A visit by two transgender teens to the B.C. legislature last week has stoked support for a bill to better protect their rights, NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert says.
Chandra Herbert, who introduced the bill for the fourth time, said he is convinced that a majority of MLAs would vote in support if given the chance.
“Since I introduced the bill, I’ve had a few Liberal MLAs say: ‘Can you find a way to force it to a vote? Because if you can get it on the floor to a vote, we think it can pass.’
“I’ve done the math. I think we could do it, if we could actually force it to a vote. So I’m looking at all sorts of options. Hopefully, Mike de Jong, the [government] house leader on the opposite side, lets his members vote their conscience, because then I think we’ll win for human rights.”
Attorney General Suzanne Anton has dismissed the need for the bill, arguing that the human rights code protects transgender people by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex.
But Chandra Herbert said his bill would make that protection more explicit by adding the words “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the code.
“If you can’t see your rights, you don’t know you have them,” he said. “While a judge might know to read that into the code, most employers wouldn’t, and most people [who are] discriminated against wouldn’t. So it’s not a very effective right to have if you don’t know you have it.”
Chandra Herbert said that message was driven home by Harriette Cunningham of Comox and Tru Wilson of Delta, when they travelled to Victoria last week to support the bill. The two 13-year-old transgender girls both called on the government to make it clear in the code that their rights are protected.
“I think that may have melted some hearts,” Chandra Herbert said.
“I think it’s pretty hard to fight the lived experience of young people who’ve faced discrimination in their schools and in their lives who are pleading with the government to act. It’s pretty hard-hearted to say: ‘Well, I know better than you do what your experience is.’ ”
Independent MLA Vicki Huntington and B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver have both indicated that they would support Chandra Herbert’s bill.
“Frankly, I don’t know why we’re not bringing it forward,” Weaver said Tuesday.
“I can see no compelling reason not to do it. So I would hope the government would do it in light of that and rise above any partisan party politics.”
De Jong said he was unaware of Liberal MLAs expressing a desire to vote on the bill, but said Chandra Herbert has raised a “legitimate” issue.
“Whether or not the bill would come forward for debate hasn’t been conclusively decided,” he said. “We have government business, of course, that we’re looking to complete as a priority, but I never rule anything out.”
Chandra Herbert said only a few Liberals would need to vote with the NDP, Green and Independent MLAs for the bill to pass in the remaining 12 days of the current legislative sitting.
“I think we would get quite considerably more than six or seven Liberal members voting with us, if it got to a vote,” he said. “I think you might find only six or seven opposing the bill.”
