Ashley Metzger, Centretown News
Shelley Taylor (left) and Agnes Noblet hold up binders in Venus Envy shop on Bank Street. City councillor Catherine McKenney is requesting a review of a bylaw, after a Bank Street sex shop was fined for selling a garment to a youth.
On Sept. 28, Shelley Taylor, the owner of Venus Envy, was fined under a city bylaw that states no one under the age of 18 is permitted in an establishment where erotic goods, entertainment or services are provided. This bylaw will be reviewed in early 2016.
McKenney says this bylaw is out of date. “It was written 30 years ago when these materials were only found in corner stores,” she says. “That’s what it was meant to regulate at the time.”
The garment in question, a chest binder, is a tank top made from compression material meant to smooth and flatten the chest area.
Venus Envy has a “gender-expression” section in the store, which sells items such as chest binders and gaffs, a belt-like garment used to smooth the genital area.
Taylor says that these garments are crucial for anyone going through transition, as it is an affirming part of transition to be able to express your gender.
“It’s not unlike how any of us would express our gender,” she says. “I express my gender as a feminine person by wearing earrings and high heels sometimes – it’s the same kind of idea.”
One issue with these garments is accessibility – Venus Envy is the only store in Ottawa that sells chest binders.
“It is an absolute health support, especially for anyone who is a youth or someone who is in the earlier stages of transitioning,” McKenney says. “It is absolutely essential for their mental health, social health, all of it.”
Taylor is pleased with the support she has been receiving from both city staff and the community. She says she has had community members asking to donate to pay the fine prior to it being dropped on Sept. 30.
The store was never provided with a reason for the fine being revoked but employees say they were happy to see it gone.
Taylor is still accepting donations to the store to help support a pay-it-forward program. The program, which launched Oct. 9, will provide binders and gaffs free of charge to those who cannot afford them.
Jane Fjeld, associate executive director at Youth Services Bureau says, “I think what is important about the event that happened is that it opened up the conversation and allows us to have a broader conversation about accessibility to good, supportive and unbiased information.”
The bylaw will not be reviewed until early 2016 but in the meantime Taylor has made Venus Envy more “all-ages.”
She says that a bylaw officer told her if she doesn’t have sexually explicit magazines or DVDs in the store, she doesn’t need a license. Venus Envy has since boxed up the adult DVDs. The store never carried magazines.
Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, a Venus Envy employee, hopes that this bylaw change will help bring awareness to the fact that there is support and resources available for transgender people in the Ottawa community.
McKenney has received a lot of positive feedback thus far and doesn’t anticipate much opposition to this bylaw review. She says that the vast majority of people who have contacted her understand what this means in terms of youth health and wellbeing for anyone who identifies as transgender.