Vancouver-area Nurse Amy Hamm

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

‘I strongly believe that in order for women, like I said, to preserve our privacy, our dignity and most importantly our safety, we deserve and are entitled to sex segregated spaces,’ Amy Hamm said.

A British Columbia nurse is testifying to keep her nursing license after she was accused of “transphobia” for defending women’s rights and spaces.

On November 3, after months of hearings, BC nurse Amy Hamm was given a chance to defend herself from accusations by the BC College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) that she is unfit to work as a nurse because she believes that sex is based on biology.

“The issue isn’t about trans people,” Hamm said, according to the Post Millennial. “The issue is about having sex-segregated spaces that don’t have male bodies. Women have reason to fear male violence, and that is the reason that we got sex-segregated spaces in the first place.”

“But I don’t believe that it should be incumbent upon women to accept males into our sex segregated spaces to protect this particular group of biological males from other biological males,” she continued. “I would support third spaces, that sort of thing. But I strongly believe that in order for women, like I said, to preserve our privacy, our dignity and most importantly our safety, we deserve and are entitled to sex segregated spaces.”

Hamm warned that basing gender on anything other than biology puts women in dangerous situations. She recounted several instances in which violent male criminals were sent to female prisons because they claimed to be women. 

She further revealed that there is only one rape shelter in Canada that is restricted to actual women. The Vancouver Rape Relief had to fight for its right to deny entry to males in the Supreme Court.

“And since then, there have been constant campaigns to have them shut down,” Hamm added. “Trans activists have, in red paint, you know, written ‘TERF’ and other slurs on their building. They’ve had dead rats nailed to their building, because they don’t admit biological males. And the trans activists in Vancouver ran a campaign to have the city of Vancouver remove their city funding from this rape shelter, which the city of Vancouver actually did.” 

During her testimony, which came after she was forced to remain silent for multiple day-long sessions, Hamm revealed that her advocacy for women’s rights has always been separate from her work as a nurse.

“I’ve always kept my private life and my political views and private views very separate from my work life,” she said. “I never talk politics at work.”

Hamm found herself targeted by the BCCNM in 2020 when she co-sponsored a billboard reading, “I [heart] JK Rowling,” referring to the famous British author’s public comments defending women’s washrooms and other private spaces from being used by gender-confused men. 

The BCCNM accused Hamm of making “discriminatory and derogatory statements regarding transgender people [sic]” while identifying herself as a nurse or nurse educator.  

According to the College, Hamm’s statements were “made across various online platforms, including but not limited to podcasts, videos, published writings, and social media,” between July 2018 and March 2021.  

The investigation has been going on for three years, having begun in November 2020. So far, Hamm has appeared before the panel multiple times, including in September 2022 and October 2022, as well as in January and October of this year. The upcoming hearings are scheduled to continue in two blocks of sessions, from October 31 to November 3, and from November 6 to 8.   

Now, she underwent her fourth disciplinary hearing in an attempt to keep her license. Many are pointing to Hamm’s trial as an example of Canada’s ever increasing restrictions on free speech, with the National Post calling the investigation a “witch hunt.” However, Hamm said that the grueling experience has only made her stronger. 

“And through the onslaught of abuse–both from individuals and the BC College of Nurses–the years of legal troubles, the threat of losing everything, becoming a single mother and coming to terms with that fact–I became stronger than I ever imagined I could be,” she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, after her last hearing.