Transgender Thunder Bay resident applauds discrimination ban

As Thunder Bay's annual Thunder Pride festivities wrap up this weekend, transgender people have something extra to celebrate. Ontario has just banned discrimination based on a person's gender identity.

This is good news for city resident Aiden Kivisto. The 24-year-old returned to his hometown of Thunder Bay from Toronto last year. Before he left, his name was Lea.

He worried being transgender could be a barrier to landing a job, but Bombardier hired him without question and he said his co-workers accept him.

"I use the men's washroom, even though the guys know. They treat me with respect," he said.

But life is very different for many of his transgender friends.

Important protection

"I know a lot of people my age that live in different parts of the province that can't get a job," Kivisto said.

That's why Kivisto welcomes the new amendment to the Ontario Human Rights Code that explicitly forbids discrimination based on gender identity.

"When there's something wrong that has to be righted ... it's going to be there to help them," he said.

Kivisto, who said he started thinking he "was going to be a boy when I was about three or four years old," said he feels lucky he hasn't had to fight discrimination.

But "there's a lot of people here in the community ... [who] are hidden and aren't outwardly trans," he said. "I mean a lot of trans people don't declare that they're trans. They don't wear it on their sleeve like I do ... not everybody feels safe [to do so]."

Kivisto said the new law is an important protection for transgender people and he’s glad he'll have a safety net in the future.