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The precise nature of words matters. The imprecise use of a word that has a very specific meaning can make the difference between an alleged injustice and a complete waste of newsprint and everyone’s time, including that of activists.

We have a perfect example of this phenomenon in the case of Morgane Oger, chair of the B.C. Trans Alliance Society, who, not satisfied with provincial and federal governments allowing sex designations to be changed on key identity documents, “wants to abolish gender references altogether from birth certificates.” The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal is reviewing her complaint.

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There are no “gender references” on birth certificates.

But the offence does not exist. There are no “gender references” on birth certificates. What there are on birth certificates is certification of the baby’s sex based on the objective fact of male or female genitalia. Whether that baby turns out to be heterosexual, homosexual or transgender will not be revealed for some years, but even when it is revealed, that baby will still have grown up as a child of the male or female sex.