{"id":77820,"date":"2017-05-14T05:08:42","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T05:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/transgender-rights-bill-threatens-female-born-womens-spaces-activists-say.html"},"modified":"2017-05-14T05:08:42","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T05:08:42","slug":"transgender-rights-bill-threatens-female-born-womens-spaces-activists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/transgender-rights-bill-threatens-female-born-womens-spaces-activists-say.html","title":{"rendered":"Transgender rights bill threatens ‘female-born’ women’s spaces, activists say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two\u00a0feminists are warning the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee that passing the federal transgender rights bill could threaten the existence of exclusively “female-born” women’s\u00a0spaces, like rape crisis centres,\u00a0a controversial argument that has ignited a debate over who should\u00a0call themselves a woman.<\/p>\n

“We are worried that this well-intentioned legislation will be used to undermine the rights of women and the crucial work of women’s groups,”\u00a0Hilla\u00a0Kerner, a collective member of the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, told the Red Chamber committee\u00a0studying Bill C-16.<\/p>\n

“What we are saying is: If you were born a female, you are doomed. You are doomed in our society to be\u00a0second-class. You do not have the privilege of growing as a male and have a choice to choose to be a woman. Surely, you cannot say these are the same thing.”<\/p>\n

Bill\u00a0C-16\u00a0would update the Canadian Humans Rights Act<\/a> and the Criminal Code to include the terms “gender identity” and “gender expression.” The House of Commons voted overwhelmingly in favour of these protections for the trans community, and sent the bill to the Senate last November.<\/p>\n

\"Marni<\/p>\n

Marni Panas of Edmonton testified before a Senate committee in Ottawa Thursday. Panas said she “may have been assigned male at birth … but I was born a woman.” (Submitted by Marni Panas)<\/p>\n

The idea that a transgender person “chooses” their identity is highly contentious. Groundbreaking research compiled by Greta Bauer<\/a>, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Western University, found 59 per cent of trans people knew their gender identity did not match their body before the age of 10, and 80 per cent knew this by the age of 14.<\/p>\n

Marni Panas, a prominent trans activist from Edmonton who also testified at the Senate committee, told CBC News transgender women are often accused of “pretending.”<\/p>\n

“That’s the underlying bias that really perpetuates this debate, that transgender women aren’t truly women. That fact is I’m real,” she said. “Let me assure you, somebody doesn’t come out as a transgender woman for privilege.\u00a0It comes at a great cost. I’ve lost my parents.\u00a0I’m going through a divorce.<\/p>\n

“I may have been assigned male at birth, and I was born with a penis, but I was born a woman.”<\/p>\n

Panas, 45, said transgender people often cannot live their true lives until they’ve gotten over the fear of how society will react to their transition. “You push that down. You have the internalized transphobia. But at the end of the day I didn’t choose this life, it chose me.”<\/p>\n