VANCOUVER—In recent months, Morgane Oger has received a torrent of online hate — more than typical — lumping her in with trans woman Jessica Yaniv, whose controversial waxing case was dismissed by B.C.’s human rights tribunal this week.

Social media users accused the transgender rights advocate of being part of a “cult” of transgender “scam artists” along with Yaniv, and viciously attacked Oger’s physical appearance.

None of the people who commented for this story were involved in the court case, but all noted spikes in online hate against trans people since the Yaniv case came to public attention.

Yaniv had filed a complaint with the human rights tribunal against seven women and companies in the Vancouver area that refused to wax the hair from her male genitals, while others wouldn’t wax her arms or legs. She demanded a total of $500,000 in costs.

On Tuesday, the tribunal ruled that Yaniv tried to use the complaint as a “weapon to extort or bully another person” into a financial settlement and ordered that she pay $6,000 to those she accused.

Tribunal member Devyn Cousineau said Yaniv had a pattern of filing human rights complaints that target small businesses for personal financial gain and to punish certain ethnic groups that she perceives as hostile to the rights of LGBTQ people.

Now, Oger and other advocates worry the ruling could embolden transphobia, while the public loses sight of how marginalized the community still is in Vancouver.

“I think some people will misunderstand and say the ruling means they’re allowed to discriminate,” Oger said.

“Meanwhile, trans people have virtually no legal protections against online hate... People harassed me over Yaniv’s behaviour just because I am also transgender.”

The flood of negativity has saddened veteran Vancouver trans rights activist Tami Starlight, who says that people are quick to attack trans people as a group.

“The (waxing case) has been massively negative. Things have gotten worse all of a sudden,” Starlight said, noting an uptick she’s observed in transphobic remarks, including public speeches from far-right figures who espouse hateful beliefs.

Anytime there’s a marginalized group, there’s a tendency to lump everybody together, said Simon Fraser University sociologist Ann Travers.

“This happens to people of colour, too. They’re not allowed to be imperfect. It’s an expectation that you have to be absolutely perfect because inclusion is riding on your shoulders. That’s unbelievably unfair.

“How oppression works is when you reduce people to a commonality,” Travers told Star Vancouver.

Cousineau had said evidence presented at a tribunal hearing shows there is a difference in waxing different types of genitals and because it’s an intimate procedure, service providers must agree to provide the service.

Yaniv could not be reached for comment.

Vancouver lawyer Pat Shannon thinks it was unnecessary for the tribunal to discuss genitalia in detail, since establishing that Yaniv acted in bad faith would have been enough to dismiss her complaint.

“For a lot of trans people, genitals are not a big part of whether they think they’re a man or a woman and for it to be a crux of the decision — it’s unsettling,” said Shannon, who is non-binary.

Shannon warned the decision could pave the way for future court cases that might draw a line between trans people who have had gender reassignment surgery and those who have not.

Trans advocates in the city are now working to organize public education events to highlight urgent human rights issues faced by their community. Several events will take place next month around the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20.

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Every year, on average, 500 Canadian youth aged 10-24 die by suicide, according to Statistics Canada.

LGBTQ youth are generally four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, according to the Massachusetts Department of Education.

Travers says support for trans Canadians needs to start with adults avoiding imposing restrictive messages about gender on all children and youth. This would combat marginalization of sexual minorities and allow children and youth room to learn that gender “isn’t about genitals.”

On a positive note, Shannon says there are more and more pro-bono legal services in Vancouver available to help LGBTQ people, such as helping people to change their legal names.

Meanwhile, in more socially conservative parts of Canada, the existence of support services like gay-straight alliances at schools are subject to heated debate among politicians.

With files from The Canadian Press

Joanna Chiu is a senior journalist for Star Vancouver covering both Canada-China relations and current affairs on the West Coast. Follow her on Twitter: @joannachiu

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