To whom it may concern,

This letter is to show support for Amy Hamm and her unwavering dedication to protecting women's rights and needs despite opposition from mostly nameless, mostly faceless people on social media.

Ms. Hamm's professional skills and care practices are above reproach. What is being judged are her personal beliefs, and they are being measured against her career, as if overlap exists where none actually does. In fact, Hamm’s career should be entirely separate and distinct from her personal life, but her foes have targeted her career, recognizing that she is a single mother with a single income, and this was an effective way to stop her from saying things that millions of other women agree with, but a handful of social media trolls do not.

Hamm is an outspoken supporter of women's rights. Rights that have been won over centuries, and rights that some countries still do not grant to women, yet Canadian authorities are watering down. Many people believe there is pressure from extremist fringe elements of the LGBTQ community to impose on these rights by redefining what a man or woman is, or where they can be. This includes the right to privacy in a rape shelter, or the right for women to have safe spaces. Worse, these changing definitions rarely take into consideration the people most affected by them – our mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, and the other women in our lives.

At no point in Amy Hamm's activist efforts has she campaigned to ban trans people, or to take their rights. Simply put, there is a difference between a man and a female-to-male trans person, or a woman and a male-to-female trans person. I believe this, and my signature on this letter states as much.

Those that oppose Hamm do not make this distinction. Instead, they believe that a trans person is the same as that which they transition to become, which contradicts the word transition, or change. These people believe self-identified trans women belong in women’s prisons – even if they have committed grotesque sex crimes against women. They believe self-identified trans women belong in rape shelters, even if they are the ones accused of the crime. This is an unconscionable infringement on the rights women in some countries could only dream to have, and here we are discussing their extinction.

To be clear, it is rarely female-to-male trans men seeking out other men’s rights to trod on. In fact, it is nearly always MTF trans women seeking access to the most private spaces that women go to when they are most vulnerable or at risk.

Ms. Hamm’s fight to protect women is in response to this. She has protested that female prisoners should not be locked up alongside female-identifying trans persons who commit sex crimes. She has advocated for women born female to have a safe place they can go to. She is not advocating for harm to come to trans people, nor has she inflicted harm on trans people.

Professionally, her standard of care has always reached the highest levels. Indeed, people often adhere to strict professional standards that don’t entirely overlap with their personal lives, and they do so without harm. Amy has proven this, with a 10+ year long blemish-free career that has included treating countless transgender people with the same compassion and care that anyone receives.

Trans women are different from women. That is simply a fact. There is a place for both to exist, but it does not need to be the same place. I recognize this and ask that you recognize Amy Hamm’s fight for this cause as a noble and needed fight. There are vulnerable women that did not have a voice until Amy shared hers. Please hear them through her.