Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you both for your testimony.
In particular, Professor Buechner, thank you so much for coming and sharing with us a very acute analysis of the issues tied into your own experience.
I wanted to ask you about the whole question of symbolic or declarative value. Even if we assumed that one way or the other, human rights commissions or courts, because of their own pushing the boundaries in seeking a more equal society, might find ways to interpret existing discrimination in order to, as much as they can, help folks who are suffering discrimination on the basis of being transgendered.
My own experience as a gay man is that adding the words “sexual orientation” to human rights documents does what Mr. Garrison says: it just cuts through the noise and makes it very clear that on the basis of a particular difference that can be used for discriminatory purposes, I'm as human as anybody else.
I personally have never had to use this in a legal context, yet I know others have. At the same time, its presence has great symbolic value for me.
I'm just wondering if that resonates at all with you.