The day transgender woman Jessica Yaniv testified before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal in Vancouver complaining about having been refused waxes due to being biologically male, a girl called Jessica Rumpel came forward to accuse Yaniv of sending sexually inappropriate texts, the Daily Mail reported.
Rumpel, who turns 20 this August, said she received the messages when she was aged 14, some allegedly sent out of curiosity about the female reproductive system.
Rumpel confirmed to the edition Friday that she had filed a child exploitation report against Yaniv with CyberTip, Canada's official tip line for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children. Yaniv, who reportedlty identifies as lesbian, claimed she was not acquainted with the accuser, suggesting someone could have contacted the girl pretending to be her.
Yaniv is meanwhile fully engulfed in court hearings over the discrimination cases, in which she was outright refused pubic hair waxing in dozens of salons across Canada the moment she mentioned being transgender.
"None of these providers had any issue with anything until I mentioned I was transgender. Why was it not brought up saying, 'Hey we don't do services on male genitalia'?" Jessica Yaniv, who identifies as female while still retaining male genitals, spoke out, specifying she contacted the beauty salons, which promoted themselves as offering arm, leg and pubic hair waxing for both male and female customers, via Facebook.
In response, several aestheticians claimed to lack the training required for waxing male genitals, or that they cannot do it for religious or personal reasons.
Earlier this month, the Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms represented three British Columbian beauticians before the human rights tribunal, arguing it is “not a human right to be able to compel a woman to wax male genitalia”.
For instance, the Centre’s website put it in black and white that one of its clients, Sandeep Banipal is not trained to wax male genitals and her business, Blue Heaven Beauty Lounge, does not advertise male genital waxing whatsoever. Separately, another one, Sukhi Hehar Gill is a practising Sikh and for religious reasons, cannot provide beauty services for biological men.
The public hearing entered the spotlight Friday with about 30 individuals attending the proceedings and gathering outside the tribunal building, some of whom support Yaniv. Others demonstrated in support of the aestheticians, many of whom are women of colour.
One tribunal member, who attended the hearings, which started back in 2018, went as far as suggesting she “holds stereotypical and negative views about immigrants to Canada”.
Yaniv, who is seeking financial compensation of $25,000 from at least one corporate salon and $7,500 from an independent aesthetician over what she sees as blatant discrimination, has sparked a slew of salacious headlines and indignant tweets this week, with many rushing into accusations that she is “perverted” and a “predator” and insisting that “he is a man”.
Some rose up in her defence, though.
Yaniv first issued her complaint with the Tribunal, which looks into cases of discrimination in line with the B.C. human rights code last year. But the case received renewed attention this week, when the Tribunal released Yaniv’s identity after originally keeping it secret due to modern-day gender identity controversies, according to the National Post.
When asked if she believes it’s acceptable for an aesthetician to refuse her service because of a discomfort with male genitalia, Yaniv says it all depends on how the refusal is framed:
“It is OK, but it all depends how. If they were to put this forward respectfully and not in a bigoted way then I wouldn’t have a problem with it”.
Yaniv says her gender transition is well-thought and medically checked, with “the hardest of all being hormone replacement therapy”, which she started “a long time ago”.