Vancouver registered nurse Amy Hamm faces a disciplinary hearing later this month for speaking out – while off duty – about radical gender theory and women’s sex-based rights.
She could lose her nursing license for the alleged crime of defending the biological differences between women and men, and standing up against the threats to women’s sex-based rights based on those differences.
She could not ignore either the potential harms this radical trans ideology can inflict on children indoctrinated to transition at a young age.
In 2020, the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives informed her they were investigating her for her ongoing fight against a pervasive ideology that men who simply identify as women – but do not medically transition – have equal rights to women’s bathrooms, prisons, rape crisis centres and women’s sports.
Two complaints were made to the College, one by a social worker who describes himself as a passionate social justice advocate and a follower of Marxism. The other remains anonymous after he or she claimed Hamm might “retaliate” if his or her identity was revealed.
The complainants alleged that the registered nurse, mom and writer is allegedly “transphobic” and as such, she would not be able to provide “safe, non-judgemental care” to transgender patients.
As Hamm told a recent forum on Protecting Women’s Spaces in the Age of Transgenderism, hosted by the Democracy Fund, she has never had a single complaint or received any workplace discipline in her 10 years as a registered nurse.
She said she came on the College’s radar when she helped erect a billboard showing support for renowned author J.K. Rowling, who has been labelled, like Hamm, a trans exclusionary radical feminist (or TERF).
“Trans activism is an anti-social anti-women movement being disguised as a grassroots human rights movement,” she told the Democracy Fund forum.
“The trans activism movement uses female targets to make an example of and I just happened to be an easy target for them.”
Hamm is not alone.
In the past six months, I’ve written about two other women who’ve been cancelled or faced discipline for speaking up about the harms of radical gender ideology and Critical Race Theory (CRT).
One is Carolyn Burjoski, a 20-year teacher who was shut down four minutes into a January presentation to the Waterloo Region District School Board, for raising concerns about two highly sexualized books – one about a trans kid – in the board’s elementary school libraries.
The board’s chairman Scott Piatkowski subsequently conducted a series of media interviews in which he labelled her “transphobic.” This occurred while Burjoski was sent home subject to an investigation and forced to remain silent.
The former teacher, who is now retired, has filed a $1.7-million defamation lawsuit against Piatkowski and the board, together with a judicial review of the board’s decision.
The other is Chanel Pfahl, a 29-year-old teacher, who is facing discipline by the Ontario College of Teachers for posting a comment on a private Facebook feed that students should not be indoctrinated with CRT.
That has not stopped her from posting her thoughts on Twitter and from running for trustee with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board this fall.
Journalist and author Barbara Kay told the forum that the rise of radical gender theory has created “huge divisiveness” in the feminist movement.
The idea that males can simply say they identify as a woman without life-altering surgery is misogynistic, said Kay, adding that even when women know someone is a biological male, they’re being forced to pretend they’re women.
Hamm says she refused to reach an agreement with the College because it would have given her a temporary suspension and forced her to sign a document saying she made transphobic comments.
“I’m not transphobic and there’s nothing wrong with standing up for women’s sex-based rights,” she said.
Hamm’s upcoming seven-day hearing, which commences Sept. 21, is funded by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. Lawyer Lisa Bildy will be representing her.
The College recently dropped one of its charges against her – namely of spreading medical inaccurate information.
All that remains is the accusation that she’s made derogatory and discriminatory comments about trans people.
“In other words, I hurt people’s feelings on the Internet,” Hamm said. “I don’t care about trans activists’ feelings… I care about the safety and dignity of children and the male invasion of our spaces”
She fears that many Canadians really don’t know what’s happening right under their noses.
“Any male can decide to identify as female and have access to female spaces,” she says. “He doesn’t need a wig. He doesn’t need surgery.”
