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News > World

Canada: Former Human Rights Official Supports Trans Rights

  • Man holds flag during an LGBT pride parade.

    Man holds flag during an LGBT pride parade. | Photo: Reuters

Published 29 July 2015
Opinion

“Pride has never been partisan. It should be political in that it is a political protest,” the former Human Rights Commissioner says.

LGBT organizers in Vancouver, Canada, have been under scrutiny in recent days after they banned the  governing political party from participating in the annual Pride event for failing to support transgender equality legislation.

A former Human Rights Commissioner said Wednesday she backs the ban.

Last week, the Vancouver Pride Society banned the British Columbia Liberal Party, the governing conservative and liberal provincial political party in the Canadian province, for failing to sign a pledge supporting transgender equality legislation.

The decision sparked controversy resulting in the resignation of parade director Tim Ell, who disagreed with the ban, saying it was “partisan.”

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Mary Woo Sims, who acted as the chief commissioner of the province’s  Human Rights Commission from 1997 to 2001, disagrees.

“Pride has never been partisan. It should be political in that it is a political protest,” Sims told The Early Edition.

Transgender rights need specific legal protection, according to the former commissioner.

“A teenager who is a transgender person trying to come out in school … is going to look at the code and ask 'where does gender identity come in?' she said.

In 1998, Sims submitted a report calling on explicit gender identity protection and has succeeded in having seven Canadian provinces and territories recognize this in their human rights legislation.

British Columbia however, has no explicit legal protection on gender identity so far.

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