Column on transgender rights raises its own ethics debate

[Jamie D]

Column on transgender rights raises its own ethics debate
Star columnist Ken Gallinger sorts through the aftermath of an unsettling uproar

Toronto Star | Ken Gallinger Ethically speaking columnist

Recently, I ran a column on transgender rights; the response was fast and furious. Remarkably few correspondents were troubled by my answer; indeed many praised its "sensitivity" — which several were kind enough to describe as "unusual." What troubled many, however, was the question.

An older, female correspondent reported an episode with a person who, apparently posing as a transgender woman, found "his" way into a woman's change room and made inappropriate sexual advances. Several people, most self-identifying as trans, wrote to say that the question was likely a hoax; apparently bogus scenarios much like this have been used, especially in the United States, to scare folks into opposing legislated rights for transgender people....

This episode caused me to reflect on ethical questions attached to this column. This has all been unsettling, and I haven't worked it all through yet, but I thought you'd be interested in a few principles I follow....

At the end of the day, the scenarios described each week by my correspondents are unverified and, usually, unverifiable. In this particular case, I had, and have, no reason to doubt the claims of the reader who sent the letter — but I can't prove it, and those who claim it was a hoax can't prove that, either. All I know is that I stand by the answer offered.

I regret, and deeply resent, that my column has been so egregiously misused.

Full column at the link above.

My comment:

The problem, Mr. Gallinger, is when you print hearsay as fact, and bother not to probe any deeper than checking out an email address, you can't call yourself a journalist.

[Jamie D]

Transgender rights letter no hoax, says North York woman: Public Editor

Toronto Star | Kathy English Public Editor

I cannot tell you with absolute certainty that a letter published recently in the Star's "Ethically Speaking" column from a "senior" woman recounting the inappropriate sexual behaviour of a transgender woman in a Y change room is not a hoax concocted for political purposes.

I can tell you I have telephoned and talked to the North York woman whose name is on the email sent to Star ethics columnist Ken Gallinger in October. I have also confirmed that the YMCA of Greater Toronto received a similar letter from a former member in late fall. Last week, an executive of the organization contacted the same North York woman I talked with....

The woman would not agree to come forward publicly for this column. She spoke confidentially to me, in line with her expectation of confidentiality in the ethics column. "I am asking the Star to protect my privacy," she said. "I would not rest easy if any group decided to approach me personally."

She told me she is 70. She said the incident she described in her letter to Gallinger in which a naked "man" claiming to be a transgender woman behaved inappropriately happened "a couple of years ago" in the late afternoon in the women's locker room of the Toronto Y on Sheppard Ave....

This woman is aware of accusations her letter is a hoax. To that she said: "I have no agenda, just an incident. Why would anyone lie?"

Full article at the link above.

My comments:

First, let me say that if the purported pre-op transwoman was traipsing around a locker room sporting a boner and harassing any YMCA members, she should have been arrested.

But here is where the story breaks down.  There is no contemporary corroboration.  It supposedly happened "a couple of years ago."  Only now does the aggrieved 70-year old woman write a letter to the column?  And only months after the fact the woman complained the the Y by letter.  Why now??

Well, the article points out the issue: Bill C-279.

And it states the rationale of those opposed to equal rights.  "It is the duty of the House of Commons to protect and safeguard our children from any exposure and harm that will come from giving a man access to women's public washroom facilities."

Despite the protests by the Toronto Star, the story still stinks.

[Arch]

"Why would anyone lie?" Wow, that's just a wee bit disingenuous.