Ottawa

An undefined law?

Brent Rathgeber explains why he doesn’t support Bill C-279.

Regarding transsexuals (people who have had or are in the process of changing their gender), it is my understanding that such individuals already enjoy Human Rights protection because “sex” has always been a prohibited ground of discrimination. Certainly, at all times, regardless of the stage of completion of gender reassignment, a person has an identifiable gender.  Moreover, although a person interested in changing genders presumably is struggling with gender identity, not all people with gender identity issues have any interest in changing gender.  The terms are separate and distinct.

Now, cross-dressing may be an expression of gender identity or gender expression or may be unrelated to either.  Nothing precludes a non-transgender person from occasionally dressing up in drag to attend a theme party or event.  The terms are simply not interchangeable. Accordingly, the lack of definitions with respect to the terms creates a huge ambiguity as to who or what activities are to be protected and arguably is a fatal flaw.

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