Transgender people still face discrimination
When two transgender youths travelled from Delta and Comox to ask Attorney General Suzanne Anton to include “gender identity” and “gender expression” in the B.C. Human Rights Code (“Transgender girls join battle,” April 28), Anton replied: “Transgender people are already protected from discrimination [by the B.C. Human Rights Code] on the basis of sex.”
I believe this comment is not well informed and is, in fact, discriminatory.
According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, many people who have gender identities or gender expressions that don’t fall into the category of either male or female, or whose gender identities or gender expressions differ from their sex, can easily suffer from something known as gender dysphoria.
Gender dysphoria is unhappiness, an unhappiness that can lead to depression, self-harm and even suicide. An estimated 40 per cent of people who identify as transgender have attempted suicide.
Why? My guess is discrimination. If, as stated, the purpose of the B.C. Human Rights Code is “to foster a society in British Columbia in which there are no impediments to full and free participation in the economic, social, political and cultural life of British Columbia,” then why are transgendered youth showing up on the steps of the legislature asking for help?
Both of these students have faced discrimination, leading to their seeking help from the legal system. In each case, they were the ones who had to make changes to avoid discriminatory behaviour by the people in their environment. This seems to point to a problem with society and a legal system that should be protecting their rights.
The Human Rights Code protects citizens on these bases: Race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation or age of that person or that group or class of persons. Gender identity is missing from the list.
Do the people who are not on this list have the same rights as the people on the list? The British Columbians not on this list are, for instance, people who are transgender, gender-variant or gender-fluid (who identify as neither male nor female, or who identify as either male or female).
For this group, we don’t even have accurate statistics in terms of census data or vital statistics, because in order to register for a driver’s licence or for a B.C. CareCard, you must check either the “male” or “female” box. In order to fill out a census form, you must also check either the “male” or the “female” box.
Even at the doctor’s office, you must also check one of only two boxes. To say that transgendered people have the same rights under the B.C. Human Rights Code might be a false assumption, given that they cannot even obtain a B.C. driver’s licence with an accurate gender and sex designation on it.
I am asking Anton to do the right thing by adding gender identity to the list of protections under the B.C. Human Rights Code. It really shouldn’t a burden just to be kind.
I had a conversation recently with an employee at Revenue Services of B.C. regarding my child’s health-care card. My transgender child recently had a legal name change. His name is now a boy’s name as opposed to the girl’s name I gave him at birth.
His gender is male, his sex is female. The employee I spoke to didn’t know the difference between sex and gender. When I fill out the Census Canada form I received in the mail, there is no box for my child.
My tax dollars pay Anton’s salary. I am asking for her to stop discriminating against transgendered and gender-variant people and help to stop the discrimination against transgender and gender-variant people at all levels of administration by adding gender identity into the B.C. Human Rights Code.
Is it really so much to ask?