Essay #2: USA & Canada take action on Gender Identity

Abdullah Al Iman
Professor Harris
English 110
16 November 2018

Hate Crime because of gender identity rising? USA and Canada take action

Introduction
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation , there was a disturbing 17% increase in hate crime against the LGBTQ community in 2017. The LGBTQ community has been a target in many areas of the world as of recent . Hate crimes against the community has not been diminishing rather increasing in the past decade. L.G.B.T people are twice as likely to be targeted as African-Americans, and the rate of hate crimes against them has surpassed that of crimes against Jews (Park and Mykhyalyshyn , 2016).This rising statistic is causing serious concerns throughout the world. Legislation across the board is trying to gather all the information they can before they come to a consensus in terms of laws. The radical crimes against the LGBTQ community has influenced laws around the world to take action and take a strong position on the matter. Canada is taking a very liberal approach on the matter while the United States is sticking to their roots and taking a very conservative take.

Causes & Status surrounding the Hate Crimes
Ironically, as the United States becomes more accepting of the LGBTQ community , some become more radical. According to “ L.G.B.T People Are More Likely to Be Targets of Hate Crimes Than Any Other Minority Group” by Haeyoun Park and Iarnya Mykhyalyshyn , “Nearly a fifth of the 5,462 so-called single – bias hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2014 were because of the target’s sexual orientation or perceived orientation.” As society is becoming adjusted to the LGBTQ community , the people who oppose them are becoming more violent. For example, less than two months after the Supreme Court was in favor of Same-Sex marriage , a gay couple who were married recently was attacked. Though they make up only 3.5% of the US population , they are eight times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime than other those who are not LGBTQ (Gates and Newport 2013) . Recent population based studies estimate that over the course of an LGBTQ individual’s lifetime there is a 20% risk of experiencing hate violence , while a transgender individual’s risk is 27% ( Herek 2009 , Lombardi , Wilchins , Priesting 2002). This makes the Transgender community the most attacked on group from the LGBTQ community. According to social activists and policy makers , the reason why hate crimes towards the LGBTQ community is so high is because of the exposure and visibility increasement as of recent years. So basically , since the acceptance of the trans community is rising , some take issue to this and decide to harm the trans community in response to all the acceptance.

Canada’s Stance on Gender Identity
With all the hate crimes and hate speech directed towards the LGBTQ community , Canadian government decided to take action to protect gender identity. The Bill C-16 was added to the Canadian Human Rights Act and two sections of the Criminal Code ( hate crime and hate speech).It was voted 67-11.Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould introduced Bill C-16 on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, C-16 means you can file a complaint for discrimination and harassment. Using the wrong pronouns repeatedly after being told the correct pronouns might be considered harassment. In terms of hate speech , it is forbidden to cause hatred against identifiable groups which will likely lead to a breach of peace in the public space. This “breach of peace” violation could be as serious as a two year long imprisonment(According to the Canadian Human Rights Act). Unlike hate crime law in the United States, hate crime law in Canada does not constitute independent violations prompting discrete sanctions. Rather, judges will have to consider whether you were motivated by bias against trans people at the sentencing stage of the prosecution of a separate crime. Although Canada is helping the LGBTQ community when it comes to protecting gender identity , there is still a lot of grey areas surrounding the laws. Grey areas such as intention and motivation. It’s never easy to say what person’s intentions are when using the wrong pronouns , such as if it was accidental or not. Although the law is not perfect it is a step in the right direction for fighting against the radical crimes against the LGBTQ community. The Bill C-16 shows that Canada is very liberal towards gender identity since they take into account the trans community’s feelings and are trying to help push the trans movement in the right direction. They are trying to punish all the people who disrespect a person’s transition and in Canada’s view , it should be illegal.

Trump’s stance on Gender Identity
Even though the Canadian government is helping the LGBTQ community against these hate crimes , it seems as though the Trump Administration has decided to take a different approach to this issue. On October of 2018 , Trump has been working on a anti-LGBT policy. That would be calling for an interpretation of Title IX , which is basically the federal civil rights law that bans sex discrimination in federally funded schools. The Department of Health and Human services for Trump are planning to change Title IX. By planning to change Title IX I mean ,Trump’s department is aiming to get a new definition by the end of the year. According to a graphic representation of the U.S.A , 31 states have no protection for sexual orientation and gender identity (German Lopez , Human Rights Campaign). This basically means that people can get fired/not get a job if the owner/boss doesn’t like or agree with your sexual orientation or gender identity. Trump has admitted that he believes that a person should be identified as the sex they were born with and not what they transitioned to. Trump’s stance on gender identity is very conservative minded and goes against Obama’s policies on transgenders. He even goes to extreme lengths such as reinstating the ban on Trans people joining and openly serving in the military. Although the ban has not been made official yet , he is trying his best to accomplish his Anti-LGBTQ position. He is also going against Obama’s stance on trans’ views. He is trying to reverse Obama’s law on protecting Trans’ rights for K-12 students , which includes bathroom laws , and as well as adult workers which like I stated before , it means that it wouldn’t be illegal to not hire a person because of their gender identity. Because of his presidency and administration , America will now be seen as an anti-LGBTQ country by the rest of the world.

LGBTQ refugees seek help from Canada
Atrocious human rights violations have influenced lesbians , gays , bisexuals and transgenders to seek shelter in countries with better human rights protections. This in turn has led some countries to extend refugee protection to men and women who feared persecution in their home countries because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.In many cases, individuals flee directly to countries where significant progress has been made on LGBTQ human rights and where they are able to make claims for asylum pursuant to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees Convention (LaViolette , 2014). According to The Globe and Mail , “nearly 2,500 people from 75 different countries have sought asylum on the basis of sexual orientation in Canada.” Many people believe in Canada to provide a safe haven for them based on their history on dealing with gender identity.
Before the Bill C-16 , there were two other bills that were planned to take action against the rising epidemic. The first was introduced in 2005 and the second one was the Bill C-279 , both of which was immediately dismissed. So because of the past history of Canada , many people wanted to settle here for comfort. The Convention has provided actual and tangible protection to many individual LGBTQ since the early 1990s, more so than any other international human rights instrument. Yet, because of the growing number of asylum claims by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals, there is a need for greater awareness among the people who judge of the specific experiences of LGBTQ refugee claimants.

Counterclaim: What Trump sees
So to reiterate my point on Trump’s anti -LGBTQ stance , under President Trump , it is okay for an owner/boss to not hire you because of your gender identity and sexual orientation. And to a lot of people’s eyes , this is a clear breaking of federal law that was once held strongly under Obama. However , on the other side , opponents argue that LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections aren’t included in existing federal rights civil laws. This is because the authors of the civil rights laws never believed or intended that bans on sex discrimination also ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Arguments against Trump’s position are simply as follows : what the original author’s believe or intended is irrelevant. It is irrelevant because according to the Supreme Court Case , Onacle v. Sundower Offshores Services Inc. , in which the court all agreed that bans on sex-discrimination prohibit same sex sexual harassment. Sexual harassment between people of the same sex was not something the authors of federal civil rights laws considered, but it’s something, the Supreme Court said, that a plain reading of the law protects.

From Democratic rule to Republican rule
Like I mentioned earlier, Trump’s take on the LGBTQ community is the opposite of Obama’s view on it. Obama was trying to push forward and was helping the LGBTQ community while Trump is backtracking from what Obama has done and going to America’s roots and taking a right wing approach to it. Trump didn’t even declare June as LGBT Pride Month , as Obama had done. “In March 2017, the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL), which oversees and funds elder and disability services, announced that it was removing sexual orientation and transgender status questions from the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants, questions that had been added in 2014”(Cahill , 2017). So once again , Trump is rescinding laws made by the previous president ,Obama. This removal of questions dealt with huge backlash and the public had such a huge problem with this that the ACL will restore the sexual orientation question however it will not restore questions pertaining to gender identity. The Trump Budget is also an aspect of Trump’s presidency that goes against what the ACA fought for under Obama’s presidency. “The Trump-Pence budget, introduced in May 2017, would sharply cut HIV and chronic disease prevention programs, and eliminate entire HIV care programs that date back to the mid-1990s. It would axe Medicaid by $800 billion over the next decade and cut the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by twenty percent over the next two years. One in three American children–46 million in total–receive health care through either Medicaid or CHIP.” So as a result of this budget , it would cut funding for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases by 17 percent. Since America doesn’t have a cure or a vaccine for HIV and many STDs, cutting funds for research on these issues and protection programs will now result with this epidemic beginning to grow again and this epidemic of rising diseases is something that the LGBTQ (especially the trans community) had to deal with. This budget/proposal by Trump would make it even harder for people who already have HIV to obtain health insurance and this would negatively affect the LGBTQ community a lot. It is clear to see that Trump feels very strongly about Gender Identity just like Obama , however it is just on the other end of the spectrum.

Conclusion
So overall , the situation surrounding gender identity is a very talked about issue and it should be dealt with affirmative actions. Both the United States and Canadian government took action on dealing with the matter and have a strong stance because of all the hate crimes surrounding the LGBTQ community especially the trans community who have struggled with gender identity. The United States government is going back to their original foundation on gender identity , which their original foundation is a very conservative view while Canada is changing what they believed in before and now is taking a very liberal approach. The United States (Mainly the Trump Administration) wants to ban majority the rights that a Transgender has had and will rescind anything that helped out the Trans community in recent years. Canada is trying their best to protect gender identity and making the LGBTQ community feel safe from all the hate crimes occurring around the world. Two different views which formed from the same issue: Hate Crimes surrounding Gender Identity.
Works Cited

HAEYOUN PARK & IARYNA MYKHYALYSHYN, L.G.B.T. People Are More Likely to Be Targets of Hate Crimes Than Any Other Minority Group https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/16/us/hate-crimes-against-lgbt.html
German Lopez , The Trump administration’s latest anti-transgender action, explained
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/22/18007978/trump-administration-lgbtq-transgender-discrimination-civil-rights
Liz Coston ,LGBT Rights and their impact on the Anti-LGB Hate Crimes
https://www.emich.edu/equality/research/lcoston.pdf
Florence Ashley ,No, pronouns won’t send you to jail: The misunderstood scope of Bill C-16
https://medium.com/@florence.ashley/no-pronouns-wont-send-you-to-jail-43c268cffd55
Jordan Dashow, New FBI Statistics Show Alarming Increase in Number of Reported Hate Crimes
https://www.hrc.org/blog/new-fbi-statistics-show-alarming-increase-in-number-of-reported-hate-crimes
LaViolette, Nicole. “Sexual orientation, gender identity and the refugee determination process in Canada.” Journal of Research in Gender Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, 2014, p. 68+. Academic OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A397454241/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=48a12c41. Accessed 19 Nov. 2018.
Cahill, Sean. “Make America sick again.” The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, vol. 24, no. 5, 2017, p. 21+. Academic OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504340629/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=085bdca0. Accessed 19 Nov. 2018.
Farr, Daniel. “Problematizing sex/gender with transgender marriage law.” Radical Teacher, Summer 2010, p. 74+. Academic OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A238423335/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=62bb9ba7. Accessed 19 Nov. 2018.

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