Hamilton councillors hear both sides of washroom gender debate

By Samantha Craggs, CBC News

Posted: Dec 11, 2012 7:06 AM ET

Last Updated: Dec 11, 2012 7:04 AM ET

 

The issue of gender and public washrooms reared its head at Hamilton city hall on Monday when a local family action council founder spoke against biological boys using the girls' washroom, and vice versa.

Jim Enos of the Hamilton-Wentworth Family Action Council presented a petition to keep washroom usage down strict binary gender lines.

Enos, who was a Christian Heritage Party candidate for Hamilton Mountain in 2011, was unhappy about a policy passed by the Toronto District School Board on Oct. 4. It stated that students can use the washroom of their choice, and to question it would be against their human rights.

"For many this policy was shocking and very hard to digest," Enos told the city's emergency and community services committee.

He worried about students feeling unsafe, sexual predators taking advantage and adolescents "tempted to enter and use opposite gender facilities simply for the thrill of such adventure."

Will Rowe, a trans advocate and outreach co-ordinator at The Well, presented after Enos, giving council letters in support of a more transgender-friendly approach.

Which restroom to use, while a simple choice for many, is a source of anxiety for a transgender person, Rowe said.

"In the five years I have worked at The Well, I have yet to encounter a trans individual who could not recall a horribly humiliating and potentially violent incident while negotiating public washrooms."

The Toronto District School Board policy is "a prime example of human rights well implemented," he said.

In public restrooms, transgender people are "more afraid of you than you are of them," Rowe said, quoting a letter from a supporter. "They are expecting your hate, judgment and harassment that is given to them so freely in their everyday lives."

Committee members received both presentations as information.

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