Transgender activist celebrating Service Canada rules around gender pronouns
Posted March 21, 2018 10:53 pm.
Last Updated March 21, 2018 10:54 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A local transgender activist is applauding a recent move from Service Canada, to have their employees use gender-neutral language when dealing with the public.
Service Canada employees are being asked by the Federal Government to use gender-neutral language to avoid portraying a perceived bias towards a particular sex or gender.
Morgane Oger is a transgender woman and Vice-President of the BC NDP. She says this is a very positive step.
“Unless you know how they want to be addressed, you shouldn’t just blurt out an assumption because it could very well be wrong,” says Oger. “If you call a woman a Mr., or if you call an unmarried person Ms. or Miss, it can hurt their feelings, so the very best thing to do is not assume.”
She says there are even more things politicians could do to make life easier for members of the transgender community, like, no longer listing the gender of a passenger on their plane ticket. Or, we could do away with gender-neutral language in politics, like having elected officials using a term like ‘my colleague’, instead of ‘Mr. Speaker.’
In short, Oger says we need to get away from the certification of sex or gender.
“In places where we police identity, government’s should get away from assuming that, A, they know the gender of people,” says Oger. “And B, that is has the right to know the gender, or that it has a reason to care.”
The Federal Minister of Social Development, Jean-Yves Duclos has come under fire for the change and clarified the plan on social media on Wednesday, writing “Madam/Sir will still be used by Service Canada employees if the client’s preference is known. In all cases, Canadians will decide how they wish to be addressed.”
