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So it’s not surprising that a situation like Mr. Buterman’s would arise, he said.

The conflict began in 2008.

In the early months of that year, Mr. Buterman identified as a woman when she taught a variety of subjects in junior and senior high school, but often wore masculine clothing. She decided to transition to being recognized as a male when school let out that summer; by fall of that year, she came back as a man.

Trying to maintain the letter of the law, he contacted the teachers’ union and school boards of both the Catholic and secular districts where he worked to inform them of the change.

The secular board was supportive, but the Catholic district seemed wary, he said.

“They said, ‘Oh well, we’ll have to see how to respond to this.’ I thought, well, they just don’t know how they’ll tell their staff and they want to manage this,” Mr. Buterman said. “Sometimes they need to prepare people yes … it’s not unheard of that they would need to have some discussion and I naively thought that meant they were responding to it.”

After about a week of work, Mr. Buterman got another call: he wouldn’t be welcome to return to the rural, religious school board just outside Edmonton.

“It was really devastating and shocking. I remember being so shocked I went ice cold, I literally went purple,” he said. “I remember protesting vehemently, disagreeing with this. This was not OK if I have to go on welfare to feed my children.”

Mr. Buterman demanded a formal termination letter to explain “why a fully qualified teacher who was working every operational day was suddenly unable to work and unable to feed his children.”