APOLOGIA
By
Hendrik van der Breggen
The Carillon, August 17, 2017
The Carillon, August 17, 2017
Note: The article below was a winner in Political Animal Magazine's writing contest: Battle of Ideas Op-ed on Freedom of Speech (November 2017).
C16 and Forcing Your
Religion
Remember rock band R.E.M.'s song Losing my religion? In view of the passing of Bill C16 (a.k.a. the transgender rights bill), I think a new song should be sung. I title it “Forcing your religion.”
Consider
this.
If we
take U of Toronto psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's criticisms of C16 seriously
(which I do, because I think they're strong logically and evidentially), then
C16 will likely require Canadians to use a person's preferred pronouns.
We may
have to say “she” instead of “he”; or “he” instead of “she”; or maybe “e” or
“ey” or “hu” or “peh” or “per” or “sie” or “ve” or “xe” or “ze” or “zhe”—whatever
is preferred as a label for however one self-identifies one's sex/ gender.
Interestingly,
in discussions leading up to the passing of C16, Senator Grant Mitchell said
the following in defence of C16:
“There is
also the argument that transgender identity is too subjective a concept to be
enshrined in law because it is defined as an individual’s deeply felt internal
experience of gender. Yet we, of course, accept outright that no one can
discriminate on the basis of religion, and that too is clearly a very deeply
subjective and personal feeling.”
Here is Senator
Mitchell's argument (in favour of C16) restated: Freedom to identify as
transgender is like freedom of religion, so just as I am free to determine and
live according to my religious identity, so too transgender persons are free to
identify and portray themselves as such to the world.
Let's
think about this. Here is an insightful reply.
Referring
to the above argument at a later senate hearing, Dr. Bruce Pardy, professor of
law at Queen's University, states this: “Those are the equivalents.”
“But,”
Professor Pardy quickly adds, “here's the one thing that people who claim
freedom of religion do not have: they do not have the right to demand that
other people agree.”
In other
words, in a free society religious people have the freedom to believe (and live
as if) religion X is true, but they don't have the right to require others to
say they agree X is true too. Similarly, transgender people have the freedom to
believe (and portray) themselves as other than their biological sex, but they
don't have the right to require others to say they agree with what they
believe.
Significantly,
however, such agreement is implied by the preferred pronouns C16 requires.
So, dear
proponents of preferred pronouns, by using the force of law to require others
to use preferred pronouns when they disagree with those pronouns, you are in
effect pushing your religion onto those others.
Sheesh.
Oh, sorry, I meant to say Zheesh.
“Oh no,
I've said too much; I haven't said enough.” – R.E.M.
Hendrik van der Breggen,
PhD, is associate professor of philosophy at Providence University College,
Otterburne, Manitoba. The views expressed here do not always reflect the views
of Providence.
For further thought:
For further thought:
- Bruce Pardy, Meet the new 'human rights'—where you are forced by law to use 'reasonable' pronouns, National Post, June 19, 2017.
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