Mar
25
Shortly after the city of Phoenix passed a law broadly outlawing discrimination against transgender people, Republicans in the Arizona state government responded by proposing a law criminalizing the use of gender-designated bathrooms by people whose birth certificates don’t match that designation.
The justification given for such legislation is that, if people born male were allowed to go into women’s bathrooms, it would open the door to sexual predators sharing bathrooms with women and girls.
Evidently, boys are not worthy of protection.
Nor, it seems, are transgender people.
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Apr
19
A court decision in Canada has struck down a law requiring Gender-reassignment Surgery (GRS) as a precondition to having one’s gender changed on their documentation.
There are undoubtedly people on both sides of this issue who will be unhappy about it – post-op transsexuals who may feel that anyone who can tolerate the “bits” of the opposite gender is not truly transsexual, and others who may feel that this just makes it too easy to play games with one’s gender and official documentation.
But, remember that most people who eventually undergo gender reassignment surgery spend years living as the gender opposite to what their identification indicates. They do this for financial reasons, or even for reasons of uncertainty and fear of going through with the surgery. They are not fooling around; this is serious business in their lives, and having a passport or ID that matches the gender they are living is important.
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Mar
27
Miss Universe Canada selected Jenna Talackova as a finalist for the 2012 competition.
But, that was before they found out that she was born male (“assigned male at birth” to be exact).
Can’t have that!
Yes, the pageant immediately disqualified her, wishing her the best in her life outside their little event. Sorry, just the rules; no discrimination here, they said.
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Sep
17
As you all know, I am a gender-traveler – not only from one gender to the other, but from one place to another.
My “home and native land” of Canada has disappointed me with its restrictive laws, which are unnecessary to any constructive purpose. I recounted my dismay with Canadian air travel laws in a recent post (click here).
By contrast, I read today that Australia has enacted new rules that allow their citizens to acquire a passport with gender designated as M, F or X (for indeterminate), with only a doctor’s letter of support. No surgery, no imminent surgery, no proof of medical condition required.
Read More»Sep
03
Having flown without incident as a girl on a number of occasions in the U.S., I was quite taken aback to read that in Canada – a country most people would regard as more progressive – the law requires airlines to deny boarding to anyone who “does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents.” (Aeronautics Act of Canada Section 5.2(1)(b).)
My experiences in America have been nothing but pleasant. I have sung the praises, on these very pages, of both border agents and security personnel, who have gone out of their way to be accommodating and pleasant.
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