The Catholic Church prides itself on being compassionate and doing God’s will on Earth, or some such thing.  But when it comes to the day-to-day realities, we too often see "The Church" clutching desperately to its medieval principles and being somewhat less than "compassionate."

That the Church is no bastion of liberal, progressive thought is a given - nor would I expect it to be, to be honest.  But I do expect it and its leaders to employ logic and understanding when dealing with sensitive issues.  Adherence to dogma is one thing; being dogmatic is quite another.  Too often Church leaders opt for being dogmatic and rigid in reaching their decision, rather than anything approaching compassionate.

For instance, take the case of Jan Buterman, an Edmonton substitute teacher who was fired by the Greater St. Albert Catholic School District because he is a female-to-male transsexual.  Being trans, apparently, is contrary to Church teachings that state God created each of us in the gender we are.

Mr. Buterman was offered a cash settlement of $78,000 and the guarantee of a one year teaching contract on the condition he not discuss the case he brought against the school district. He refused the offer, stating that as a prominent activist and academic he could not afford to be muzzled and silenced.  He recently began a master’s degree in education policies at the University of Alberta. The confidentiality clause would hamper his future work, including an upcoming presentation in May at an academic conference in Fredericton.

Setting aside the whole discussion of creation versus evolution, I think it is pretty safe to say that in the eras since Adam and Eve, humans are not so much "created" as "born".  Each new life emerges through a complex series of biological sequences and comes out the other end of the process as a human being, or becomes one at some point during the process, depending on your beliefs.  Sometimes the process goes awry and an individual is born intersexed (possessing the characteristics of both sexes to varying degrees, including chromosomal...what used to be referred to as hermaphroditism) or transsexual (the physicality of one gender with the essence or inner self of the other).

Intersexed infants and young children often are subjected to medical intervention to "correct" the anomaly, and then raised in the newly-assigned gender; a highly controversial procedure in itself as it too often does not take into account the ‘true’ gender of the child or, in some instances, the true genders.  Current medical thought and practice tends to reinforce the binary view of gender, that humans come as either male or female, period, and dismisses evidence which suggests gender is not quite as set, or as binary, as most of us believe.

In the case of transsexual individuals it is a bit more subtle, for lack of a better way of putting it.  There is a disparity between the physical gender (genitalia etc) and the "inner gender".  It often takes years for the individual to come to a realization they are, in fact, transsexual and then move to a medical resolution of their condition: gender reassignment surgery.  The whole process of ‘coming out’ as trans is fraught with complexities of its own: trauma, upsets, destroyed relationships or certainly altered ones, financial concerns, and possible job loss.  No transperson approaches the decision to transition lightly and none see it as a "choice" in the usual sense of the word.  The "choice" is to remain trapped in a body that is not one’s own, and often repulsive to oneself, or to become the person one is by medical intervention.  The surgery (actually surgeries) may be a choice but the condition of transsexuality is not, any more than one’s gender is a choice.  We all are what we are, it’s just that some of us don’t appear to be what we are.

In Canada, various laws and human rights legislation protect on the basis of gender.  Historically, this always referred to not discriminating against someone because they are female or, less commonly, because they are male.  It is only in recent years this avenue has been used to explore discrimination based on gender identity.  Bill Siskay, the then NDP Member of Parliament for Burnaby-Douglas, introduced a private member’s bill in 2005 to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to specifically include gender identity and expression as protected characteristics.  It failed.  He re-introduced it during every sitting of Parliament since, and in June 2010, Bill C-389 proceeded to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights with little overt opposition from the Conservative government.  It passed at report stage by a vote of 143-131 and passed its third reading by a vote of 143-135 with members of all parties voting in favour of the Bill.

So, some progress has been made on the legal and legislative level but there is still work to be done as evidenced by the firing of Jan Buterman.  As with GLB rights, it is a long and arduous process; society is not always in step with the legislative changes and often offers considerable resistance to those changes.  We saw it with equal marriage and other gay and lesbian rights issues over the last thirty years.  Trans rights issues lag far behind those gains.

Dan Irving and Jennifer Evans, two faculty members in the Sexual Studies Minor Program at Carleton University, wrote an excellent article for the Globe and Mail in 2010 entitled "Why Canada Should Protect Gender Identity".  In it, they wrote,

A we saw with gay and lesbian cases being brought before Human Rights Commissions, there has been criticism around Buterman’s taking this to the "kangaroo court" of the Alberta Human Rights Commission tribunal.  However, this was not his first option.  He did attempt to go through the courts but, having turned down the financial offer, his lawyers have advised him this will result in the school board moving to dismiss the complaint because a "fair and reasonable" settlement has been put on the table.

The decision likely means the end of the legal process.  Buterman was a substitute teacher and therefore couldn’t afford to fight this through the courts unless his lawyers agree to do it pro bono, which does not appear likely. The Alberta Teachers’ Association confirmed it had been paying Buterman’s legal fees. However, a union spokesman says it is no longer doing so based on an evaluation of the "likely outcome" of the case and recommendations from their own lawyers.  This heralds the end of the civil process and so the only avenue left to Buterman is a human rights complaint.

Tied up with all this, of course, is the role the Catholic Church plays in its education institutions.  It can be argued, and fairly I would say, that Church teachings are part and parcel of Catholic schooling.  I have no issue with that when it comes to matters of religion and religious belief, but Buterman taught Social Studies, German and French to students in Grades 7 to 12.  Gone are the days that educators within the Catholic school system were drawn exclusively from the ranks of nuns and priests.  Teachers in the modern separate school system are secular and not all of them are Catholic, either.  Buterman, for instance, is Lutheran - not that it matters.  However, the Greater St. Alberta Catholic School System is arguing his "personal choice" to pursue gender reassignment surgery is contrary to Church teachings and therefore the Board had no choice but to fire him.

The deputy superintendent, Steve Bayus, wrote, "[y]our gender change is not aligned with the teachings of the church and would create confusion and complexity with students and parents as a model and witness to Catholic faith values," yet apparently there was no issue whatsoever with the quality of Buterman’s teaching as it was also noted Buterman "had served the schools well" as a substitute teacher.

Buterman has been quoted as saying he has no desire to have his personal life used as a ‘teaching moment’, and I understand that, but the reality is it is an excellent ‘teaching moment’ and an opportunity to have a discussion with young teens who are, after all, able to grasp the subtleties of life and existence once they are pointed out to them (sometimes better than their parents), about definitions of gender, about diversity, and about the wonders of biological diversity too.  I also understand Buterman does not want to become the poster boy for trans rights; the Delwin Vriend case, which dragged on for seven years following his firing from King’s University College for being gay, nearly destroyed Delwin’s personal life.  After his Supreme Court win, he disappeared off the public radar.  Last I heard he was living in Paris after a stint in San Francisco.  But there is a principle at stake here, something larger than Jan Buterman.