Dear friends and allies, 


Amy Hamm, a registered nurse, is being tried by the BC College of Nurses and Midwives after putting up a billboard reading I ❤️ JK Rowling and speaking up about women’s biological sex-based rights on social media. This regulatory hearing is “precedent-setting” as the claimants are not patients, but members of the public, and it aims to silence nurses, midwives and women across the province.

Collective member Andi & Amy Hamm with I <3 JK Rowling billboard

Over 300 postcards have been signed and sent to both the BC College of Nurses and Midwives and the BC Nurses’ Union since we launched our I ❤️ Sex Based Rights postcard campaign in support of Amy and women’s sex-based rights. Our postcards were featured in the hearing when they were used to argue that Amy is engaging in legitimate debate.

The experts testifying for the College, Greta Bauer and Elizabeth Saewyc, are academics who are using their lengthy CVs to promote women and lesbian hating by:

  • Referring to women as “womb havers” and “menstruators”. Reducing women to our body parts and reproductive capacity continues the medical establishment’s historical control and pathologization of women.

  • Stating that lesbians could be sexually attracted to males. This ridiculous statement negatively impacts lesbian’s sexual autonomy and pressures us to accept males as sexual partners. 

  • Claiming that biological sex can change during one’s life. This is absurd as only women can experience certain health conditions like menstruation, pregnancy, lactation, abortion, and menopause. 

  • Disregarding the rights and safety of women. People can easily identify who is a woman and who is a man, and women continue to experience oppression and inequality in all aspects of our lives.

All of this is happening behind closed doors with hardly any media attention. The College is wasting its resources on this hearing, promoting misogyny and the silencing of women. Instead, let’s stand up for girls and women who are the experts of our lives and experiences.

Here’s how you can help:

  • Share this newsletter with your social media networks

  • Write to your MLA that biological sex matters in health care

  • Show your support for this and future campaigns by sending an e-transfer to vancouverlesbiancollective@gmail.com