Transgender LGBT activist Jessica Yaniv, formerly Jonathan Yaniv, has filed a total of 16 complaints against female estheticians, most of whom are immigrants, with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal after they refused to wax Yaniv’s male genitals. The activist is claiming discrimination based on gender identity and is seeking financial restitution, estimated as totaling at least $32,500.
Yaniv testified before the Human Rights tribunal on Friday.
“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’?” Yaniv argued, CBC News reports.
“Yaniv, who identifies as female but has male genitalia, contacted the businesses through Facebook messages requesting to book an appointment for waxing services including a Brazilian wax which removes most or all pubic hair. She says many of the estheticians advertised themselves as offering arm, leg, and pubic hair waxing for either male or female customers,” CBC reported.
After it was understood that Yaniv has male genitals, however, the estheticians refused to perform the service. Some of the women being sued by Yaniv “claimed to lack the training required for waxing male genitals, or that they are not comfortable doing so for religious or personal reasons,” noted CBC.
“It’s not about the service at all,” Yaniv said before the tribunal. ”When you start discriminating against certain service elements and certain protected classes that’s when we really have an issue.”
As noted by The Daily Wire earlier this month, a woman targeted by Yaniz, a Brazilian immigrant named Marcia Da Silva, was forced to close up her small business due to the complaint.
“Some of my clients have been very significantly affected on a personal level. [Another client also] closed her business, she has been depressed, anxious, sleepless and that has gone on for a period of many many months,” said Jay Cameron, a lawyer from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which is representing Da Silva.
Though these women are being forced to either cave or face the charges against them, it hasn’t gone fully in the way of Yaniv. According to the CBC report, Yaniv was forced to withdraw at least one previous complaint filed against a business called Laser Cut and was ordered to pay legal costs totaling up to $150.
Additionally, one of the tribunal members called into question Yaniv’s motives, pointing out that most of the women targeted are minorities, according to CBC:
“In a May 2019 decision, the tribunal member adjudicating the hearing said she was ‘troubled that some of JY’s comments, made within this process and online, suggest that she holds stereotypical and negative views about immigrants to Canada.'”
Decisions regarding the complaints will reportedly come from the tribunal in three months.
Yaniv has been the subject of a series of reports by The Post Millennial detailing accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior online against Yaniv by women who say they were minors when the incidents took place.
Related: Woman Forced To Close Business After Refusing To Wax Male Genitals Of Transgender Person