Dear Minister Johns

A letter was recently received from Kim Slomnicki in regards to a communication that was sent to you from myself (a constituent) asking you to meet with the LGB Alliance Canada. In this letter you have stated you are declining to meet with the LGB Alliance Canada. 

I wish to address some of the contents of this letter directly with you in hopes of receiving a personal response. I am also asking for public support from your constituents asking that you reconsider meeting with the LGB Alliance Canada. 

Mrs Slomnicki claims that the NDP strives to be inclusive of all but it is very important to understand how all the letters in the 2SLGBTQIA+ acronym are individual specific human rights movements lumped within one title. Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual people have the commonality of being same sex attracted. Therefore clear definitions in regards to biological sex are required to protect the specific rights of same sex attracted minorities. When definitions of biological sex and gender are conflated, this underpins and destabilizes the very nature of all of our hard earned rights. 

It is my understand that the NDP MPs are not too keen on publicly supporting the only national orginization that specifically represent same sex attracted people but this does not diminish our need to be protected nor does it address the new homophobia that is emerging within our public institutions. Supporting the 2SLGBTQIA+ as if it were one homogenous group with one set of beliefs on sex and gender actively excludes same sex attracted people. The LGB Alliance has formed because the greater acronym is not supporting the reality of biological sex, which is the basis of our attraction, lived reality, and our discrimination. 

Homosexuality and sex based rights are also supported by the Canadian Charter. In light of an unwillingness to meet with the LGB Alliance Canada, I suspect that the NDP has adapted it’s own internal policies and procedures that independently uphold and protect the charter rights of lesbians, gays and bisexual people.  Can you please clarify with direct detailed examples how your party is actively protecting same sex attracted people from discrimination, bullying and harrasment in light of an emerging new homophobia. 

I look forward to hearing from you personally on these matters and that you agree to meet with the LGB Alliance Canada.

Thank you 

Scott Geiler

 

ORIGINAL REQUEST TO MEET BY LGB ALLIANCE CANADA SENT TO MINISTER GORD JOHNS JUNE 2022

Dear Ms/Mr/Minister Gord Johns

 

We are writing to you as lesbian, gay, and bisexual Canadians to introduce our group, LGB Alliance Canada, and ask for your support. At present, LGB Alliance Canada is the only Canadian organization advocating for the rights of same-sex attracted people. We are part of a growing international movement, with branches in over a dozen countries. Our organization campaigns for the rights of LGB people in Canada to live and be recognized as full members of society, on the basis of our same-sex attraction. 

 

While you may have been led to believe that LGB people have achieved full legal rights in Canada, at present, our rights are being eroded. We are now facing a new homophobia because we maintain that biological sex is the basis of our attraction. Organizations that claim to represent us (e.g., advocacy, HR, diversity and inclusion initiatives) now insist that gender identity is more important than biological sex. The concept of ‘gender identity’ comes from a new belief system which says that every person has an internal sense of a gendered essence, which makes them a man, a woman, neither, both, or even something else entirely. The ‘gender identity’ belief system posits that biological sex is unimportant (or even, to some extremists, nonexistent), and this is in direct conflict with same-sex attraction, for our sexual orientation is centred on our biological sex and the biological sex of our partners. This belief system dictates that everyone’s internal feeling overrides their biological sex, not just to themselves: it mandates that everyone else must view them the same way, even in matters of biological sex and sexual attraction. For example, establishment organizations like EGALE are telling lesbians and gays that we must be open to dating people of the opposite sex, and they are shaming and expelling us for resisting such coercion. As homosexuals, we find this to be nothing short of homophobia.

 

There are still more negative consequences that this belief system is leading to. For example, terms like ‘lesbian’ and ‘gay’ are being redefined to include heterosexual people. Lesbians and gays are being kicked out of our own organizations for asserting our exclusive same-sex attraction. Adherents of this new belief system decry exclusive same-sex attraction as “hate.” This new homophobia has particularly impacted lesbians who, as women, have historically had less power to maintain sexual and other boundaries. LGB people in Canada struggled for decades to be recognized as same-sex attracted people and to hold the same rights in society as our heterosexual brothers and sisters. Our organisation fights to uphold these hard-won rights because ‘gender identity’ beliefs, as they are currently being legislated, are eroding our human rights. This includes: our right to assemble, our right to self-definition, our right to have our own spaces, and our right to be represented and recognized in Canadian laws and institutions.

 

This conflict is also reflected in Bill C-4, the new law that purports to ban conversion therapy. LGB Alliance Canada was expected to testify during Committee hearings in opposition to this law but our testimony was cancelled without explanation. We have multiple objections to this law. One, it unintentionally introduces a kind of conversion to vulnerable youth. Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth become locked into the belief that they have ‘gender identities’ which erase their sex (and therefore their same-sex attraction). This is foreclosing these youth into a lifetime of medical interventions, at a time when youth are experimenting with who they are and what they like. Evidence shows that, if left alone, the overwhelming majority would grow up to be medically healthy, well-adjusted lesbian, gay or bisexual adults. Our second objection is that it introduces language that conflates ‘gender identity’ with sexual orientation, creating conflicts for LGB citizens in institutions and law. Legislation must always separate sexual orientation from gender identity, because these are two meaningfully different things. 

 

Gender identity beliefs are used to justify: the destruction of LGB-only and single-sex spaces, the forced redefinition of our sexuality, including sexual coercion and assaults against lesbians, and misrepresentation of our interests by historically gay-rights organizations that now replace the experience of same-sex attraction with the experience of believing that one’s ‘gender identity’ overrides their sex. These two groups of people (same-sex attracted people and cross-gender-identifying people) have different experiences and different needs. This difference must be recognized by Canada’s laws and institutions. Otherwise, our human rights are in jeopardy.

 

Contrary to many gender-identity adherents, we wish to openly discuss our different needs; we aim to foster coexistence and mutual respect. We want dialogue that acknowledges and appreciates the differences in our lived experiences without sacrificing scientific understanding, the sex-based rights and protections that the LGB community relies on, and (most importantly) the long-term health of vulnerable youth.

 

We request that you meet with LGB Alliance Canada to discuss the new homophobia we are facing, how this harms the reputation of Canada as a leader in LGB rights, and ways we can move forward together to re-establish the rights LGB Canadians and our allies have worked so hard to obtain. 

 

Sincerely,

LGB Alliance Canada