Mark Hanlon, the Executive Director of AIDS PEI, and Pam O'Neill of the Native Council of PEI sit here in front of Province House demanding that Provincial Government do more to protect the rights of Transgendered, Transsexual and Intersex Islanders. They are representatives of just a couple of the organizations that joined in today's protest.
A petition was launched today to include 'gender identity' to the provincial Human Rights Act. David Larter, executive director of the Human Rights Commission, argues that transgendered individuals are already protected under Section 13 of the Human Rights Act. Section 13 states that no person shall discriminate against an individual because of sex or sexual orientation.
Ontario's Human Rights Act states that gender identity does fall under the sex category. By failing to specifically include the trans community in the exact wording of the law we allow those with a personal prejudice to challenge trans people's protection under Section 13. By including gender identity in the Human Rights Act we create a concrete law that can't be undermined or second-guessed by unspecific wording.
No comments:
Post a Comment