Florence Ashley is a Canadian academic, activist and law professor at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

. They specialize in trans law and

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, me ...

. They have numerous academic publications, including a book on the law and policy of banning transgender conversion practices. Ashley served as the first openly transfeminine clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada. They are a winner of the

Canadian Bar Association The Canadian Bar Association (CBA), or Association du barreau canadien (ABC) in French, represents over 37,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers, and law students from across Canada. History The Association's first Annual Meeting was ...

SOGIC Hero Award.

Biography

Personal life and education

Ashley came out as trans and transitioned in 2015. They use

singular they Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'', and ''themselves'' (also ''themself'' and ''theirself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun derived from plural they. It typically oc ...

pronouns. Ashley attended

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, where they graduated with a

Bachelor of Civil Law Bachelor of Civil Law (abbreviated BCL or B.C.L.; ) is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. The BCL originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge; at Oxford, the BCL contin ...

and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

in 2017 and with a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

in bioethics in 2019. They earned a

Doctor of Juridical Science A Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD; ), or a Doctor of the Science of Law (JSD; ), is a research doctorate degree in law that is equivalent to a Ph.D. degree. In most countries, it is the most advanced law degree that can be earned. Australia ...

from the

University of Toronto Faculty of Law The University of Toronto Faculty of Law (U of T Law, UToronto Law) is the law school of the University of Toronto, located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Downtown Toronto. It is the top ranked common law facu ...

in 2023, where they were also a Junior Fellow of

Massey College Massey College is the postgraduate University of Toronto#Colleges, college of the University of Toronto located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The college was established, built and ...

Career

In 2019, Ashley became the first known openly transgender clerk at the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

, where they worked in the chambers of Justice

Sheilah Martin Sheilah L. Martin (born May 31, 1956) is a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, having served in that role since 2017. She was nominated to the court by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on November 29, 2017. Before her appointment to Can ...

. During the same year, the

awarded Ashley the SOGIC Hero Award. In 2023, they joined the

University of Alberta Faculty of Law The University of Alberta Faculty of Law is the graduate school of law of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Established as an undergraduate faculty in 1912 it is the third oldest law school in Canada, and often considered th ...

as an assistant professor. Ashley's work is cited in the

World Professional Association for Transgender Health The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity and ...

‘s

Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People The Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People (SOC) is an international clinical protocol by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) outlining the recommended assessment and treatment fo ...

Version 8. In 2022, Ashley published the book ''Banning transgender conversion practices: a legal and policy analysis''. The book is about

conversion therapy Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have ...

for transgender people and studies how they can be legally banned, and what impact this ban would have on the countries which would decide to implement these laws. Ashley believes that conversion therapy needs to disappear and that a formal ban improves the situation without fully solving the issue. They cite the

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH, pronounced , ) is a psychiatric teaching hospital located in Toronto and ten community locations throughout the province of Ontario, Canada. It reports being the largest research facility in Can ...

in Toronto as an example of practices that were so bad, they served as a precedent to get conversion therapy banned in the province of Ontario.'''' In 2023, Ashley was one of 21 members appointed to the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

's guideline development group concerning the health of trans and gender diverse people, but as of 15 January 2024, they were no longer listed as a proposed member of that group due to a schedule conflict.

Gender modality

Ashley coined the term gender modality in 2022, which has been applied in trans health and education literature, and by governments and courts.

Selected academic publications

Books

* *

Articles

* * * * * * * * *

Essays

* 'Trans' is my gender modality: a modest terminological proposal
''Trans Bodies, Trans Selves'', 2nd ed.'','' Laura Erickson-Schroth (ed.), Oxford University Press
(2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashley, Florence 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian LGBTQ rights activists Canadian transgender writers Clerks of the Supreme Court of Canada Living people McGill University alumni Transgender academics Transgender studies academics Transgender women writers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian women non-fiction writers