Trans, non-binary community alarmed by Brian Jean email challenging gender identity in sport

Advocates are calling an email sent by United Conservative Party leadership candidate Brian Jean as transphobic and dangerous for members of the LGBTQ2S+ community.

Jean's campaign sent an email Friday morning to supporters that challenged letting transgender and non-binary athletes compete in sports using their preferred identity.

"There should be two categories in sport," the email read. "One for biological men, and one for biological women. Going through puberty as a male makes changes to your body that are permanent and cannot be denied.

"This should not be a controversial thing for a common sense person to say," it added.

The email took aim at Danielle Smith's comments made at a leadership debate on Aug. 25 hosted by the Alberta Prosperity Project and Rebel News.

Smith, a fellow contender for the top UCP job, said biological men should be allowed to compete in women's sports in some cases if they have transitioned, suggesting testing the testosterone levels of those athletes.

At the bottom of Jean's email, he asked supporters to "consider" donating to his campaign if they thought he was "on the right track."

Anna Murphy, a community advocate for 2SLGBTQ+ and women's issues, said his transphobic comments were not only "unacceptable" themselves, but disappointing to be used as a way to fundraise.

"We are not just going to talk about it, but we are going to fundraise off of rolling back your protection," Murphy said. "What Mr. Jean is doing is dehumanizing and completely coming at this from the base of complete intolerance and ignorance. It is hurtful."

"You have to imagine that you are getting an email that your identity, that your existence is invalid," Murphy added.

April Friesen, Trans Equality Society of Alberta president, told CTV News Edmonton that the email showed he doesn't care about vulnerable trans youth and adults who already face barriers to acceptance.

"He's not having real empathy here for the people who are affected by it, and he's showing that he doesn't understand the science because the science is not with him on what he is saying," Friesen said.

"He's engaged in all this disinformation and arming all these people with all this stuff that isn't true, and they're now going out into the world and acting on it."

Kristopher Wells, Canada Research Chair for the public understanding of sexual and gender minority youth, said that Jean of all people should know that gender identity and expression have been protected by the province's human rights legislation for nearly a decade.

"(He is) making an issue where there is no issue," Wells added. "Trans young people have been able to participate in sports in this province and in this country for many years without the kinds of incidents or hysteria that Brian Jean's email claims will happen."

"Brain Jean is just really opening an issue that has long been settled in Canada through policy and the governing bodies of sport."

Wells, also an associate professor at MacEwan University, says Jean's remarks can help legitimize harmful rhetoric and reintroduce stereotypes.

"This is about trying to score cheap political points at the expense of vulnerable people," Wells said. "It has real consequences because it legitimizes discrimination and, in some cases, violence."

"It's blatantly false. It's disingenuous," the professor added. "These kinds of comments are harmful and have no place in Alberta politics."

For Murphy, who identifies as a transgender woman, the real consequences are on kids who are growing up and learning about or questioning their gender identity.

"I remember what it is like to be them," Murphy said. "I've got the scars to prove it."

"It's important that we challenge that ignorance," she added. "So ultimately, we can become better neighbours with one another in the community that we all have to inhabit."

CTV News Edmonton reached out to Brian Jean for comment.