Transgender Rights

Whereas transgender and gender variant members of our communities face shocking rates of harassment, discrimination, and social exclusion which interfere with threaten their lives and reduce their ability to participate fully in civil life; And whereas the wording of provincial human rights legislation is not always explicit about the protection afforded to transgender people on the basis of gender identity and gender expression; And whereas the majority of Canadian provinces have made amendments to their human rights legislation to explicitly protect transgender and gender variant people; And whereas the government of British Columbia has failed to introduce explicit protection for transgender and gender variant people on the basis of gender identity and gender expression, despite having suitable draft legislation before it since 2011; Therefore be it resolved that UBCM acknowledges the Province of British Columbia for its inclusion of specific protection for transgender people in the BC Human Rights Code, and that UBCM urge local governments in BC to develop and implement transgender inclusion policies in order that transgender and gender variant citizens can be better included in all our communities.