“A job vacancy at Canada’s University of Waterloo is advertised as only open to ‘qualified individuals who self-identify as women, transgender, non-binary, or two-spirit,'” reports The College Fix.
The advertised position, in the University’s environment department, seeks a PhD-level scholar in “geography, earth and/or environmental science and sustainability, planning or a related discipline” who has “an active research program with emphasis on climate and/or climate change science, water science and sustainability, or future cities.”
The candidate will also be expected to develop an “innovative program of high-quality research that will attract external funding and excellent, well qualified and diverse graduate students,” notes The College Fix:
According to LGBTQ Health.ca, a two-spirit person is one who “identifies as having both a masculine and a feminine spirit.” The term was coined in 1990 by Myra Laramee at the Third Annual Inter-tribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and Lesbian American Conference.
“Two-spirit” also may include “same-sex attraction and a wide variety of gender variance, including people who might be described in Western culture as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, gender queer, cross-dressers or who have multiple gender identities,” the site states.
The job advertisement … notes that “this particular selection process” follows guidelines set forth by the Ontario Human Rights Commission to address the “underrepresentation of individuals from equity-deserving groups.”
This is how the University of Waterloo, a public university, can legally limit the demographic for this job opening. Section 14 of the Ontario Human Rights Code states “it is not discrimination” to establish a program designed to “relieve hardship or economic disadvantage, help disadvantaged people or groups to achieve, or try to achieve, equal opportunity or help eliminate discrimination.”
To deal with how the want ad states applicants only have to “self-identify” as non-binary, two-spirit, etc., any applicant will have to complete an “Applicant Equity Survey”….
A job ad like this would be illegal in the United States (which is not to say such ads don’t exist in America). In the U.S., the Supreme Court allows employers in some circumstances to discriminate against men or whites without violating federal law, by giving women preference (such as when an employer once discriminated against women in the relatively recent past) — but a complete exclusion of men or whites from applying is generally forbidden by court rulings.
State laws sometimes forbid discrimination against men or whites even when it would be permitted by federal law, although progressive colleges sometimes seek to get around such rules by asking applicants to show their commitment to diversity, and defining diversity in a way that rewards being a woman or minority. The Supreme Court has ruled that state laws can ban affirmative action by colleges, even in circumstances when affirmative action is allowed under federal law.
