#c279

Senator Donald Plett continues to be trash

This was from a few days ago.

This is an update on the state of Bill C-279, which Plett amended to remove protections from trans people when it comes to gendered areas (washrooms, changerooms, etc that fit their gender identity)

Dear Senator ______,

On February 25th, you voted to approve amendments to Bill C279. This bill was originally intended to provide greater protection under the Human Rights Act to transgender Canadians, including myself. However, the amendments that you helped to introduce turned C279 into a piece of legislation that actually enshrines transphobic discrimination into the Human Rights Act. Specifically, it denies transgender people the right to have their genders respected in any "crisis counselling facility, shelter for victims of abuse, washroom facility, shower facility or clothing changing room." Instead, the government will subject transgender people to an invasive scrutiny not applied to our cisgender fellow citizens, and will dictate our identities based on our genitals rather than our actual genders.

(Yes, segregating transgender women into men's facilities and transgender men into women's facilities is a clear denial that our gender identities are not legitimate just because they do not match our assigned physical sexes. Because of the way our society believes that gender and sex are linked, sex-based segregation cannot be understood as anything else but a denial of transgender identities.)

The text of the amendment say that this sex-based segregation "is undertaken for the purpose of protecting individuals in a vulnerable situation." Remarks made in the Senate during C279's third reading suggest that the Senators in favour of this amendment-- yourself included, I must assume-- believe that transgender people are somehow innately dangerous to people of a different sex. Otherwise, there would be no need for special sex-based segregation. This is false. This is a myth based in the bigoted idea that transgender people-- specifically transgender women, who are most often targeted-- are deviant, are perverted, are sexual predators. You know the myths; I need not repeat them at greater length. They are false. How is it not obvious that any stereotype about an entire group of people cannot possibly be true?

Senator, when it comes to "individuals in a vulnerable situation," transgender people are those vulnerable individuals. Consider:

An Ontario-based study of trans people found that 20 per cent had experienced physical or sexual assault due to their identity, and that 34 per cent were subjected to verbal threats or harassment.

Trans people in both Canada and the US report high levels of violence, harassment, and discrimination when seeking stable housing, employment, health or social services [such as the facilities that your amendment to C279 bans us from].

77% of trans respondents in an Ontario-based survey had seriously considered suicide and 45% had attempted suicide

Trans youth and those who had experienced physical or sexual assault were found to be at greatest risk.

(Source: Canadian Mental Health Association - Ontario http://ontario.cmha.ca/mental-health/lesbian-gay-bisexual-trans-people-and-mental-health/)

Consider also that denying transgender people's actual gender identities by segregating them into gender-based facilities based on their sex rather than their genders is systemic social marginalization that causes significant psychological harm and damages transgender people's mental health:

This 2011 report, The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding, found high rates of substance abuse, attempted suicide and HIV infection among other problems in transgender adults. The report concluded that the marginalization of transgender people from society is having a devastating effect on their physical and mental health. A similar conclusion was reached by the 2011 Injustice at Every Turn, survey of nearly 6,450 transgender and gender nonconforming people conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. It found that as many as 63 percent of respondents experienced some form of discrimination due to bias about their gender identity, including the loss of a job, bullying and even physical and sexual assault. As many as 41 percent of respondents reported they had attempted suicide — a rate 25 times higher than that of the general population. In a study now in press in the American Journal of Public Health, Bockting found that half of the transgender women and a third of the transgender men surveyed said they struggle with depression from the stigma, shame and isolation caused by how others treat them.

(Source: The American Psychological Association. http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/04/transgender.aspx)

What you have done, in voting to support amendments to Bill C279, is to destroy the efficacy of C279 as a protection of transgender rights. As it now reads, C279 will enshrine psychologically harmful discrimination against transgender people into federal law if it is passed.

I cannot express the depth of my hurt and anger that you voted not only to deny my human rights, but to legalize--mandate-- discrimination against me. You have helped to diminish the strength of the Canadian Human Rights Act and to tarnish Canada's reputation.

When-- I am not naive enough to think "if"-- when more of my transgender peers commit suicide due to their socially-inflicted mental traumas, and when more members of my community are murdered in hate crimes because people believe, with the government's support, that transgender people are predators and invaders of vulnerable spaces, their deaths will be partly on your hands. This is the gravity of our reality, and of your actions.

Cole Ramsey

(Feel free to copy/amend and send your own letters.)

These are the Senators who voted in favour of the amendment:

Sen. Donald Neil Plett proposed this amendment (Landmark, Manitoba, PC appointed by Harper) Telephone: 613-992-0180 or 1-800-267-7362 Fax: 613-992-0186 Email: [email protected]

Denise Batters (Saskatchewan, PC appointed by Harper) Telephone: 613-996-8922 or 1-800-267-7362 Fax: 613-996-8964 Email: [email protected]

Jean-Guy Dagenais (Victoria, QC. PC, appointed by Harper) Telephone: 613-996-7644 or 1-800-267-7362 Fax: 613-996-7649 Email: [email protected]

Fabian Manning (Nfld, PC appointed by Harper) Telephone: 613-947-4203 or 1-800-267-7362 Fax: 613-947-4170 Email: [email protected]

Thomas Johnson McInnis (NS, PC appointed by Harper) Telephone: 613-943-1662 or 1-800-267-7362 Fax: 613-943-1683 Email: [email protected]

Paul E. McIntyre (NB, PC appointed by Harper) Telephone: 613-943-1756 or 1-800-267-7362 Fax: 613-943-1751 Email: [email protected]

Abstained: Bob Runciman (ON, PC appointed by Harper) Telephone: 613-943-4020 or 1-800-267-7362 Fax: 613-943-4022 Email: [email protected]

Amendments introduced to the Senate Wednesday would exempt the transgender rights bill from public washrooms, locker rooms and women’s shelters. The bill’s sponsor in the House, New Democrat MP Randall Garrison, said he believes the amendments are a stalling tactic to kick the bill back down to the Commons. With the 2015 election looming, any delay is likely to kill the bill. “I think the amendments were designed to provide additional delay to defeat the bill,” he said. Liberal Sen. Grant Mitchell, the Senate sponsor of the bill, said “The very act that is designed to prohibit discrimination is being amended to allow discrimination,” he said during the meeting.

Sen. Donald Plett, a Conservative member of the standing committee, proposed during the meeting on Wednesday that the legislation be amended to exclude federal “sex-specific” facilities like crisis facilities, washrooms, changing rooms and correctional facilities. “This act will no longer allow biological males to identify as female and gain access to vulnerable persons,” he said during the meeting.

Plett has insisted it is a public safety issue. “Whether or not it is called ‘the bathroom bill,’ it allows for pedophiles to take advantage of legislation that we have in place,” he said Feb. 4 during a Senate debate.

Oh hey look, I decided to have a chat with Don Plett. You can, too! 

In fact, why not get the kids to help and make it a family fun night?

It happened yesterday when Donald Plett made amendments which basically prohibit trans Canadians from using bathrooms and other public spaces. 6 conservatives voted for the amendments (4 against, 1 abstained).

Here's an article with more info:

Sen. Donald Plett, a Conservative member of the standing committee, proposed during the meeting on Wednesday that the legislation be amended to exclude federal “sex-specific” facilities like crisis facilities, washrooms, changing rooms and correctional facilities.“This act will no longer allow biological males to identify as female and gain access to vulnerable persons,” he said during the meeting.

He's using the 'bathroom predator' argument to strip people of human rights protections.

Which essentially killed a bill that was supposed to give protection to trans Canadians. This is going to delay the bill further, and at this point with these amendments this bill is almost useless in doing its original job.