Tokyo Passes Law Banning TBLGQ Discrimination

For those of you who reflexively hate on the Olympics and fixate on the infrastructure costs associated with hosting an Olympic Games, here's a compelling argument in favor of having them in your city.

In the wake of what happened in Sochi, with the Russian government ramping up discrimination aimed at TBLGQ people by passing an anti-gay propaganda law on the eve of the 2014 Winter Games too late for them to be moved elsewhere,  the IOC as part of Olympic Agenda 2020 requires all future host cities to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In order to meet that Olympics hosting requirement standard, on October 5 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government passed a TBLGQ rights law that states:

“The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, citizens, and enterprises may not unduly discriminate on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation” and includes a government pledge to “conduct measures needed to make sure human rights values are rooted in all corners of the city and diversity is respected in the city.”

The new law also commits the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to do public education campaigns in the city about TBLGQ rights issues.

Tokyo, along with Tokyo prefecture which it merged with in 1943, and the Tokyo metropolitan area is home to 25% of Japan's population.

Japan doesn't have a national law yet legalizing same sex marriage, and Japanese transgender people are required to have gender confirmation surgery before they can obtain federal ID that matches their gender identity.

But Japan has been making positive strides on the TBLGQ rights front in the last several years. Well known trans women like 2009 Miss International Queen winner Ai Haruna live and work there.

According to Human Rights Watch, in 2016 Japan's Minister of Education released a teacher's guidebook that covered the topic of how to treat TBLGQ students.  That same year Japan, along with the Netherlands and the United States, led a UNESCO conference on TBLGQ bullying, and followed that up in March 2017 by the Ministry of Education modifying the national bullying policy to include TBLGQ students.

Since 2003, Aya Kamikawa has been serving on the council for the largest of the 23 wards that make up the historic city of Tokyo, Setagaya.

She was the first and only elected trans official in Japan until March 2017, when 26 year old Tomoya Hosoda became the first trans masculine person elected to public office in the Land of the Rising Sun by winning a seat on the Iruma City city council, located in the Saitama prefecture in the Greater Tokyo metro area.

He called his win at the time 'a marker for transgender rights' in his nation, and in the wake of it has worked to increase acceptance for all forms of diversity in Japan.

Bill C-16 Passes Senate Third Reading!

June 15, 2017 is a date that will be etched into Canadian trans history.

It's been a long time coming, with the first of these bills being proposed back in 2005.   It has been at times a long and frustrating road for my Canadian trans family, but when they celebrate their home and native land's 150th birthday on July 1, they will do so knowing that their human rights are covered federally as well as in every province and territory in the country.

I've talked about Bill C-16 in numerous blog posts.  It would add gender identity and expression to the list of prohibited categories under the Canadian Human Rights Act.

It would also make changes to the Canadian Criminal Code so that gender identity and expression are added to the nation's hate speech laws and make disseminating hate propaganda based on gender identity or gender expression a crime.

 Bill C-16 would also add "gender identity or expression" to section 718.2 of the Criminal Code. This section of it discusses sentencing provisions and would make gender identity and gender expression an aggravating factor, which would be the bias, prejudice or hate to commit a criminal offence against the targeted person. These criminal prohibitions would apply throughout Canada..

Translation:  Targeting trans people in Canada for simply being trans would become a hate crime.

As you probably guessed, the Conservatives hated Bill C-16, and did their utmost to kill it when it left the House of Commons and hit the Senate.   

This was the first time  the Trans Rights Bill was a government bill and not a private member's one as it has been on previous occasions thanks to NDP MP's Bill Siksay and Randall Garrison

Bill C-16 passed its Third Reading vote in the Canadian Senate without amendments today on a 67-11 vote with 3 abstentions!.  Transphobic Conservative senator Don Plett, who led the charge in the senate to kill it, was probably one of the 11 no votes

Now all it needs is Royal Assent from the Governor General to become Canadian law



When those 150th anniversary celebrations erupt all over Canada, my Canadian trans fam can do so knowing that their nation respects their humanity and human rights enough to protect it in their laws.

And that a wonderful thing to think about.  

Yukon Territory Passes Trans Rights Law!

While we're still waiting to see what happens with Bill C-16 as it sits at third reading stage in the Canadian Senate, Yukon Territory became the last Canadian province and territory to pass a trans protective law

After years of advocacy by All Genders Yukon, Bill 5 passed third reading on a 15-3 vote and received royal assent on June 13.

The bill was introduced on April 25 after promises were made prior to the November 2016 election of a Liberal majority government in its campaign materials they would review all laws to ensure they were compliant with LGBT rights.

Bill 5 adds explicit anti-discrimination protections for trans people into Yukon's Human Rights Code and also amends the Vital Statistics Act to allow the change of gender markers without having to go through gender confirmation surgery.

In a Canadian first, it also allows for a gender neutral option on birth certificates to allow to change it later.

“I’m very proud to be able to say that transgender Yukoners now have the same rights and protections under these acts as the rest of their fellow citizens. We support a person’s right to self-determination of their gender identity,” Minister of Health and Social Services Pauline Frost said in a statement after the vote. “The amendments are part of our government’s commitment to support inclusiveness, equality and a respect for diversity in Yukon.” 

Now we'll have to see if the Canadian Senate will do the right thing and pass C-16 since now all Canadian provinces and territories protect their trans citizens