CA — Vancouver, British Columbia. Tyler Porter, a man who identifies as transgender, has publicly boasted on social media of harassing women at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre (DEWC) in Vancouver, CA. The Centre’s mission “is to provide a safe, non-judgmental environment for women from all walks of life, who live and/or work in the Downtown Eastside. To achieve this goal, the Centre “provides supportive surroundings with meals, counseling, advocacy and programs which nurture and empower members,” according to their website. They also provide overnight refuge and shelter.

Porter has posted the address of the facility, indicating he was staying there. Additional Facebook posts and images have circulated in which he laughs about subjecting the other women at the shelter to his erect penis and naked body.

Porter has also posted about throwing pills at an older woman in the shelter when she confronted him about his appearance, according to Porter’s Facebook page. “I took out 5 1mg tabs of estradiol and threw them at her one at a time while repeatedly saying ‘no’.”

When these posts and behaviors were brought to the attention of the DEWC, their Twitter response was to call women’s concerns “harmful mistruths,” because Tyler is transgender, despite the numerous disturbing social media posts presented to them in which Tyler is abusive and predatory, admits to stabbing someone and being a ‘violent offender,’ discusses masturbating in the shower, and shares a recipe for making the deadly poison Ricin while mentioning the Vancouver water supply. When asked by numerous people online, DEWC never explained what ‘mistruths’ were supposedly shared.

Hundreds of people commented on the lack of concern for the women’s safety in the shelter, which the DEWC dismissed in a formal statement on Sept 17th as ‘transphobic.’ The shelter said, “We refuse to engage in a dialogue that gives a platform to transphobic groups or individuals or otherwise does damage to women who are transgender.”

But their statement rings hollow for women who are subjected to Tyler’s abusive behavior. While the DEWC says they “are committed to women’s safety and will continue to address internally any behavior that compromises the safety and security of women accessing DEWC services,” they have made it clear that Tyler can use his transgender status to shield him from criticism.

In Canada ‘sex’ is a protected characteristic in the Charter of Rights, and in 2005 the Supreme Court of British Columbia upheld the right of women to women’s only spaces and shelters (Vancouver Rape Crisis Centre vs. Nixon).

The DEWC’s Director Alice Kendall said in 2016 that emergency safe spaces are something the community needs. In 2011, there were several sexual assaults on women at the (mixed-sex) overnight shelter run by First United Church.

“Women are harassed, bullied, and all of these other things within these kinds of spaces,” Kendall said.

And now they are harassed and abused by transgender males like Porter in “women-only” shelters too.

Those who would like their voice to be heard about a man living in a crisis centers for vulnerable women should contact the following:

Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing
Address: Room 310 Parliament Buildings
Victoria, BC V8V 1X4
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (250) 387-2283