Yaniv claims MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ identity in latest BC Human Rights complaint

VANCOUVER — Transgender activist Jessica Yaniv, who was born Jonathan Yaniv and has also used the name Jessica Simpson, has filed at least one recent human rights complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal that explicitly claims membership in the MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ community while alleging discrimination through “existential denialism” and discriminatory publication..The complaint, identified in public notices as CS-018717, lists the protected grounds as including sex and gender identity or expression. It centres on Yaniv’s assertion of belonging to the expanded acronym, which combines Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) with 2S (Two-Spirit) and the full LGBTQQIA+ spectrum — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual and additional identities.The filing accuses at least one respondent of failing to affirm that claimed identity, framing the alleged offence as both a personal harm and a broader denial of protected status under the B.C. Human Rights Code.This marks the latest escalation in a long-running pattern of litigation by Yaniv. Between 2018 and 2019, Yaniv filed more than a dozen complaints against female estheticians in the Lower Mainland, most of whom were recent immigrants operating small businesses.The complainants alleged discrimination when the women declined to perform Brazilian waxes on Yaniv’s male genitalia, citing personal, religious or safety reasons. After lengthy hearings, the tribunal dismissed the majority of those cases in 2019, finding that Yaniv had engaged in improper conduct, misled the tribunal in some instances, and appeared motivated in part by a desire to target racialized women. Two salons closed amid the legal and financial pressure.Since then, Yaniv has shifted his focus to new targets: journalists, political activists, commentators and media outlets.Recent complaints — now numbering at least dozens according to public records and statements from complaint recipients — allege that referring to Yaniv by male pronouns, the former legal name Jonathan, or biological sex constitutes discrimination..Several of those complaints name the Western Standard, which has published detailed reporting on Yaniv’s litigation history, including an in-depth profile outlining multiple controversies.Yaniv has also publicly identified as Métis in recent social-media posts and legal contexts, describing himself as an indigenous woman. Publicly available medical and genealogical records cited in earlier coverage, however, describe Yaniv’s ancestry as 100-per-cent Ashkenazi Jewish on both sides, with family roots in Israel and no documented indigenous lineage.The MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ framing adds another layer..The extended acronym shot to viral fame earlier this month when NDP MP Leah Gazan repeatedly invoked the full term during a press conference in Ottawa.The acronym sparked widespread online mockery much the same way the NDP’s recent leadership convention use of coloured “equity cards” to manage speaking priority for identity groups became the subject of international ridicule..The MMIWG movement stems from a national inquiry into the disproportionately high rates of violence against indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people in Canada. The 2SLGBTQQIA+ component is a Canadian-specific expansion of LGBTQ+ terminology that foregrounds Two-Spirit identities within indigenous communities.Yaniv’s invocation of the full acronym in a tribunal complaint is believed to be the first time a non-indigenous litigant has attempted to claim protected status under that combined banner.The tribunal has not yet issued a ruling on the latest round of complaints, but preliminary intake documents confirm the MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ reference appears in the subject line and grounds section of at least one filing.

Yaniv claims MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ identity in latest BC Human Rights complaint

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