I am regularly misgendered at Shopper’s Drug Mart, but I recently posted a particularity bad experience…
I often resort to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (HRTO) as a way of being an activist and advancing gender minority rights. I recently spoke about this on The Experimantal Leader Podcast.
Unfortunately, I had to take Shopper’s to the HRTO for another terrible experience of misgendering and public outing that occurred during Covid lockdowns. I have shared my HRTO story below, and I’d like to note that the opposing council for Shopper’s (Birenbaum, Steinburg, Landau, Savin and Colraine LLP) responded that no discrimination occurred and I brought up the misgendering issue when I was not refunded for the item I purchased.
First of all, I have the receipt indicating I did get a refund, so that is clearly not true. I sure got a refund and a goodly amount of transphobia with it. I am sad that opposing council thinks that Trans people voicing their concerns about discrimination are doing so in a deceitful way just to get what they want. The idea that trans people are liars, manipulators is a common transphobic trope. I also note that Shopper’s opposing council MANAGED TO MISGENDER ME THREE TIMES IN A LETTER TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNNAL. At this point its kind of a case closed, wouldn’t; you say, your Honour?
Suppose Shopper’s Drug Mart wants to align itself to PRIDE. In that case, it needs to show it’s ally ship in real actions like training employees to be sensitive to queer people rather than performatively wearing t-shirts and selling makeup to them.
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My HRTO statement…
When I was doing a return at Shopper’s Drug Mart, on Feb 6, 2021, around 11:00 I was repeatedly misgendered by staff in an insulting and rude manner in front of other people waiting in line. I was trying to return a book, and the cashier, I believe called Erin, did not know how to do it. Erin called another cashier and referred to me as “she”. I told the first cashier, “I am not a woman.” The cashier, Erin, continued to refer to me as “she” at least two more times. I asked her to stop and said I was not a woman. The cashier then referred to me as she again, and I said to the second cashier, I believe named Haley, that the first cashier needed to stop talking to me like that. The second cashier said it was because of masks. NO ONE apologized or corrected the mistake. Then I said it was an LGBTQ rights issue and took off my mask to show the cashier I had a mustache and I was a guy, and Hailey got angry at me and told me to put it back on. I said fine, but they should now stop misgendering me. Then the manager came up to help. The second cashier, Haley, referred to me as “they .”I said it was inappropriate and I was a man. The manager asked how they were supposed to know if I did not tell them? Note the manager did not apologize, and the second cashier did not correct it.
I said I did tell them several times. I think I said I was not a woman and did not go by she at least 4 times to the first cashier, and I showed them my face to insist they stop misgendering me.
I said about the second cashier, “ This one used she, and this one used they, and the manager said that my referring to a cashier as” this one” was just as bad as them misgendering me. The manager said now I was doing it. I am not sure what it was. So I said I supposed I was the bad one and she should sue me under the Ontario Human Rights Code. I said using “this one” and “this person” was a way of speaking in gender neutral terms. I don’t think it was as serious as repeatedly misgendering a trans person. I asked for their names and said I was going to complain. AT NO TIME did anyone apologize or correct. They just justified their misgendering of me and got upset at me that I was upset and dysphoric over their treatment of me. I asked them to refund my book,and I would speak to the manager about it.
