Kimberly Nixon is a transsexual woman who volunteered to work at Rape Relief, a women's crisis line and emergency shelter in Vancouver. She was accepted into the training program after passing the pre-screening; but was subsequently expelled from the training and told she could not volunteer when the facilitators realized she was transgendered. Nixon filed a human rights complaint. Rape Relief began by arguing in BC Supreme Court that Nixon's complaint should be dismissed without a hearing, because the Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Tribunal had no jurisdiction to deal with her complaints. Transsexuals have no human rights in B.C, Rape Relief argued, because 'gender identity' is not explicitly listed among the grounds protected from discrimination in the Human Rights Code. And 'sex' is not a ground which could protect transsexuals, they went on, because protection from discrimination on the grounds of 'sex' was meant only to protect ("real") women from men. Nixon argued that the ground of 'sex' covered everyone who is discriminated against on the basis of their gender, including transgendered people. She pointed out that in any case she is legally a woman, having had sex reassignment surgery and then having the gender on her birth certificate legally changed. The B.C. Supreme Court agreed with Nixon, and sent the case for a hearing at the Human Rights Tribunal.
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