The middle-aged woman with the man's voice, among other unseen attributes, turned out to be a transsexual who had yet to undergo the surgical transformation from male to female.
And now, her request to join the gym has landed Mr. Fulton before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
(...)
"I will be a homeless person, living in the street and eating out of a gutter, before they get a penny out of me," Mr. Fulton said after yesterday's fruitless mediation, which ended short of its scheduled three hours. "I'm stubborn, and I feel like I'm being pushed around by these people."
The Ontario Human Rights Code forbids discrimination or harassment based on sex, which includes issues of gender identity.
(...)
"I think the important thing to remember there is how they identify themselves; what their sense is, that they are living as a man or living as a woman," Ms. Edwards said. "Regardless of whether they're preop or postop, it's their lived gender that's important."
Mr. Fulton, however, cited a section in the same rights code which allows service providers to restrict access to facilities "to persons of the same sex on the ground of public decency." And to his mind, the display of male genitalia, even on someone who self-identifies as a woman, could be construed as indecent by other women at his gym.
They're trying to ruin this guy's life over making a common sense business decision. This makes me extremely angry. Imagine a woman in the club encountering a guy with a - excuse the term-dick in the shower or change room. They would resign their membership.
It's legal to get a sex-change operation. (I would debate that it shouldn't be, that it is subjective psychology and mutilation, but I can argue that another time.) But for god sakes, it's your choice to do it. You are going to have to put up with the inconveniences. This business owner had the unfortune that "she" walked into his life.
I read this article this morning. A private business should never be forced to provide a service, regardless of the reason. His private gym is not a government service department. This article went into the zone of hard to believe. What`s next forcing a breakfast diner into not serving bacon, because a Jewish person might be offended. I was glad to hear the gym owner was not rolling over to the politically correct Nazis government officials. This is Canada, what has happened?
ReplyDeleteYes. I agree. I had trouble believing this. I'm sure 99% of people who read this would think the HRC are way over stepping their authority.
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