On January 29th 2018, Lighthouse Trails in Montana released a new booklet titled Transgenderism and Our Children, written by authors Maria Kneas and Lois Putnam. The booklet describes the transgender issue and how it is affecting children. While the booklet does say that transgenderism is not God’s will for any human being, there is no language in the book to incite violence against transgender people.
The day after the booklet was released, one of Lighthouse Trails' Canadian customers ordered 101 copies to be shipped to Canada. They began processing the order for shipping when they remembered reading about new Canadian laws on transgenderism. They pulled the order and began researching the matter. Here is what they learned:
According to a ruling in June of 2017, transgenders are now considered a protected people group in Canada:
The Canadian Senate passed Bill C-16 by a 67-11 vote. The bill adds prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act, amends the criminal code to extend protections against hate speech and allows judges to take into consideration when sentencing whether a crime was motivated by hatred of the victim’s gender identity or expression. (source)
Justin Trudeau of Canada
The bill became law on June 19, 2017 in Canada.
We learned also that Canadian customs has the right to seize any material that would be classified as hate propaganda and that because of the new law, material that speaks against transgenderism would fall into the hate propaganda category. This is described in Memorandum D9-1-15, which can be read on the Canada Border Services website.
Memorandum D9-1-15 defines what is hate propaganda as:
Goods that incite or promote hatred against an identifiable group, by incorporating some or all of the following allegations, may be prohibited as hate propaganda:
(a) allegations that an identifiable group is to blame for serious economic or social problems;
(b) allegations that an identifiable group manipulates media, trade, finance, government or world politics to the detriment of society;
(c) allegations that an identifiable group is inferior or superior to another group; and/or
(d) allegations that an identifiable group weakens or threatens society, in whole or in part.
Because transgenders are now considered an “identifiable group” in Canada, and because this booklet suggests that transgenderism will weaken a society and bring much harm to our children if it is introduced to them in school, the booklet falls within the parameters of "hate propaganda" in Canada.
Because it seemed that Memorandum D9-1-15 might allow for the freedom of expression and opinion if it is in a religious context, Lighthouse Trails made a phone call to the Canadian Customs office in Ottawa, Ontario to gain clarification. They spoke to a Canadian customs officer who handles questions about the new laws on transgenders. They explained that the booklet did not incite hate but was warning about the dangers in teaching children that transgenderism is normal and healthy. The officer told them that the way to tell if a particular literature would be deemed hate literature was to substitute the word in question (transgender) with the name of a particular race of people, for instance, black people.
So, in other words, if the substitution said that African American people were a danger to society, that would be considered hate propaganda (which we would agree with). So according to this test, if literature says that transgenderism is a danger to society, then it too is considered hate propaganda.
The conversation concluded with the customs officer saying he believed that the booklet would not be allowed into Canada as it would be definitely considered "hate speech (or propaganda)."
We find it profoundly disturbing that transgenders and homosexuals have been placed in the same category as people groups, such as African American people and Jews, who have been persecuted at times in the past, merely for being whom God created them to be.
For our readers in Canada, here is a link to the book TRANSGENDERISM and Our Children.
Where will this stop? There are people who want laws created to protect those who practice bestiality (sex with animals) and those who want to have sex with children. Will we be told it is hate propaganda to speak up against child molesting? And what about the freedom of religion? Christians believe that man is sinful and needs a savior and that the only Savior man has is Jesus Christ. Will it soon be considered hate propaganda to send Gospel literature to Canada because the Gospel rejects all other (false) forms of salvation? Will the day come when Bibles (except for loose paraphrases) will not be accepted either? Sure it will.
We know that what we are seeing happen in Canada is just a foretaste of what is going to happen throughout the world, and it is just a brief matter of time before it will also happen in the United States.
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"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Romans 5:1-5).