Florence Ashley is a Canadian academic, activist[1] and law professor at the University of Alberta.[2] They specialize in trans law and bioethics. They have numerous academic publications, including a book on the law and policy of banning transgender conversion practices.[3] Florence served as the first openly transfeminine clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada.[2] They are a winner of the Canadian Bar Association SOGIC Hero Award.[4]

Ashley in 2020

Biography

Personal life and education

Ashley came out as trans and transitioned in 2015.[5] They use singular they pronouns.[6]

Ashley attended McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where they graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Juris Doctor in 2017 and with a Master of Laws in bioethics in 2019. They earned a Doctor of Juridical Science from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 2023, where they were also a Junior Fellow of Massey College.[7][8]

Career

In 2019, Ashley became the first known openly transgender clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada, where they worked in the chambers of Justice Sheilah Martin.[9][5] During the same year, the Canadian Bar Association awarded Ashley the SOGIC Hero Award.[1] In 2023, they joined the University of Alberta Faculty of Law as an Assistant Professor.[10]

Ashley's work is cited in the World Professional Association for Transgender Health‘s Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People Version 8.[11]

In 2022, Ashley published the book Banning transgender conversion practices: a legal and policy analysis.[12] The book is about conversion therapy for transgender people and studies how they can be legally banned, and what impact this ban would have on the countries which would decide to implement these laws. Ashley believes that conversion therapy needs to disappear and that a formal ban improves the situation without fully solving the issue.[13] They cite the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto as an example of practices that were so bad, they served as a precedent to get conversion therapy banned in the province of Ontario.[12]

Ashley coined the term ‘gender modality’,[14][15] which is increasingly cited and applied in trans health[16] and education literature,[17] and by governments[18] and courts.[19]

In 2023, Ashley was one of 21 members appointed to the World Health Organization's guideline development group concerning the health of trans and gender diverse people,[20] but as of 15 January 2024, they were no longer listed as a proposed member of that group due to a schedule conflict.[21]

Selected academic publications

Books

  • Ashley, Florence (1 April 2022). Banning transgender conversion practices: a legal and policy analysis. Law and Society. UBC Press. doi:10.59962/9780774866941. ISBN 978-0-7748-6692-7. OCLC 1276933161. OL 35589970M.
  • Ashley, Florence (13 February 2024). Gender/Fucking: the Pleasures and Politics of Living in a Gendered Body. CLASH Books. ISBN 978-1-955904-93-3. OCLC 1376495878.

Articles

Essays

References

  1. ^ a b Chouinard, Maryse (5 February 2019). "En-"gendering" change". National Magazine. Canadian Bar Association. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Florence Ashley | Directory@UAlberta". www.ualberta.ca. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  3. ^ "Banning Transgender Conversion Practices". UBC Press. Archived from the original on 10 April 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  4. ^ "Florence Ashley, LL.M., Receives the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Community Section Hero Award". www.cba.org. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  5. ^ a b ""À mon partenaire: avant de te rencontrer, je ne me pensais pas capable d'être trans et amoureuse"". Le Huffington Post (in French). 8 June 2019. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  6. ^ "Banning transgender conversion practices: Florence Ashley's first book is an important legal and policy guide to eradicating them". www.nationalmagazine.ca. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  7. ^ "Florence Ashley | University of Toronto Faculty of Law". law.utoronto.ca. Archived from the original on 6 February 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Dis son pronom: les mots de la non-binarité". Le Devoir (in French). 6 July 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  9. ^ "Florence Ashley, JD, LLM". Center for Applied Transgender Studies. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  10. ^ "Five distinguished legal scholars appointed to Faculty of Law". www.ualberta.ca. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  11. ^ Coleman, E.; Radix, A. E.; Bouman, W. P.; Brown, G. R.; de Vries, A. L. C.; Deutsch, M. B.; Ettner, R.; Fraser, L.; Goodman, M.; Green, J.; Hancock, A. B.; Johnson, T. W.; Karasic, D. H.; Knudson, G. A.; Leibowitz, S. F. (19 August 2022). "Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8". International Journal of Transgender Health. 23 (sup1): S1–S259. doi:10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644. ISSN 2689-5269. PMC 9553112. PMID 36238954.
  12. ^ a b "A new book on conversion practices examines exactly what trans people need from lawmakers". xtramagazine.com. 6 April 2022. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  13. ^ "Banning transgender conversion practices: Florence Ashley's first book is an important legal and policy guide to eradicating them". www.nationalmagazine.ca. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  14. ^ Ashley, Florence (2022). "'Trans' is my gender modality". In Erickson-Schroth, Laura (ed.). Trans Bodies, Trans Selves. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. p. 22. ISBN 9780190092726.
  15. ^ Ashley, Florence; Brightly-Brown, Shari; Rider, G. Nic (13 June 2024). "Beyond the trans/cis binary: introducing new terms will enrich gender research". Nature. 630 (8016): 293–295. Bibcode:2024Natur.630..293A. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-01719-9. PMID 38858484.
  16. ^ Streed, Carl G; et al. (8 July 2021). "Assessing and Addressing Cardiovascular Health in People Who Are Transgender and Gender Diverse: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association". Circulation. 144 (6): e136–e148. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001003. PMC 8638087. PMID 34235936.
  17. ^ "Transgender and Nonbinary Identities". Gender Identity. Planned Parenthood. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  18. ^ "Classification of cisgender, transgender and non-binary". Standards, Data Sources, and Classifications: Statistical Classifications. Statistics Canada. 18 October 2021. Archived from the original on 12 June 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  19. ^ Michel v. Graydon, 2 SCR 763, 101 (SCC 2020), archived from the original.
  20. ^ "WHO announces the development of a guideline on the health of trans and gender diverse people". www.who.int. Archived from the original on 7 January 2024. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  21. ^ "WHO GUIDELINES ON THE HEALTH OF TRANS AND GENDER DIVERSE PEOPLE" (PDF). who.int. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 January 2024. Retrieved 17 January 2024.