He questioned the existence of an identity
A press release from West Coast LEAF:
Today, the BC Human Rights Tribunal (“BCHRT”) released its decision on a complaint arising under the BC Human Rights Code’s (“the Code”) prohibition against discriminatory publications. The case, Oger v Whatcott, was heard in December 2018.
The BCHRT found in favour of the complainant that Mr. Whatcott violated s. 7 of the Code and engaged in hate speech.
In 2017, Morgane Oger ran for political office as an MLA for the Vancouver-False Creek riding. She was the first trans-identified candidate to run for election in the provincial legislature. Bill Whatcott produced and published pamphlets and made comments online attacking Ms. Oger on the basis of her gender identity. Among other things, Mr. Whatcott questioned the existence of Ms. Oger’s identity as a trans woman, calling her an “impossibility,” and linked transgender identity to an increased propensity for contracting diseases and for domestic violence.
Ms. Oger filed a complaint under s. 7 of the BC Human Rights Code, which prohibits publications that indicate discrimination or an intention to discriminate or which expose a person or class of persons to hatred or contempt. She described Mr. Whatcott’s pamphlets as harmful to her personally, and as exposing other trans people to discrimination, hatred, and contempt.
West Coast LEAF intervened to make submissions on how the Tribunal should interpret the Code’s prohibition against discriminatory publications in light of Charter values, including Ms. Oger’s right to the equal protection and benefit of the law, and the purposes of the Code.
“This decision affirms that the rights of transgender people to safety and dignity are essential human rights,” says Kasari Govender, Executive Director of West Coast LEAF. “Hate speech that vilifies and attempts to erase trans identity and to deny the dignity of transgender people is an attempt to dehumanize them. The Tribunal clearly states that denying the reality of transgender people is at the root of most discrimination against them.”
She adds, “West Coast LEAF is deeply committed to a broad vision of gender equality – one that includes the rights of all women, transgender, and gender-diverse people. This decision is an important affirmation that transgender people are equal in our society and have a right to be treated with dignity.”
What is West Coast LEAF?
About West Coast LEAF
West Coast LEAF is a non-profit organization formed in 1985, the year the equality guarantees of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force. West Coast LEAF’s mandate is to use the law to create an equal and just society for all women and people who experience gender-based discrimination in BC. In collaboration with community, we use litigation, law reform, and public legal education to make change. For more information, visit http://www.westcoastleaf.org.
Hmm. For all women and people who experience gender-based discrimination…what exactly is “gender-based discrimination” then? Apparently it’s not sexism, or they would have just gone with “for women”…so what is it?
Anyway. I haven’t seen Whatcott’s pamphlets; maybe they were mean and hate-mongering and deserve censure. But referring to “hate speech that vilifies and attempts to erase trans identity and to deny the dignity of transgender people” makes hate speech a very broad category. We’ve seen over and over again that “erase trans identity” simply means not agreeing that a man who says he “feels he is” a woman is in fact literally a woman in every sense. If tribunals are going to label that “hate speech” then what next? Room 101 for all of us?
And “a broad vision of gender equality – one that includes the rights of all women, transgender, and gender-diverse people” is so broad that it erases and deletes feminism. What about our “dignity” then? What if feminist women don’t want women folded into a larger, sloppier category that now includes women who “identify as” women but are not in literal fact women? What if we want to have our own movement to do away with patriarchy and think that won’t be possible if we’re forced to share it with men?
And Oger in particular, since he’s the guy who is doing his level best to destroy Vancouver Rape Relief.
Yet another example of why I’m glad the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected hate speech laws.
Going by previous stories I’ve read, Canadian human rights tribunals are a total kangaroo court. They actually managed to make Ezra Levant look sympathetic.
Please tell me that I’m not the only one who read ‘Morgane Oger’ and ‘False Creek’ and had to stifle a giggle, because the 14-year-old that apparently inhabits my mind found it hilarious.
On a more serious note:
Well, I can’t argue with that, but has anybody actually tried to claim that trans people don’t have the same rights as the rest of us? Then again, nothing quite says ‘dignity’ like a hulking man in a dress screaming “‘I’M A WOMAN, YOU CUNT!’ at a female librarian; a 6ft. man in a wig and make-up punching an elderly woman because she was holding a camera; a huge man breaking a woman’s bones on a sports field; a man with a woman’s name openly bragging about his role in the de-funding of a womens’ crisis centre.
AoS, you forgot about the one who wanted to know how to approach girls to help them learn how to insert tampons. Dignity for the female-identified man who wants to fondle a little girl’s genitals; none for the girl.
That one has been nominated for a Canadian Women Entrepreneurs Award.
What is, words no one has ever seen in connection with a successful law suit, Alex.
Well there’s several kinds of of bullshit right there.
By the way, this reminds me of something I’ve often wondered about. If everyone woke up tomorrow magically believing that “trans women are women,” (and TMAM), supposedly there’d be no more discrimination and violence towards trans people.
But then what about all the gender nonconforming people who don’t claim transgender status? Sucks to be them I guess?
If they magically believed that all trans women are women, then they would be subjected to the violence of misogyny and they would soon discover that they had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. Trans men, on the other hand, would find glory in their new status.