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The assault on Bouchard’s leadership was led by columnist Denise Bombardier, who wrote that the goal of trans activists is to “smash the reality of the two sexes to impose an appalling vision where neither man nor woman would exist any more.”

Diane Guilbault, who broke from the federation in 2013 and founded the organization Pour les droits des femmes du Québec, said it is one thing for Bouchard to advocate for trans rights, as she did in her previous job at Concordia University.

We tolerate some identities, or we tolerate some people who are at the margins ... as long as they stay where we believe they are supposed to be

But for her to speak on behalf of Quebec women is a step too far, Guilbault said in an interview.

“We think the experience of a woman who is born a woman is completely different from the experience of a man who decides one day to present himself as a woman,” she said.

“It’s not enough to say, ‘I feel that I am a woman, so I can speak in the name of women.’ For us it’s the same as saying, ‘I feel black, so I can speak in the name of blacks.’ ”

A few people have publicly come to Bouchard’s defence. Transgender actress Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay wrote a Facebook post accusing Bombardier of invalidating Bouchard’s identity as a woman and fuelling “hatred toward a community that is only asking for the right to dignity and respect.” University student and LGBTQ activist Marie-Pier Gosselin asked critics to judge Bouchard on her accomplishments as president, “not on the basis of the gender she was assigned at birth.”

For the most part, though, Bouchard has been left to defend herself. She scoffs at the notion that her life experience does not qualify her to speak for women. She prefers not to discuss the specifics of her transition, saying it occurred when she was an adult and was “not a walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination.”

She believes the experience provides unique perspective on women’s struggle for equality. Before her transition, she enjoyed a position of relative privilege above the glass ceiling, she said.

“Then I found myself below that ceiling after transition. In a way, I think that I have an advantage because I’ve seen both sides. I’ve experienced marginalization, even though people say I didn’t.”

• Email: ghamilton@nationalpost.com | Twitter: grayhamilton