Move Over, Ladies, the Trans Community is Entitled

"I didn’t quite understand why that was uncomfortable because I didn’t know I was trans at the time. I still thought I was a guy. Finding a ladies' gym was something that seemed really exciting, and now that I’m out, I understand why I was uncomfortable at the other place.”

"[I was just] extremely devastated [by the experience and felt very uncomfortable in the past working out around] a bunch of really buff guys at the university gym."

"I got a call…basically saying, ‘Sorry, we made a mistake, you’re not actually allowed to be here, but you’re more than welcome to use the co-ed facility."

 "I just hung up, because I mean, I was extremely devastated, there’s really no other word for it."

"[A]ll it takes is education. Once you understand trans women are women, trans men are men, non-binary people are who they say they are, it’s as simple as that. If you still feel uncomfortable after that, that’s on you, it’s not on me. I am who I am, it’s as simple as that. I just look different. That’s all."

"It was important to me to be in a place that would be, like, explicitly accepting, like, 'You are a woman, you're allowed to be here'."

"One of the trainers greeted me, and she was extremely kind. She could tell I was trans right away and said I would be welcome there, and explicitly said I would be safe as well, even hugged me."

Transgender woman Brigid Klyne-Simpson 

Brigid Klyne-Simpson

"We already have transgender people here, and all sorts of people, we’re not discriminatory at all."

"We’ve got staff that’s minorities, so, we’re not saying there’s no solutions, we’re looking for a solution and we’re not discriminatory people."

"So now you pick the comfort of the male who identifies as a woman … and anybody can go in there saying, 'OK, I identify as a woman, and I want to be able to go in there.' And so, do we pick the comfort of the transgender person, who may not be as comfortable with the co-ed gym, but at least that's an alternative, or do we pick the comfort of the young girls working out there that might not feel comfortable?"

Dale Nagra, owner, Bodyworks Fitness, Parksville, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Peculiar events have been occurring throughout Canada of late; a shop teacher at Oakville-Trafalgar High School showing up for classes in outrageously outsize breast prosthetics with protruding nipples, wearing tight, sheer tee-shirts and the controversy that erupted from that episode when the school board and the school principal refused to react to the provocation. High schools can exercise their authority in mandating an 'appropriate' dress code for students, yet doing so for teaching staff seemed just too frightfully interfering, with the threat of being denounced as 'transphobic' should the teacher be admonished at his/her unprofessionalism.

 

In an earlier case, a man identifying as a transwoman appealed to the B.C. Human Rights Commission when an aesthetician refused a Brazil wax job demanded. The Commission ruled against the complainant, stating that a man identifying as a woman who was equipped with male genitals could not expect a cosmetic service that the complainant, Jessica Yanik demanded as a paying client. "... human rights legislation does not require a service provider to wax a type of genitals they are not trained for and have not consented to wax."

Jessica Yaniv filed human rights complaints against a number of B.C. home salons, alleging she was discriminated against when they refused to provide waxing services.

 

In the latest social travesty transwoman Klyne-Simpson is offended that the gym in question has a policy of accepting trans clients, but has rules and regulations that maintain such clients not be permitted entry to sole-female areas of the gym, where privacy for female clients is a matter of discretion respecting their gender, not their chosen identity. Having been rebuffed, in his/her wish to join the born female gym clients, Klyne-Simpson is musing about taking the gym to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

 

It would seem the Tribunal has a reputation of upholding many such complaints, encouraging British Columbians to file complaints where they are "denied services" related to "gender identity or expression". The B.C. Human Rights Code could serve to empower the Tribunal to order the Bodyworks gym to reverse its privacy-for-women policy and provide compensation to the complainant "for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect".

 

"Trans people deserve to feel safe, welcome & affirmed for who they are. Trans women are women -- period", stated B.C. parliamentary secretary for gender equality, Kelli Paddon. Canada is the first jurisdiction in the world to commit to certifying transgender status through casual "self-identifiction".  In 2018, B.C. changed its rules so that residents could request birth certificates, driver's licences and other documents from the province to identify their gender with a nonbinary "X".

 

"Each individual knows their own gender best, and today, I am proud that our government is recognizing this by taking landmark action", Grace Lore, then-parliamentary secretary for gender equity, Grace Lore, announced in 2018. Now, any British Columbian over age 12 can legally change to any gender by simply submitting a three-page form known as the Application for Change of Gender Designation. 

 

Has no one noticed? Dignity and respect for self-identifying male-to-female transgender individuals, while unfortunately dignity and respect for women whose gender at birth was female, see theirs rapidly eroding, with born-males moving into their territory, invading their privacy and competing both for attention and recognition competing against women in the sports field. In asserting the legality of human rights in support of transwomen, the human rights of all women is abrogated.

Canada is home to some of the world’s first jurisdictions to certify transgender status through a lens of “self-identification.” Photo by Getty Images