Alberta substitute teacher let go because of sex change

By Jodie Sinnema – Calgary Herald

EDMONTON — An Edmonton teacher has filed a human-rights complaint against a local Catholic school district after the district stopped hiring him to substitute-teach because he was changing his gender.

“In discussions with the Archbishop of the Edmonton Diocese, the teaching of the Catholic Church is that persons cannot change their gender,” wrote Steve Bayus, the Greater St. Albert school district’s deputy superintendent, in a letter to teacher Jan Buterman, dated Oct. 14, 2008.

“One’s gender is considered what God created us to be.”

Buterman, who worked as a substitute teacher in the district — which covers the Edmonton area of St. Albert, Morinville and Legal — from March to June 2008, told the district at the end of that school year that he was transitioning from female to male. He said he wanted his paperwork changed so that he would be known as Mr. Buterman instead of Mrs. Buterman.

He starting teaching that September when he said he got a call from the superintendent, asking more detailed questions about his medical condition. At that time, Bayus counselled Buterman to substitute only in the younger grades while the matter was worked out, Buterman said, because of the confusion it could create in adolescents.

“Your gender change is not aligned with the teachings of the Church and would create confusions and complexity with students and parents as a model and witness to Catholic faith values,” Bayus wrote later in his letter, which explained that Buterman had been taken off the substitute-teacher list. “I understand that you have served the schools well in your role as a substitute teacher.”

EDMONTON, ALBERTA: OCTOBER 2, 2009 -- Jan Buterman was fired October 9, 2008 as a substitute teacher with the Greater St. Albert Catholic School board after informing them she/he was diagnosed with a gender identity medical condition and was undergoing physical gender changes from the female gender to the male gender. This photo was made in Edmonton October 2, 2009. (Photo by Larry Wong/Edmonton Journal)

Buterman, whose background is Lutheran, said he was shocked.

“It brings back horror, fear,” he said in an interview. “It felt like my existence was being questioned. . . . I believe we are all part of creation.”

Buterman said his is a diagnosed medical condition — equivalent to someone having cancer, for instance — upon which employment should not depend.

He said the Greater St. Albert Catholic district is the public district in the St. Albert area and receives public funding for education. He said the administration has a right to its beliefs about transgendered people.

“That doesn’t mean they get to ignore human rights,” Buterman said.

Buterman had one year in which to file his complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. He said he waited to file in hopes the Catholic district would change its stance, and because he needed to seek legal advice on how to move forward.

He is currently living full time as a man, and has been substituting some days with schools in the Sturgeon County public-school system. He said he has an official medical diagnosis of gender identity disorder, and doctors have given approval for him to receive gender reassignment surgery, which can cost up to $80,000.