RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – When she decided to open a hair removal room in her home, Márcia da Silva had no idea she would be accused of discrimination in a human rights court in Canada.
The Brazilian, who lives with her husband and children in Vancouver, refused to depilate Jessica Yaniv, a transgender woman who claims to have been a victim of prejudice and is now demanding compensation of up to US$15,000 (about R$60,000).
In July, during a heated hearing at the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, Yaniv associated the Brazilian woman with neo-Nazis and said the court would set a dangerous precedent if it did not decide in her favor.
The case opened a discussion among experts about the extent to which a service provider can refuse to serve a client based on gender identity. But the debate went further.
Feminists accuse Yaniv of taking advantage of the sensitivity of the issue to harm immigrants and earn money at the expense of people who are in the country in search of better living conditions.
Silva says she had to close the doors of her business due to the negative repercussion of the episode.
The Brazilian says she doesn’t have the necessary technique to wax a male groin and that she didn’t want to provide the service also for security reasons, because, after the refusal, Yaniv had sent intimidating messages to Silva.
“The position is not about gender, it is about technique,” said Jay Cameron, Silva’s lawyer, to the report. “She refused to wax a person who identified herself as a woman but has male genitalia. She doesn’t shave male genitalia, she doesn’t feel comfortable doing it, and it wasn’t a service she offered.
The lawyer is a member of the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, “I can’t speculate on the motivation [of the transsexual]. Silva had to close her business, and many others are having problems such as depression and anxiety.
During the hearing last month, Yaniv said the beauticians were “forcing their beliefs on society” by refusing to serve her for cultural or religious reasons.
About the Brazilian, explains the lawyer, the accuser called neo-Nazis those who did not provide services to people who have male reproductive organs but recognize themselves as women.
“It wasn’t specifically about Silva, but she made a comparison, and my client had refused to serve her in that sense.
Yaniv would be the Brazilian’s first professional service. Before opening the room to the public, she used to do the service only for friends and family. Last year, she decided to place an ad on Facebook and was contacted by the transsexual who is now suing her.
According to Cameron, the profile picture on the social network did not show Yaniv and, only with the exchange of messages via cell phone, Silva realized that it was a person biologically defined as a man.
“The initial contact was someone who would be biologically female, but after Silva gave her phone number, she realized that the person was biologically male, so she advised that it was not a service that she did,” she says.
Still according to the lawyer, after the cancellation of the session, Yaniv continued sending messages to embarrass the Brazilian. “For my safety, I said no [to service],” Silva said during a hearing in July.
Cameron says he expects a resolution to the case by December — the final allegations will be presented on Aug. 27.
Human rights courts are responsible for reviewing cases relating to possible discrimination and do not require the plaintiff to pay for a lawyer.
This way, Yaniv can represent herself in court and take her mother as a witness, while the accused must hire a professional to accompany them.
Even with her social media pronouncements, Jessica Yaniv — who was born Jonathan Yaniv — went to court asking that her name not be published in the local press, which should only use “JY” to refer to her.
At the July hearing, however, a member of the human rights court cited the public interest in the case and the transsexual’s online activity to dismiss the application.
Identified by first and last name, Yaniv defines herself as a human rights and LGBTQ activist but has had to respond to almost daily criticism of an action that could be harmful to other minorities.