In Ontario, trans people have no explicit legislative human rights protections.  Queer Ontario supports the Ontario Trans Human Rights Campaign in calling for the inclusion of ‘gender identity’ in the Ontario Human Rights Code as a recognized prohibited grounds against discrimination and harassment.

In 2000, The Ontario Human Rights Commission recognized that trans people (a term that includes, but is not limited to, transsexual and transgender people) are one of the most “disadvantaged and disenfranchised” groups in our society and that “fear and hatred combined with hostility towards their very existence are fundamental human rights
issues”.

The Commission also recommended that “By adding the ground ‘gender identity’ to the (Ontario Human Rights) Code, there would be no doubt legally or politically that transgendered people have the same protections as everyone else.”

A decade later, trans people’s stark realities have not changed. Nevertheless, the Government of Ontario has failed to follow the Commission’s recommendation to include “gender identity” in the Ontario Human Rights Code.

“Gender Identity” has been included as explicit ground of Human Rights Protection in the Northwest Territories, the City of Toronto and in several US states and trans human rights have been addressed by explicit legislation in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, Ontario, a province that promotes itself as a human rights leader, trails behind.

The time is now for the Government of Ontario to take a stand against transphobia and discrimination against trans people by adding “Gender Identity” to the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Queer Ontario supports the Ontario Trans Human Rights Campaign in urging the Ontario Government to do its part to stop discrimination and harassment against trans people by supporting an amendment to the Ontario Human Rights Code to include ‘gender identity’.

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