Posts misconstrue potential changes to gender markers on Toronto forms

Toronto city officials are considering a recommendation to remove the terms "male" and "female" from a recreation booking system, but online claims that "cis-male" and "cis-female" will replace them on all municipal forms are inaccurate. The social media posts misrepresent a video of a September 2024 meeting about the proposal, and a city representative told AFP this would only apply to registration within the Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division if implemented.

"The city of Toronto is planning to remove 'Male' and 'Female' from all forms and change it to 'Cis-male' and 'Cis-female,'" claims a September 24, 2024 Instagram post from Canadian media company 6ixbuzz, which has previously spread misinformation.

Another slide in the post includes a video in which someone at a government meeting says terms such as "male" and "female" should be removed from a forthcoming parks department registration and booking system. A presentation slide then summarizes different recommendations, including substituting the terms with either "cis-male" and "cis-female" or "man" and "woman."

The post from 6ixbuzz accumulated more than 11,000 likes. Similar claims have spread on Facebook, X, TikTok and Instagram.

"Cis," short for "cisgender," refers to people whose gender identity corresponds with the sex they were assigned at birth (archived here). The term has been a flashpoint in debates over LGBTQ rights.

Cisgender already appears as an adjective in some Canadian demographic data, including the 2021 census (archived here).

However, Toronto is not planning to replace "male" and "female" with "cis-male" and "cis-female" on all government forms.

Keyword searches reveal the footage shared online comes from a September 23, 2024 meeting of Toronto's Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (2SLGBTQ+) Advisory Committee (archived here).

Kathleen Harquail, project lead for the parks department's registration system, says in the full video that the recommendation to replace "male" and "female" with "cis-male" and "cis-female" originated at a January 2024 meeting (archived here).

Harquail said in January that the Parks, Forestry, and Recreation Division was working with an outside vendor to launch a booking platform by the end of the year. She said the system comes with a pre-programmed list of gender categories and that the inclusion of "male" and "female" is mandatory, but that other options -- such as "non-binary" and "transgender" -- can be added (archived here).

The 2SLGBTQ+ Advisory Committee in September expressed concern over the inclusion of "male" and "female" on the list, while also recommending a "transsexual" option be removed due to the term's negative connotations.

One member said biological terms such as "male" and "female" should be removed, to which Harquail responded: "I can confirm that we can make this change immediately."

However, she then clarified: "So, the system is not public yet and we can change this configuration to remove 'transsexual' today, if that is the recommendation."

After this response, multiple members again pushed back on the system's current mandatory display of "male" and "female," advising they be removed and possibly replaced with terms such as "man" and "woman." Harquail reiterated that the system's configuration at the moment does not allow for the terms' removal, but said the parks department could work with the vendor to see if that could be changed.

The committee's September 23 motion (archived here) recommends replacing "transsexual" with "transperson" and nixing terms such as "FTM (female-to-male)."

No final decision made

However, the body did not make a final determination on how to handle "male" and "female," instead saying the parks department should "consider reporting back on additional changes to gender options" in the new system, with no timetable given.

Nitish Bissonauth, a spokesman for the City of Toronto, told AFP in a September 26 email: "These recommendations are only applicable to the new registration and booking system."

He added that disclosing gender is optional when registering for city programs.

Read more AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.