Marchers In This Year's Vancouver Pride Parade Must Sign A Trans Rights Pledge

    Putting the 'T' back in LGBT.

    Lauren Strapagiel
    by Lauren Strapagiel

    BuzzFeed News Reporter, Canada

    Summer in Vancouver means sunshine, trips to the beach and yoga shorts, but it also means Pride is coming.

    Vancouver's Pride Parade will happen in August. This year organizers are asking participants to sign a new pledge to support transgender and gender-variant Canadians.

    Vancouver Pride Society / Via vancouverpride.ca

    The pledge calls for gender identity and expression to be protected under the Canadian Human Rights Act and the British Columbia Human Rights Code, and to make violence based on gender identity and expression a hate crime.

    VPS "is seeking to right a historical wrong within the Pride community, where Transgender and Gender-Variant rights have largely been ignored," said VPS parade coordinator Bry Leckie in a statement.

    Leaving the "T" out of "LGBT" has long been a problem and there's also a timely political element to VPS's push for trans rights. Bill C-279, An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code was set to ensure protections for transgender and gender-variant Canadians until Conservative Senator Don Plett amended it to exempt single-sex facilities like washrooms, prisons and change rooms. It turned a bill that would make trans Canadians safer into one that could make it even riskier to simply use the loo. The amendment inspired trans Canadians to post bathroom selfies with the hashtag #PlettPutMeHere.

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    Leaving the "T" out of "LGBT" has long been a problem and there's also a timely political element to VPS's push for trans rights.

    Bill C-279, An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code was set to ensure protections for transgender and gender-variant Canadians until Conservative Senator Don Plett amended it to exempt single-sex facilities like washrooms, prisons and change rooms.

    It turned a bill that would make trans Canadians safer into one that could make it even riskier to simply use the loo. The amendment inspired trans Canadians to post bathroom selfies with the hashtag #PlettPutMeHere.

    The Trans Equality Pledge means politicians who want to march in the parade have to sign, too — effectively committing themselves to opposing C-279 in its current form.

    Jason L. Jessett @Jay_SinJ

    Me & JT.....Justin Trudeau Photo-op at Vancouver Pride Parade 2014 #liberalparty #canada #politician #VanPride2014

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    Some exceptions may be made, however, for organizations such as non-profits that receive federal funding and must remain apolitical.

    Want to sign the pledge? You can do so here.