Gender and Sex Data Standard, published January of 2023
As we go towards acceptance of gender identities, how will our new understanding be reflected in research and statistics? How will this influence the gender wage gap, if at all? British Columbia published a standardized approach to this kind of research and statistical methods in 2023.
Definitions in the BC statistic gathering guide include male, female, intersex, and unknown for sex categories. For gender, it is male, female/woman, neither, and unknown.
Some statistics pre-dating this change of data gathering showed that transgender individuals earned less than their cisgender counterparts. This may bleed into the gender wage gap even more so as the number of male-to-female identifying transgender persons of working age is higher than female-to-male. With that said, though, nonbinary/other/neither is the largest of the categories.
How do you think the gender wage gap might differ as time progresses?
Transgenderism has been widely accepted systemically in Canada. That is not to say that our system is not perfect in their approach here. We have progressed leaps and bounds beyond where we were just 10 years ago, however. Not only did Canada add gender identity to its Human Rights Act as well as two sections of the Criminal Code.
With Bill C-16, Canada was able to amend the Criminal Code as well as the Human Rights Act under the Liberal government, manned by Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister. The bill was introduced in 2016 and received Royal Assent in June of 2017, effectively amending Canadian laws.
“Gender identity” and “gender expression” are both referenced in Canadian law, and are used to describe a person’s reported understanding of their own gender identity as well as how they choose to express it. These traits are protected by Canadian Laws (via Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code). This does not mean that purposeful misgendering of someone qualifies as an act that is worthy of jail time as there must be a level of threat or harm that must be imminent or inherent.
These changes enact protection from a federal standpoint. Most provinces and territories already had protections in place from a provincial standpoint.
Canadian Human Rights Act – adds a prohibition of discriminatory practices on the basis of gender identity and expression without a bona fide reason. Generally, this is relevant to federal employees.
Criminal Code (hate speech) and the Criminal code (sentencing for hate crimes) places gender identity and expression in the identifiable category, protecting it as entities or themes. This makes it an offence to make statements that willfully promote any hatred to anyone or groups of persons within the identifiable groups. This includes statements made via telephone, a broadcast, posts or comments and any other visible or auditory means. The key point here is that it is the promotion of hate, not simply ignorant comments that might be offensive.
In the 70’s Yonge Street was a road in downtown Toronto that was known as the Sin Strip which included various businesses that offered adult services and explicit goods that were within a legal grey area. After a tragic event in 1977, Yonge Street received attention from the public and the police force, which would inevitably launch protests that grew in size until the large en masse march down Yonge Street that would later be known as the first Pride Parade.
On July 28th of 1977, Emanuel was working as a shoeshine boy with his brother, Luciano, earning money to help their parents in supporting their family of 7. The family moved to Canada from Portugal with 5 children in tow just under 4 years prior to the heinous crime that would ultimately take Emanuel’s life.
On an offer of $35 to help move photography equipment, Emanuel went with Saul David Betesh. Betesh would lure 12-year-old Emanuel away where they would join up with Robert Kribs and Joseph Woods – Betesh’s sick friends who would join Betesh in torturing the child. The torture involved sexual assault and the taking of his life through drowning him in a sink at Charlie’s Angels Massage Parlour.
The 12-year-old child’s body was found on top of a roof at 245 Young Street on August 1st, 1977. It would take more than a decade for all three of his murderers to be convinced of this evil crime.
Emanuel’s death sparked outrage from public that largely pointed the finger incorrectly at the LGTBQIA+ community due to the presumed orientation of the three men who murdered Emanuel. This outrage showed itself through protests up and down Yonge street, demands for changing the laws surrounding sex work, and an increase in bath house raids. The raids would cause dozens of charges against patrons, owners, and employees of businesses within the Yonge Street area; the majority of charges were dropped.
“Operation Soap” was the precipitating bath house raid that caused a retaliation by citizens frustrated with the constant attack on their livelihoods, lifestyle, and freedom to be themselves.
In 2016, “cisgender” entered into the dictionaries as an adjective used to describe an individual whose gender aligned with their sex. You may also see the term “cis” in reference to a non-trans person. It is a descriptor, much like “trans” or “transgender” might be used to describe someone.
In March of 2023, Canada finally expunged its historic indecency laws. This comes decades after it was used to perform many raids that targeted the LGBTQ+ community.
Toronto Bathhouse Raids
After years of smaller raids performed by the Metropolitan police against Toronto’s gay community, one of the largest raids occurred on February 5th, 1981. This large raid was called the Toronto Bathhouse Raid. Under the name “Operation Soap,” the raids took place across four alleged bawly houses running as bathhouses located in Toronto.
By the end of “Operation Soap,” 286 men were charged with various accusations by the police, primarily related to sex work and other “indecent acts,” despite the lack of evidence of sex work taking place. Most of these men were found not guilty and the charges were dropped.
This blatant discrimination of the gay community was one of many events that encouraged a community response of large proportion.
Yonge and Wellesley street welcomed 3,000 people…
The following night at midnight, a marching protest began at Yonge and Wellesley an travelled to the 52 Division police station, peaking at over 3,000 participants. This was a large turnout for a time period when landline telephones were the primary source of communication.
A blockade of 200 police officers met the marching protestors at the police station, which encouraged the march to divert towards the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. As with any large gathering, violence did break out in a few areas, but injuries were rarely reported as a result.
Toronto Sun and the Toronto Star proved themselves to be bigoted news agencies of the time; the former accusing the Globe and Mail of spouting nonsense when they published the news with journalistic integrity. The latter proudly named victims of the smaller police raids leading up to this monumental raid.
Although bathhouse raids continued amongst the noted homosexual/gay bathhouses up until September 2000; these protests against police violence and unjust police tactics were successful in garnering support from Toronto citizens and allowed for more civil rights movements to continue.
The initialism LGB was introduced shortly after the protest that took place, though the initialism is difficult to pin down for Canadian-specific history.