Man Living as Woman Files Human Rights Complaint Against Beauty Pageant for Not Letting Her Compete

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Jessica Yaniv, a male-to-female transgender, has filed a human rights complaint against Canada Galaxy Pageants for not letting her compete in a female beauty pageant. Yaniv says she was discriminated against because of her gender identity, which is in violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Yaniv, who is transgender with male genitals, was initially accepted to compete but had not mentioned she was transgender with male genitals on her application.

This violates the pageant’s policy of only allowing contestants who are biological females or those who had “fully transitioned” and no longer had male genitals, the pageant says.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), who will be representing Canada Galaxy Pageants in the human rights allegation, says that the pageant’s policy “has since been revised to include ‘genetic females and fully transitioned.’”

Yaniv is seeking $10,000 in damages and “requests that the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario rule that an organization cannot refuse a service to someone just because that person has male genitalia.”

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