Transwoman in B.C. women’s prison files complaint over requirement that he demonstrates expression consistent with stated belief that he is transgender

Kevin Patterson in better (?) times. 2014

A male murder suspect fighting extradition to the US filed a human rights complaint against the women’s prison where he is housed complaining that he was forced to sign a contract agreeing to uphold a transgender persona as a condition of being kept in the female estate. The contract states that he must “demonstrate gender expression which is consistent with gender identity”. It also prohibits him from demanding a cellmate. All men housed in women’s prisons in British Columbia are given private cells, unless they have had their penis and testicles surgically removed. His attorney alleges this infringes on his right to cut his hair short, grow a beard, and be provided with an incarcerated female to be confined in his cell as a companion.

From TheStar:

“VANCOUVER—A trans woman in a B.C. women’s jail has filed a human-rights complaint after being asked to sign a contract obliging her to continually “demonstrate” her gender in order to stay.

Since September 2018, Hayden Patterson has been held at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women as she awaits extradition to the United States on a murder charge. Before arriving at the women’s facility, she was being detained in a men’s jail; she requested a transfer so she could be in an institution consistent with her female gender identity.

However, before it would accept her, the women’s jail required that she sign a special behavioural contract that, among other things, said she must continue to “demonstrate gender expression that is consistent with (her) current gender identity (as a woman).”

Patterson’s lawyer, Laura Track of the Community Legal Assistance Society, said Patterson feels she is subject to conditions that other female inmates are not and that the contract’s requirement is vague and discriminatory.

“On a plain reading of that term, she doesn’t know whether if she didn’t shave for a couple of days, didn’t wear makeup or decided to cut her hair really short — or otherwise wasn’t performing her female gender to the standard that corrections deems appropriate — that she could face consequences for that, including return to a men’s institution,” Track said.

In 2016, the B.C. human rights act was amended to protect trans people from discrimination based on their gender identity or expression.

As part of the contract Patterson signed, she is also prohibited from having a cellmate. She says that is resulting in “distress, frustration and loneliness,” especially as other inmates have told her they would be willing share a cell with her.

The Alouette facility, represented by a lawyer for the provincial government’s Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, denies the policies are discriminatory but declined an interview request.

In its written response filed to the human-rights tribunal in January, the prison says Patterson was required to sign the contract because she had been “charged with 25 Regulation violations” while at the men’s prison and the contract aims to keep Patterson, other inmates and prison staff safe.

The institution also said the no-cellmate condition is part of its policy for trans inmates who have not had gender-affirming surgery. According to the documents, that is the case for Patterson.

According to the government of British Columbia, all men have the right to declare themselves female at any time and for any reason, and this self-declaration of sex (called ‘Gender Identity’) must be regarded as their actual sex without exception under penalty of law. One “expresses” one’s desired reproductive categorization by demonstrating sex stereotypical “characteristics in behavior, dress, and/or mannerisms”, according to B.C. law. See their guidance on ‘Gender Identity’ here [PDF]:

The complainant in this case is Hayden Patterson, 25, formerly Rachel Patterson, formerly Kevin Patterson.

He was arrested in 2014 in Abbotsford, B.C. after fleeing across the border from Sammamish, Washington, with codefendant Christopher Shade. The pair were charged with the murder of Richard Bergesen, 57, who had taken the then twenty-year-old homeless Patterson into his home as part of a recidivist rehabilitation program spearheaded by his church. The victim housed Patterson in his home for over a year, paying for his courses at community college. Patterson had already served multiple sentences for a long criminal record including convictions for custodial assault, identity theft, forgery, and 4th degree assault. The victim was tied up and then beaten to death via blows to his head with a shovel. According to witnesses, Patterson claimed a “gay panic” defense, alleging that after living together for a year Bergesen made a sexual advance towards him. Codefendants allegedly stole the victims money, credit cards, and BMW, and went on a shopping spree in Abbotsford and held a hotel party prior to arrest.

Hayden/Rachel/Kevin Patterson. Facebook 2014. Day of the murder. Credit: Coast Mountain News

Codefendant Christopher Slade (then 18) was extradited immediately to Washington State and is now serving a 17 year sentence of 2nd degree murder for the crime. He pled guilty. Kevin Patterson, charged with 1st degree murder, holds dual Canadian/US citizenship and filed eight written submissions fighting extradition. From the CoastMountainNews article linked above:




Kevin Patterson was held awaiting extradition since 2014 in Surrey Pretrial Services Centre, a male prison until 2018, when he was transferred to Alouette Correctional Center for Women on the basis of his newly declared “sense of himself” as a person who, absent any evidence (none is required) believes himself to be biologically situated on a developmental pathway towards producing ova and gestating offspring.

He received 24 violations for misconduct while in the male facility. He filed a human rights complaint against a female guard who refused to frisk him because her refusal to touch his male genitalia infringed on his right to be recognized as female by fellow citizens under British Columbia ‘Gender Identity’ law. He filed a complaint that he was denied access to various items required to “affirm” his nonexistent female reproductive system. He filed a complaint stating that as a result of declaring his internal “sense of himself” as female he was bullied, mistreated, and sexually assaulted (undefined) by other inmates. He also filed a human rights complaint that his religious rights were infringed by his inability to self-define as Jewish in order to obtain a Kosher meal selection.

All of these human rights complaints have been adjudicated by Devyn Cousineau, the same British Columbia Human Rights adjudicator who accepted 16 human rights complaints filed by pedophile sexual predator Jonathan Yaniv against female aestheticians who declined to wax his balls. Devyn Cousineau also presided over the recent case of Oger vs. Whatcott, where a Westboro Baptist type religious fundie is facing incarceration via failure to pay exorbitant fines imposed by Cousineau largely as a penalty on the basis that Whatcott declined to pretend during the tribunal that Oger, a male who fathered two children, is female.

Far from being an objective adjudicator, the chair of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, Devyn Cousineau financially sponsors ‘Gender Identity’ activists QMUNITY, a Vancouver B.C. organization that promotes body modification practices for youth including unprescribed off-label cross-sex hormones ordered over the internet, and provides chest binding devices to minor females on demand.

Devyn Cousineau has personally funded the activities of the extreme sexist loony tunes QMUNITY- some of whom actually limit their dietary intake based on their bizarre obsession with sex stereotypes-

Crazy sexist cult- QMUNITY- funded by Devyn Cousineau, head of B.C. Human Rights Tribunal since 2017

Devyn Cousineau funded them in 2013




Cousineau was appointed head of the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal in 2017.

6 thoughts on “Transwoman in B.C. women’s prison files complaint over requirement that he demonstrates expression consistent with stated belief that he is transgender


    He was denied Kosher food, because he had no proof that he was actually Jewish. Unlike being female, which apparently only requires you to “feel” like a woman.

  2. The only reason Canadians are not INFURIATED by this whole BC Human Rights Tribunal saga is that it is not reported. I still subscribe to a daily city paper but honestly traditional news media is inviting its own further collapse when you have to go to an American blogger to find relevant regional news reporting.

  3. Uh, the person is in jail, not the Hilton, let alone a Motel 6. Sorry but outside of food and basic medical, anything else is an elective.

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