by felicia rembrandt
Aaron Devor
In 2019 the BC Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, through its Research, Innovation and Policy Division gave $40,000 to Aaron Devor Knowledge Services to find out how the “Trans+” community was doing.
While most government contracts are awarded through open competitions, this was not. Devor in turn sub-contracted some of the work to Ambit Gender Diversity Consulting, headed by Kingsley Strudwick.
Devor is a trans-identified woman who serves as Chair of Transgender Studies at the University of Victoria, and is a prominent advisor to the Canadian government and media. Ambit Gender Diversity Consulting is owned by nearby Esquimalt resident Kingsley Strudwick, another woman who calls herself trans (and asks people to refer to her as “they”).
Kingsley Strudwick
Shane Simpson, NDP MLA for Vancouver Hastings, was then Minister of SDPR.
Project facilitators conducted interviews in Nelson, Prince George, Victoria and Vancouver. They offered free food at a “meet and mingle” prior to the discussions, bus tickets and a $50 honorarium for people willing to be part of the focus group.
In total, they interviewed 63 people in these four sessions. Some of the Vancouver group refused to fill out demographic information. Of the remaining 52, 46% called themselves non-binary, a vague term meaning only that people repudiate their sex, but don’t take on the opposite sex identity. A woman in boots and buzz cut might call herself non-binary, but be unidentifiable as such by others. Only 46%, possibly 25 people, identified as what we think of when we think of trans (23% transwomen, 23% transmen).
Of the 52 from four cities, 88% said they had mental health challenges, 83% had disabilities and 58% struggled with addictions. In addition, 33% said they had PTSD, and 19% reported being “neurodiverse” (on the autism spectrum). 38% were of minority ethnic groups. Clearly this small sampling of people have many issues that are already known to contribute to unemployment and poverty.
When asked if their transgender identity and poverty were interconnected, they said such things as “Being in a transphobic/racist culture affects my well-being and my capacity to keep sending out resumes, or showing up in a good place (mentally and emotionally) if I am hired” and “Racial and immigration status discrimination in addition to gender-based discrimination becomes its own unique form of discrimination”. These respondents understood that they were financially impacted by race, even if they had answered a call for a trans+ focus group.
In terms of housing, these 52 people in four cities said “Nonbinary people, who may not feel safe or be welcome in gendered housing, experience super-high rates of social bullying and isolation that comes along with the prolonged denial of resources as a result of long-term exposure to high risk housing,” and “Living in a small community, talking to the Human Rights Tribunal could be a social death sentence: even when real, undeniable discrimination is happening. If you take any kind of legal action, there is a fear you will be permanently ostracized.”
Regarding medical care, “Being Trans/NB doesn’t fit … as an ‘ideal client’ … just for existing outside the binary. People end up lying to get what we need, i.e., if I tell the truth about my mental health, addiction, disability, unstable housing, etc., it only slows the process down. Shouldn’t it speed the process up?”
The solutions they wanted included government help to pay for transition-related expenses, hormones and surgeries. Primarily they want what trans activists always want – that all society “Prioritize and centre the experiences of those targeted by oppression, and who are the most targeted by white supremacist, colonial violence: Black and Indigenous queer, Trans, Two-Spirit, Nonbinary people; Transwomen of colour and sex workers.”
This type of report – relying on the testimony of tiny numbers of people who have multiple health issues -- is being used to create a fraudulent perception that more money and service is needed for the “trans+” community. Clearly, the people of this focus group primarily need more government mental health, disability and addiction help. Yet $40,000 of taxpayer money was spent to write a report on a few people who fit under the trans umbrella only because the gender ideology industry is trying to claim the membership of anyone who isn’t at the extreme end of “masculine” and “feminine” stereotyping.
And the report ignores the greatest axis of oppression – sex. The authors of this report could have studied the different ways females who call themselves “men” and males who call themselves “women” experience discrimination and need help. But there is no reference to sex category in the report. In addition to the “non-binary”, they reference two trans groups -- “women, trans women and transfeminine” and “men, trans men, trans boy and transmasculine”.
A report such as this acts in the service of an industry looking to sell hormones and surgeries to clearly very vulnerable people. And it is being used to groom all of society into acceptance of the lie that people can have a gender different than their sex and need to change not only their bodies but all of society to accommodate them.
When government hires what is essentially a lobby group, which then conspires with a second lobby group to manufacture a societal ill that needs to be rectified, that looks like collusion, doesn’t it?
See the complete report here: