is no issue with the law. There may be issues in society.”
But Chandra Herbert said seven of 10 provinces and one territory disagree with Anton and have added specific protections for transgender people.
“I don’t get the government’s desire to say no,” he said.
“Right now, Harriette Cunningham, Tru Wilson — they’ve had to try to use the human rights code to try to convince the government to do the right thing for them.”
If the province changed the code, “rather than kids fighting the government on their own to ensure their rights, the government would be standing there as an ally with them instead of being an adversary.”
