This is the second part of a two-part series on increasing transphobia. The first part can be found here. 

Gender equality is a human right that should translate into safe educational settings for transgender and gender-diverse students. However, U.S. President Donald Trump recently moved to rescind policies aimed at protecting trans youth. It’s one of the latest actions by his administration that puts students in harm’s way.  

I teach a course called “Law and Sexuality” at the University of Windsor. From the law school building, my students and I can see the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor with Detroit, our country’s busiest international crossing and a powerful symbol of the Canada-U.S. relationship.  

That close connection means Trump’s policies are normalizing transphobia on our side of the border, increasing the risk of violence at Canadian universities. It’s a frightening time for students pursuing gender and sexuality studies. Universities must act to protect students now. 

Mainstreaming transphobia 

In 2016, former University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson built an international profile on the strength of his opposition to Bill C-16. The bill, which would become law the following year, amended the Canadian Human Rights Act to provide trans people with protection against discrimination based on gender identity and expression. Among other things, Peterson claimed that the law threatened people with criminal punishment if they misused gender pronouns. His statements gained remarkable traction with the public despite not having any legal merit. 

In 2017, Peterson proposed creating a website for the purpose of identifying professors and courses he believed should be removed from universities. He listed “gender studies” as one of his primary targets, calling the topic a “plague” and “corrupt ideology.” 

Faculty members at the University of Toronto expressed concern that the website would create an unsafe learning environment, particularly in women’s and gender studies programs. Over the years, Peterson’s most extreme followers have threatened and harassed his critics — typically women and trans people — by sending them hate mail and issuing death threats online.  

Peterson’s rise illustrated how it has become increasingly common to target trans people at universities and, by extension, the obstacles they face in society. Gender and sexuality issues have become a flashpoint in the broader reactionary “anti-woke” movement that is spreading at a shattering speed in the United States and Canada.  

Consider the relentless media focus on trans people competing in youth and collegiate sports. Or the claim that students’ ability to self-determine their pronouns conflicts with other people’s freedom of expression. Or the perceived risk to children of holding drag “story-time” events at public libraries. Or the myth that teachers who mention gender and sexuality in the classroom are somehow “grooming” children, a term that likens queer and trans people to sexual predators. 

In the U.S., educational programs that focus on racism, misogyny and transphobia are being banned at universities. The U.S. website Trans Legislation Tracker shows that 36 states have already proposed 250 anti-trans bills this year, including many that address school and curriculum-related issues. 

In Canada, provincial governments in Saskatchewan and Alberta have passed legislation to protect what they call “parental rights.” These laws force gender-diverse students under 16 who want to choose their own pronouns at school to make the agonizing choice between remaining closeted or being outed to their parents. A 2017 study found that almost 55 per cent of gender-diverse youth without supportive family or school environments experience extreme stress and despair.  

The risk of violence that transphobia creates is real. In 2023, Geovanny Villalba-Aleman walked into a gender studies classroom at the University of Waterloo and stabbed two students and the professor. Police characterized the attack as hate-motivated and related to gender identity and expression. Police found a manifesto among Villalba-Aleman’s possessions claiming that he was tired of the “woke agenda” at universities. A small, torn-up Pride flag was found inside the classroom where the stabbings occurred. 

The Waterloo attack is a terrifying reminder of the Montreal Massacre in 1989, when Marc Lépine walked into a classroom at l’École polytechnique de Montreal and shot and killed 14 women in the name of “fighting feminism.”  

These two events, almost 35 years apart, show that the Waterloo attack was not isolated, but the latest in a long-standing pattern of gender inequality that has beat down women, queer and trans people for decades. The mainstreaming of transphobia on campus is making this problem worse. 

Canadian universities must act 

Canadian universities are required by provincial human rights laws to provide a learning environment that is free from discrimination. Since 2016, five provinces and one territory have passed additional legislation requiring universities to create policies that address gender-based violence on campus. As a result of these measures and political pressure from student activists, most universities have policies that address campus violence in some way. 

Queer and trans students have been targets of campus violence at higher rates because they continue to be stigmatized, excluded and oversexualized by others. Campus protocols for reporting and addressing violence were historically built for white, class-privileged, heterosexual and cisgender women. As a result, many queer and trans students find these protocols to be retraumatizing and unsafe. 

Universities should review their policies to ensure that they explicitly protect queer and trans students. Policies should be “survivor-centred” and “trauma-informed,” that is, they should integrate the perspectives of students in how their legal, educational and health needs should be met.  

Universities should also ensure that queer and trans students can participate freely in classroom discussions. Campus services such as human rights offices, counselling and peer-support programs, sexual health clinics and resource centres and clubs should be fully funded and staffed. Educational programs that explain the links between racism, misogyny, transphobia, colonialism and other oppressions should be part of mandatory training for students and employees.  

Finally, teaching courses on gender and sexuality has never been more important. Universities should expand their women’s and gender studies programs and encourage professors in other fields to integrate relevant content into their courses.  

We have a lot to learn about how power and privilege are exercised along gender-based lines. I’m confident that our students can show us a better way.  

Part 1: The normalization of transphobia by Donald Trump and the pernicious effect on all forms of gender discrimination.