For Vancouver Island transgender advocates, the federal Liberal government’s introduction of a trans rights bill Tuesday has been a long time coming.
Some have been at the forefront of a battle to see legislated protection for Canadians on the basis of gender identity and gender expression.
“For me, it’s just a big sigh of relief,” said Brae Carnes, 24, whose “bathroom selfie” campaign, launched in support of an identical bill, went viral last year.
“For anyone who has suffered any form of discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression, and for those who didn’t really feel protected by the current laws, it’s really going to make us feel a lot more safe.”
The legislation would, if passed, make it illegal to prevent someone from getting a job or to discriminate in the workplace on the basis of gender identity or expression. It would also update the Criminal Code to extend hate speech laws to include gender identity and gender expression.
Similar legislation has failed to reach enactment, including the most recent attempt by NDP MP Randall Garrison, whose bill was gutted in the Senate after it passed in the House of Commons. Conservative Sen. Donald Plett argued that giving trans individuals equal rights to places like bathrooms and showers would put other women at risk.
Garrison, who represents Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, stood at Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s side Tuesday after she introduced the bill, in a rare display of non-partisan solidarity.
“This is the seventh time that a bill to guarantee equal rights for transgender individuals has been introduced, but it’s the first time it’s been introduced by a sitting government,” Garrison said.
The Liberal bill is identical to Garrison’s private member’s bill, moving beyond the Liberals’ campaign promise of extending human rights protection on the basis of gender identity to also include the term “gender expression.”
Aaron Devor, the University of Victoria’s chair in transgender studies and founder of the Transgender Archive, said that’s an important inclusion.
“Gender expression is the way you demonstrate your gender. It’s the things that people will say and do, the way they’ll dress, the way they’ll move, the way they’ll act that will communicate their gender to someone else,” he said.
A trans man could identify with very traditional gender norms, for example, but experience discrimination because he appears more feminine than is typical.
“The majority of discrimination [trans] people experience is on the basis of their gender expression,” Devor said.
“The only way to know a person’s gender identity is to ask them — and most discriminators don’t bother to ask.”
Seven provinces have already enacted similar human rights legislation.
NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert has introduced a bill that would change the language in the B.C. Human Rights Code, for the fourth time.
Comox student Harriette Cunningham, 13, said she was happy to know that trans-inclusive language was introduced at a federal level.
Three years ago, Cunningham initiated a successful campaign to overturn provincial legislation that required trans people to undergo reassignment surgery before changing gender on their birth certificates.
She was the youngest of 30 British Columbians to receive their new identification in 2014.
“That’s what being Canadian is all about, embracing diversity. But I’m confused and saddened that our provincial government is still not willing to commit to the same thing,” she said in an email.
Attorney General Suzanne Anton has dismissed the need for a bill, arguing that transgender people are already protected from discrimination on the basis of sex.
— With files from Canadian Press
