Angry in the Great White North

Canada is an accommodating country...for some people.

If you like to wear a costume to confuse people about your gender, then no problem -- we'll make sure there is a toilet just for you:

Student groups at the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg, and Toronto's Ryerson University are lobbying for alternatives to conventional male and female washrooms to protect the safety and privacy of transgendered students.

The campaign comes despite student bodies and university authorities being unable to give any figures for how many transgendered students they need to accommodate.

"I think it's important for a couple of reasons. There are individuals on campus who don't feel safe going into either the male or female washrooms, that whatever bathroom they go into they feel ostracized," said Vivian Belik, VP of student services for the University of Winnipeg Students' Association.

"Gender-neutral washrooms are important because it deconstructs the idea of gender as a whole."

The washrooms are designed to meet the needs of people transitioning from one sex to the other, transvestites, transsexuals, and all others whose identities don't fit into conventional sexual norms.

On the other hand, if your identity, and related garb, is linked to religion, then you can forget about any special accommodation when exercising your right to vote:

If he is elected premier, Parti Quebecois Leader Andre Boisclair says he will amend Quebec's electoral law to make it impossible for veil-wearing Muslim women to vote without showing their faces to identify themselves.

In the latest controversy over accommodating religious minorities, Quebec electoral workers have been told that Muslim women wearing a niqab face veil will not be required to show their faces when they vote on Monday.

Under Quebec's rules, a voter has to present a photo ID before getting a ballot.

Marcel Blanchet, the province's chief electoral officer, says the exemption for niqab-wearing Muslim women is not a religious accommodation but simply falls under a general rule that says that people who show up without papers can either make a sworn statement or have another person vouch for their identity.

Mr. Boisclair said that is not acceptable.

Since the fall, Quebec has been embroiled in a bitter debate over accommodating religious minorities, especially devout Muslims and Hassidic Jews.

OK, what if you are a transvestite Muslim under your burka? How do we treat your transvestite identity in a sensitive manner while at the same time making sure you don't get the mistaken message that your religious beliefs are being treated with similar sensitivity?

And if a transvestite comes to vote in his women's clothing, complete with wig, does the electoral worker force him to drop the accessories and makeup in order to look like the person in the driver's license photo, if it was taken in the "male" mode?

Tricky questions. Perhaps Andre Boisclair, declared homosexual and so a person familiar with sexual identity controversies, can answer them for us.