(OPINION) How slippery is that slope? Apparently, not abiding by someone’s “preferred pronouns” is now a human rights violation. Jessie Nelson — whom the CBC described as “a non‐binary, gender fluid, transgender person who uses they/them pronouns”
— was hired in 2019 as a server at a restaurant in Gibsons, British Columbia, a town not far from the northern United States border. In a complaint, Nelson alleged that some of the restaurant staff was hostile.
The bar manager Brian Gobelle reportedly refused to use Nelson’s preferred pronouns, instead of using “she,” “her,” and other feminine names that are commonly used toward women. The situation reportedly boiled over just several days into Nelson’s employment, resulting in Nelson’s firing just four weeks after beginning work at the restaurant.
The restaurant owner reportedly told Nelson that the server had come off “too strong too fast,” was “militant,” had made people uncomfortable, and were not working well with the existing restaurant team.
Nelson later alleged discrimination on the basis of “gender identity and expression,” the CBC reported. The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal handed down a decision last month finding the restaurant violated Nelson’s human rights by not intervening quickly enough to ensure that staff used Nelson’s preferred pronouns. FULL REPORT
