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68 U. Toronto L.J. 1 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/utlj68 and id is 1 raw text is: 









DON'T BE SO HATEFUL:


                                          THE INSUFFICIENCY OF ANTI-

                           DISCRIMINATION AND HATE CRIME LAWS

                                   IN IMPROVING TRANS WELL-BEING





The question of judicial protection of trans people has come to the fore in recent
years, culminating in Bill C-16 which added gender identity and gender expression
to the federal anti-discrimination and hate crime laws. In this article, the author
contests the notion that anti-discrimination and hate crime laws are effective in miti-
gating anti-trans harassment, discrimination, and violence. Suggesting that the
model of anti-trans acts which underlies anti-discrimination and hate crime laws is
erroneous, the author argues that the law s impact on trans well-being will be modest
and that a carejul analysis of anti-trans attitudes enables us to identify a number of
more effective governmental avenues toward trans emancipation.

Keywords: anti-discrimination laws, Bill C-16, feminism, hate crime laws,
human rights, LGBT, transgender

  Transfeminism believes that a society that honors cross-gender identifies is
  the one that treats people of all genders fairly, because our existence is
  seen as problematic only when there is a rigid gender hierarchy.

                                   Emi Koyama, 'The Transfeminist Manifesto'

  Violence against transgender people is a pandemic that has been gar-
nering some recognition by the Canadian government.' Reacting to the


* LLM Candidate, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Metaphorically, a cyborg witch
with flowers in her hair
f I would like to thank the amazing people that have helped me along with this article. I
would like to thank trans people for being so awesome. I would like to thank Rowan Scul-
lion for putting up with me as I rambled endlessly about the topic of the article. I would
like to thank Suzanne Zaccour and Caroline Trottier-Gascon for helping me in the early
brainstorming stages of the article. I would like to thank Jess De Santi for their helpful
comments and editorial help. I would like to thank David Dyzenhaus, Brenda Cossman,
and Robert Leckey for their astute and constructive comments that made the article what
it is today. And last but not least, I would like to thank Adelle Blackett for her amazing sup-
port and guidance as my term essay supervisor during the writing of this article. You are all
amazing.
  1 A person is transgender if their gender identity does not match the gender they were
    assigned at birth. A person who is not transgender, whose gender identity matches the
    gender they were assigned at birth, is said to be cisgender. Cisgender is the opposite
    of transgender. A person is cisgender if they identify with the gender they were as-
    signed at birth.


(Winter 2018) 68 UTLJ © UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS


Florence Ashley*


DOI: 10.3138/uflj.2017-0057

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