Paul Dirks, Laura-Lynn Thompson, Barbara Kay, Meghan Murphy, Kari Simpson, Jordan Peterson, Barry Neufeld, Parents United Canada, Culture Guard, Real Women Canada, 3 Percent, Soldiers of Odin, Canadian Christian Lobby, Jenn Smith, Canadian Christian Coalition, Uprising Europa, you all have something in common and this message is for you.
As you know, transgender persons exist and as quietly boring as many Canadians wish you were. We all have the same rights, the same hopes, and the same fears. We are, in facts so much alike.
Sometimes you really perplex me. Yes, you even baffle me. I should not need to spell out to you or to other deeply social-conservative folks exactly what the rights of transgender and non-binary folks are. You’d think each of you would already know this since our rights are your rights too.
Like us, you have every right to live your lives to their fullest. Like us, you get to be protected from the discrimination or any hatred others might feel towards you turning to action. Like us you are protected from others, their views, and their actions when they cross the line and become prohibited discrimination or acts of hatred.
I should not have needed to take the matter to the BC Human Rights Tribunal to fight for my basic rights, and neither should you. I shouldn’t have had to testify about online hatred to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and neither should you.
Our existence is just a fact, that’s it. And yours is too.
Maybe we all just need to get used to this like you had to get used to the fact that the lifestyle of attacking gay is as out of touch with Canadian Values as flat earth theory.
Like women, gays, and immigrants, and transgender people you are equal to everyone else. Your rights are neither stronger or weaker than anyone else’s.
In fact if I may be so bold, your inciting hatred against others and advocating for discrimination on prohibited grounds seems to be your Achilles heel.
It’s a blind spot too many of us have, so I have some empathy for your having to carry this albatross around your neck. We’re all wobbly somewhere, after all.
Everyone wants to be their best possible selves and you don’t have to work actively to harm others by inciting hatred or discrimination on prohibited grounds. There are other jobs and there is most likely room for you and your beliefs in Canada if you just stop that one thing. It’s not too late and you can come back from the mess you got yourselves into.
Canada is an accepting place with room for everyone, no matter what they believe. Why don’t you give me a call and we can have a chat over coffee? Like everyone else, you deserve room to be yourselves and believe what you believe. After all, Canadians believe in second chances.
Morgane Oger 
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