this is a response to recent trans misogynist and trans antagonist flyers posted in the West End along Davie Street in Vancouver, BC and in parts of New Westminster, BC. this misguided campaign is financially supported by Paul Dirks and the New West Community Church.

Bill C-16 is currently before the Canadian Senate, a bill which seeks to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression.

bigots such as Paul Dirks and the New West Community Church, alongside Trans Exclusionary “Radical Feminists” (TERFs), continue to reduce gender to our body parts, chromosomes, and genetics (biology), perpetuate narrow, out-dated ideas around the roles and responsibilities of men and women within society, and conflate issues faced by cisgender women with issues faced by trans and gender nonconforming people. Bill C-16 is put forward on the foundational understanding that gender is a spectrum, fluid and self-defined and that protecting people from discrimination on the basis of gender means explicitly ensuring people of ALL genders are included and protected under the law.

this reality contradicts the belief systems of cis supremacists, like Paul Dirks and TERFs, who fear defining gender beyond the binary (and the existence of trans and gender nonconforming people in general) targets cisgender women with violence, despite lack of material evidence. this is the textbook definition of prejudice.

we support the passing of this bill. oppression is complicated, and we believe ending it requires a radical transformation of society as we know it. at the same time, we recognize that part of the solution requires amending existing structures (policies and practices), problematic as they are, to create space for marginalized people to stay alive, survive, and thrive.

the passing of this bill provides the potential for trans people to be protected from discrimination and bring into existence legal tools for trans people to use should they face violence for their gender identity and/or gender expression. it also creates a potential platform to work off of in supporting conversations with people living within the colony of Canada on how we view and define femininity, masculinity, sex, gender, gender identity, and gender expression.

please print and distribute the flyer (put it up in storefronts, flyer your apartment, school, workplace, wheatpaste onto lightpoles, etc.):
11 x 17: https://theantioppressionnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/supportbillc16-11×17.pdf
8.5 x 11: https://theantioppressionnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/supportbillc16-8×11.pdf

please contact members of the Senate to support this bill (get your friends, coworkers, and family to do the same): http://sds.utoronto.ca/news/support-bill-c-16/

[image description: a black and white text poster. it says:
FEMINISM INCLUDES ALL GENDERS
(if it doesn’t, it’s not feminism)

SUPPORT BILL C-16:
amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression!

FIGHT GENDER ESSENTIALISM
(the idea that there are only two genders: women and men; that women and men have specific, separate and rigid roles within society which they cannot deviate from)
& FIGHT BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM
(the idea that gender is determined based solely on our body parts, chromosomes and genetics (biology); thatidentifying either as only male or only female is the default

THESE BELIEFS ARE HARMFULTO PEOPLE OF ALL GENDERS

#PassBillC16 #SupportBillC16 #ProtectTransKids
http://sds.utoronto.ca/news/support-bill-c-16/
https//theantioppressionnetwork.wordpress.com

BECAUSE IT’S 2017 end description.]