Obeisance Not To Nature, But To LGBTQ-2+

"[Players] must be able to participate in the sport in the Gender with which they identify [and be provided with] access to such facilities in accordance with their Gender Identity or Gender Expression."

"Hockey Canada's members unanimously approve of the gender expression and gender identity policy which is effective for the 2023-2024 hockey season."

"[The gender identity and expression policy] ensures that all players, including transgender and gender-diverse athletes, can compete in hockey in a way that aligns with their gender identity."

"For greater clarity, this means that trans women can play on the women's team, trans men can play on the men's team and gender diverse players can choose between the women's and men's teams."

"Transgender and gender-diverse players have the right to access dressing rooms and other team spaces that align with their gender identity, [and] must be welcomed and accommodated in the spaces where they feel safest and most comfortable."

"Eligibility is based on a player's self-identified gender without any requirement for medical or surgical transition related care such as surgeries or hormone replacement therapies. They can participate on the team that best reflects who they are." 

Hockey Canada's 2022 Gender Expression and Gender Identity Policy 

"A male that identifies as anything other than male is still biologically a male. They can severely hurt a girl and are at a physical advantage."

"Is there any guarantee that a boy identifying as female will not prey on girls in the dressing room or on the team bus?"

Unnamed Hockey Canada coaching source in disagreement 

Gender Identity Training

The Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF) is pleased to announce the launch of a new training module for team officials to support trans-inclusive hockey in Ontario:

• Understanding Discrimination based on Gender Identity
• Gender Expression Training.

These two modules will educate team officials on this important topic. Team officials will not be approved on a team roster until both modules have been completed.

Bench staff with Hockey Canada, including coaches and trainers were notified by Hockey Canada on July 3 that they are expected to attend a course on gender identity and expression if they wish to continue as certified members of the organization. The physical safety, competitive fairness and sexual privacy of girls and women have obviously been set aside by the organization as irritatingly irrelevant in comparison to the need to service the "gender diverse" community. 

 

A copy of the contents of the test was provided surreptitiously to the news media by an  unidentified coach who took exception to the fell swoop of Hockey Canada in establishing its new guidelines as writ in stone. Coaching staff who may feel bemused, confused and even angered at this adamant new direction in policy presumably will have all their questions answered by the test they are required to attend, clarifying in no uncertain terms how, when and why the new protocol on gender eligibility is to be regarded and acted upon with no exceptions.

 

The Ontario Women's Hockey Association happened to release an updated dressing room policy for female players 22 years of age and younger with the statement: "A player has the right to utilize the dressing room or appropriate and equivalent changing area that the player considers to be most safe, inclusive and reflective of their gender identity and gender expression, and transition status", on the very same day coaching staff were informed of the mandatory test course. 

 

Expressed concerns that females might be encumbered with in respect of biological males entering their formerly sex-segregated spaces, have come up against Hockey Canada's own dressing room policy, dismissive of concerns relating to gender separation and fears of inappropriate occurrences, categorizing these concerns as irrelevant, and urban-myth-based. "This example perpetuates the myth that trans girls/women are actually boys and men who transition to gain access to girls' women's-only spaces for their own gratification."

 

 

The all-inclusive policy was "built with expert guidance from the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, Canadian Women in Sport, stakeholders in hockey and individuals from the 2SLGTBQ+ community" according to the introductory video for the test. It might never have occurred to these decision-makers to consult beforehand with coaching staff, obviously the most knowledgeable of participants with the most experience given their time spent with players ranging in age from four years to 20, who recognize the biological differences between male and female players.

 

The course, in going to great pains to fully explain "gender diverse" to test registrants are given such details as the non-binary flag and what is represented by all of its colours. When the course has been completed they will understand that yellow represents those whose gender exists outside the male/female binary, while white represents people with many genders, and pink is for a melange for male and female. Brown, on the other hand, represents people who identify as absent any gender. 

 

 

"Gender-diverse" terms such as agender, biogender/polygender, gender-fluid, gender-queer and two-spirit all represent potentials for self-identification, for "gender-diverse" is an "umbrella term for people whose gender exists beyond the categories of man and woman. While many are raised to believe gender is strictly binary, gender diverse people experience and express gender in diverse ways. Each person's experience is unique, and these identities reflect the wide spectrum of how gender can be understood and lived". 

 

Any hockey staff who fail to agree to permit biological males to pass freely through the spaces normally segregated by sex, based on a chosen gender identity, will henceforth not be certified by Hockey Canada. The chosen identity need not necessarily be in any way consistent, since it is not tied to biological sex or medical interventions; reflecting instead the identity any individual feels reflects their persona on any given occasion. 

 

Ontario Hockey Federation 

 

The Transgender Phenomenon Puzzle

"Peer influence during this stage of life is very powerful. As well as the influence of social media, the review has heard accounts of female students forming intense friendships with other gender-questioning or transgender students at school and then identifying as trans themselves."

"[In later childhood and into early puberty], online experience may have an effect on sense of self and expectations of puberty."

"[The challenges autistic children face, despite being articulate and intelligent] can sometimes  make it hard for these young people to express how they are feeling about their internal sensations, their gender identity and their sexual identity." 

"[Gen Zs and younger Millennials have different beliefs about the] fluidity and mutability of gender than older generations. Attitudes have changed at speed."

Cass Report, U.K. review of child and adolescent gender care

Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Two Spirit organizations and allies gathered at Washington Square Park for the 15th Annual Trans Day of Action on June 28, 2019.  Erik Mcgregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

The Report is neutral in the sense that it supports neither the current 'social contagion' debate, nor the insistence of trans-specific lobbyists that children's rising uncertainty about their birth gender designation must be respected and interpreted as a need for such children to be offered transition therapy. The recently published and disseminated Cass Report led by British pediatrician Hilary Cass simply presented its findings, most of which would displease those who accept at face value the blase attitudes of groups who unquestioningly accept the need to transition children to improve their health and future prospects.

The surge within today's society seeing gender-distressed children referred to gender clinics is alarming to many, all the more so that medical societies and specialists appear to have accepted the arguments of trans-supportive groups that it is wrong to question children, their motives and their wishes. The contentious impression that many young people identify as trans as a result of "social contagion" in peer groups and promoted through social media sites is infuriating to committed transgender support groups.

This Report of recent vintage concluded that the rapid increase in numbers of children committed to transitioning their gender identities and the acceptance of their choices cannot be attributed to peer pressure and social media influence alone, for the rapid increase or why gender dysphoria has become so strikingly common a presentation when predominately biological males transition to biological females, a phenomenon that "is unlike that in any prior historical period".

The Report researchers noted that gender-distressed minors and their parents discussed with them issues about online information that describes normal adolescent discomfort as a possible sign of being trans and that particular influencers have had a "substantial impact on their child's belief and understanding of their gender". The term "social contagion" is disliked within the trans community. "Simplistic explanations of either kind (all trans people are born that way/it's all social contagion) do not consider the wide range of factors that can lead young people to present with gender-related distress and undervalues their experiences."

On the other hand, "de-transitioners" have described on social media, in blogs and published studies, being influenced by Tumblr, YouTube videos and online communities into transitioning. Another argument is that no evidence exists to support "transness" can be socially contagious, or a TikTok video can "totally destabilize" the gender identity of a child. Unless, of course, it is the sheer volume of the push toward acceptance of transitioning coming from a myriad of sources, all of which young people pay heed to.

Neurodiversity represents conditions like autism spectrum disorder and ADHD, with studies suggesting trans and gender-diverse people are three to six times likelier to be autistic than cisgenders. According to a Canadian study of 174 youth aged 15 and under referred for puberty blockers to any one of ten gender clinics operating in Canada, 81 percent were born female. Two thirds of the referrals had at minimum one other comorbidity diagnosis beyond gender dysphoria, such as anxiety, depression, ADHD or autism.

There were reports from some parents of natal girls that "their children had been through a period of trans identification", later recognizing they were not trans after all, but same-sex-attracted females. Speaking at a focus group, a gender-diverse youth made the observation that "a lot of trans people make YouTube videos which I think is a (major) informational source for a lot of people". Biological factors have not changed in the last ten years yet the disproportionate number of birth-registered females now identifying as trans or gender-diverse presents as a puzzling social/biological phenomenon.

Transgender pride flag. Angela Weiss Getty Image

"[The Cass report didn't surprise] thoughtful professionals who provide this care. Since 2014, we've noticed this upward trend in overall referrals and from certain demographics, namely biological females and those who are neurodivergent."

"We have to avoid extremes -- 'all these youth are transgender and will continue to identify as another gender for the rest of their life', or 'it's all due to social influence'."

"[Many young people have benefited from social, medical or surgical transitioning, but an increasing number of others] have not only stopped their transition but have also regretted it as well."

"Many of these youth will say they have been harmed, [that social factors influenced their reasons for transitioning."

Dr. Joey Bonifacio, Toronto pediatrician, expert in gender medicine, specialist in adolescent medicine, St.Michael's Hospital