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20 August 2015

Jennifer McCreath (1973 - ) government employee, marathon runner, political candidate.

McCreath was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and raised in Toronto, did business degrees at Toronto's Humber College, 2000, and Alberta's Athabasca University, 2005, and obtained a position as Senior Policy Analyst with the Government of Newfoundland.

Some months later she started transition as Jennifer, after appearing female at a Halloween party. In 2007 she did a series of interviews on provincial television station NTV about transitioning. She started getting positive reactions from people on the street who had seen her on television, but a year later lost her job.

She is also a marathon runner. She ran 30 marathons 2007-11, including the Boston Marathon in 2009 and 2010. She won a gold medal for achievement in the 2009 World OutGames in Copenhagen . She ran the 1500 metre freestyle swim and marathon run in the third gender category.

She took work as a filing clerk. She became involving in organizing St John's Pride Week, and founded the East Coast Trans Alliance.

Following trans surgery in January 2011, Jennifer applied to Nova Scotia for a revised birth certificate, but it took longer than usual. Jennifer had committed to run in a marathon, and had to fly with her male passport. Changing planes she was detained at US Immigration in Toronto, made to wait 90 minutes before being interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted, and subjected to many intrusive and irrelevant personal questions.  As a result she missed her flight and had to pay $80 for changing flights.

In 2013 she ran for deputy mayor in St John's.
“Everyone said I didn’t have any chance at all. Initially, I couldn’t get anyone to work with me. Nobody would sign my nomination papers. But six weeks later, I walked away with close to 6,000 votes — 17 per cent of the popular vote.”
In 2015 Jennifer ran in the federal constituency of Avalon. Although she was previously a member of the New Democratic Party, she ran as a candidate of the newly formed Strength in Democracy Party.
jennifermccreath.blogspot.ca     LinkedIn


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US immigration was never particularly friendly, and has become a lot worse since 2001.  Here is a recent story of an 8-year-old being turned away in that he might be a 'terrorist'.   Many Canadians now avoid flying into or changing planes in the US.   We might note that not a single trans person has yet turned out to be a terrorist, and that harassment based on gender incongruity has nothing to do with preventing terrorism.  

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