Trans Educator Pursues Legal Action Following Online Harassment

Wilson Wilson, a trans educator (high school teacher) from British Columbia, Canada, has filed a human rights complaint following multiple instances of online harassment—one of which being a doxxing incident by the right-wing extremist social media presence Libs of TikTok.

The event that led to Wilson pursuing legal action was enacted by one of their student’s parents, Joanna Evenson, under the online persona “Blonde Bigot.” Through this social media account, Evenson alleged that the Pitt Meadows School District was enabling abuse and grooming by employing a trans person as an educator. Wilson testified that they had been sent various “slurs (…) and accusations” including being called a groomer and a pervert, “all (because) I’m a teacher.”

Wilson filed a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal on Friday, June 22. They attest that their filing was driven by a need to represent the trans educator community, saying “I’m standing up because as much as this has robbed me of my privacy and like my dignity as a person, I haven’t been robbed of my power or responsibility”. Similar wording has been used in multiple recent U.S. state bills for trans educators.

This filing comes after a barrage of attacks on Wilson this past winter by a far-right social media user under the handle ‘Libs of TikTok’. Wilson was outed as a trans individual and doxxed by this page, run by Chaya Raichik a former real estate agent who is currently on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s extremist database. The account shared Wilson’s name, pictures of them that reveal double mastectomy scars, and their place of work to the account’s three million social media followers.

While this specific instance has not yet affected Wilson’s position at the school, Libs of TikTok is responsible for the removal of at least five educators across the world via doxxing and outing them online. barbara findlay (whose name is lowercase), a lawyer backing the complaint with Lawyers Against Transphobia, says that “Trans people are targeted directly, and they’re also targeted when organizations (or accounts like) Libs of TikTok get involved and send tsunamis of hate mail” (via Global News).

Wilson is on leave from school with a recent PTSD diagnosis due to the continuing harassment. As of July 15, Wilson’s complaint has not yet been determined before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

Photos from Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows News