Gender theory making inroads at UN and in Ottawa
Canadian Catholic News
Gender theory is making inroads not only on Parliament Hill but also at the United Nations, to the detriment of the biological family, say Campaign Life Coalition lobbyists.
In Ottawa, Bill C-16 would add gender identity and expression to the protected grounds against discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code. The bill cleared the House of Commons before Christmas and is now before the Senate.
Campaign Life Ottawa lobbyist Johanne Brownrigg said words like “gender identity and expression” are “very fluid, undefined and dangerous.”
One’s gender identity “does not change sexual attraction,” Brownrigg told a clergy luncheon in Ottawa Jan. 17. “Gender identity is not the same thing as sexual attraction.”
Thus, a man who subjectively believes he is a woman and starts living as a woman may still be sexually attracted to the female sex, she said.
Brownrigg pointed out the bill passed to the Senate without a recorded vote, meaning there were not enough Conservatives in the House of Commons at the time to require one. It passed quickly through the House Justice Committee with only the Justice Minister appearing as a witness.
While similar bills have been fought as “bathroom bills” that give men claiming a female gender identity to use women’s locker rooms and bathrooms, Brownrigg predicted the debate in the Senate will move to freedom of speech arguments raised by University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson, a specialist in the psychology of totalitarianism.
Peterson has warned that legislation like Bill C-16, as well as already-existing changes to provincial human rights acts, not only put freedom of speech at risk, but they also compel speech, such as the use of preferred pronouns by those claiming a different gender identity from their biological sex. Preferred pronouns could include newly constructed words such as “zir, ze, or zhe,” which Peterson has said he will refuse to use.
“This is totalitarian, when you compel people to use gender pronouns,” Brownrigg said.
The Senate is expected to call witnesses, Brownrigg said, unlike the House of Commons. However, she expressed surprise at how much support from all sides of the aisle Bill C-16 received in the House of Commons. The outcome of the bill in the Senate is unpredictable, she added.
“Almost all social agenda around the world seems to stem from New York City and the United Nations,” said Campaign Life’s UN representative Matthew Wojciechowski.
Gender theory at the UN is a new focus “to destroy the natural family” in the developing world, he said.
The UN is “forcing countries to break down all their marriage laws to accept same-sex ‘marriage,’” he said.
Wojciechowski noted some of Pope Francis’ strongest language has been aimed against gender theory, calling it “satanic,” and “demonic.”
Wojciechowski said Campaign Life sought NGO status at the UN almost 20 years ago after St. John Paul II requested family and life groups do so. Much of the battle revolves around language use, he said.
The UN has also been working to have abortion declared a “universal human right,” he said. “It’s not happened because pro-life groups are preventing it.”
When UN agencies talk of “’reproductive rights’ it is always about abortion,” he said. Aid agencies “try to bribe the developing countries by saying if you want aid and stable infrastructure help, you must break down conservative laws against abortion.”
“You never hear about it in the mainstream media, but Africa’s being killed off because of these family planning programs,” he said. They promise clean water and health care in return for liberalizing abortion and contraception. “In one hand a Tylenol, in another a condom,” he said. “They come together.”
