AGAR: The lunacy of being penalized for defending rights of women

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Nobody expects the Canadian Inquisition.

A British Columbia nurse has been suspended and fined nearly $94,000 for what a disciplinary panel said were “discriminatory and derogatory statements” about transgender people.

Postmedia reported, citing a Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms release, that Amy Hamm, who is also a columnist for the National Post, was penalized for “her statements defending the right of women to access female-only spaces.”

What did she say that was so terrible that her life needed to be destroyed?

I will get to that, but what difference does it make? It should not be — cannot be — the law in Canada that we can only say what some totalitarian, narrow-minded official approves of. I couldn’t care less if anyone was offended by what she said. Be offended.

I am often offended by what people say, but you might recall that I stood up for the free speech and employment rights of an emergency worker for uneducated comments about the Middle East. What she said was not only offensive, but it also wasn’t true. But she didn’t call for violence and didn’t slander or libel an individual. If Israel wants to sue her for saying they lure children in Gaza with food and then shoot them, we’ll see how that goes.

Hamm had worked in health care for more than 13 years and had been promoted to be a nurse educator. She said she is fighting against what she described as a “fringe” movement of activists influencing official positions on transgender rights and access to gender-affirming care.

“It’s a movement that is infringing on the rights of women and pushing institutions to adopt what are false and delusional beliefs,” she said.

The CBC reported on the horror of Hamm by saying she frequently refers to transgender women as “men” in social media posts, videos and podcasts, implying they pose a danger to cisgender women and children.

Well, they are men. They are only women to people who cannot define a woman.

It may be impolite to hector a trans individual who never did anything to harm us and to refuse to use pronouns preferred by the individual, but impolite is not illegal. Or it didn’t used to be.

Let me help them out. A woman is an adult female human being. Remember Mama Bear and Papa Bear? They had Baby Bear. They knew what was what.

As for whether trans women are a danger to what are referred to as cis women — and children — that should be open for debate.

I think trans women competing in women’s and girls’ sports is not only unfair, but it can also be dangerous.

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In a basketball game between the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell in Massachusetts and KIPP Academy in Lynn, Mass., a trans-identified 6-foot male player with facial hair, playing for the KIPP Academy girls basketball team, injured multiple players and eventually forced the Lowell school to forfeit. In a now-widely circulated video, the player in question is seen wrestling the ball away from one of the girls, causing her to hit the ground, where she clutches her back in pain.

North Carolina volleyball player Payton McNabb suffered a serious injury after a trans-identified male player spiked a ball at her head and rendered her unconscious.

The record speed of the ball for male volleyball players is 82 m.p.h., whereas the corresponding record for females is only 64 m.p.h.; thus, males can hit the volleyball at the opponent almost 30% faster. Males are larger, can jump higher and do so in the women’s game over a net that is 7 1/2 inches lower than in the male game.

But since the amount of kinetic energy possessed by a moving ball is proportional to the square of its velocity, a ball hit by a top male player can have more than 60% more knockdown and injury-inflicting energy than one hit by a top female player.

A female athlete was injured by a trans-identified male opponent during a field hockey game in Massachusetts when a ball he threw at her and knocked her teeth out.

Sports Law Expert reports that in some cases, young girls are being forced to undress and shower with males whose sex organs are fully exposed.

Yes, trans women can be — not necessarily in all cases, of course — a danger to women and girls.

Hamm testified Friday that she became aware of the college’s investigation in 2021 after she co-sponsored the posting of a billboard on Hastings St. in Vancouver saying: “I (heart) J.K. Rowling.” The billboard was in support of the Harry Potter author, who has made public comments that, the CBC writes, have been criticized as anti-trans by LGBTQ groups and other advocates.

Rowling’s comments, I would point out to the CBC, have also been lauded as accurate and in defence of women’s safety and rights.

Hamm has referred to the disciplinary proceedings as a “witch trial” and suggested the college “would love for me to suicide myself.”

She told the panel she is particularly concerned about transgender women having access to women-only spaces, including prisons and change rooms. She pointed to examples like Madilyn Harks, a transgender woman with a history of sexually assaulting young girls who has been housed in women’s correctional facilities.

Harks, 36, was convicted three times for sexual assaults against girls under the age of eight, Peel Regional Police said, adding the young victims have included neighbours and a fellow member of a church congregation.

“It makes me extremely, extremely angry and it feels as though people don’t seem to care what happens to these women,” Hamm said of female inmates.

She said she completely rejects the concept of gender identity, calling it “anti-scientific, metaphysical nonsense.”

You may completely disagree with Hamm. You have a right to say so and to voice your opinion. Does it not then follow that she has the same rights?

Hamm faces a $94,000 fine and her career as a nurse is in jeopardy.

I never expected the Canadian Inquisition. But here we are.