Jessica Simpson, commonly known by her former legal name, Jessica Yaniv, is a Canadian transgender activist in British Columbia who is best known for filing at least 15 complaints of discrimination on the basis of gender identity against various beauty salons after they refused to wax her male genitalia.
33 Facts About Jessica Yaniv
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In 2019, the Tribunal rejected her complaints and ruled Yaniv had racist motives.
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In following years, Jessica Yaniv has gone on to make additional complaints of discrimination, libel and privacy breach.
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Jessica Yaniv was found guilty of a charge of possession of a prohibited weapon, and sentenced to a conditional discharge, along with receiving probation and a firearms prohibition.
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Jessica Yaniv says that since she was six, she has considered herself transgender, but was afraid to be open about it.
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Jessica Yaniv attended Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, British Columbia, studying computer science.
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Jessica Yaniv ran the business for several years under her birth name, before legally changing her first name to "Jessica", while keeping her last name.
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From 2012 to 2017, Jessica Yaniv worked for the American vocal group Cimorelli, managing their social media and marketing products endorsed by Cimorelli.
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Jessica Yaniv acted as public relations manager for the American house music singer Chelsko.
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Jessica Yaniv is known in the Township of Langley for her advocacy on a number of issues before Township council.
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Jessica Yaniv proposed and was an advocate for the "all-bodies swim" at a Langley township public pool.
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In 2018, Jessica Yaniv filed discrimination complaints with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal against multiple waxing salons alleging that they refused to provide genital waxing to her because she is transgender.
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In Canada's first major court case to deal with alleged transgender discrimination, Jessica Yaniv sought as much as $15,000 in damages from each beautician.
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Jessica Yaniv rejected the claim that special training in waxing male genitalia was necessary, and during the hearings equated the denial of the service to neo-Nazism.
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In October 2019, the Tribunal ruled against Jessica Yaniv and ordered her to pay $6,000 in restitution split equally among three of the service providers.
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The ruling found Jessica Yaniv to be deceptive as she had used different Facebook accounts with different names and photos to engage the same esthetician.
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In September 2020, it was announced that Jessica Yaniv had dropped the complaints against two salons.
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Also in August 2020, Jessica Yaniv sued the Township of Langley for $35,000 over her treatment surrounding her arrest and detainment on weapons charges in 2019.
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Jessica Yaniv said she experienced disability discrimination, that the cells at the jail were unsanitary, and one guard failed to provide her with diabetes medication or victim services.
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Jessica Yaniv said that staff harassed her by using incorrect pronouns.
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The Western Standard reported that Jessica Yaniv sought damages in the amount of $10,000 for "injury to dignity and feelings".
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In January 2021, Jessica Yaniv announced that she had filed two complaints against the Langley Royal Canadian Mounted Police for discrimination with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
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In January 2021, Jessica Yaniv filed small claims lawsuits in Surrey Provincial Court against Fraser Health and the Provincial Health Services Authority for allegedly breaching her personal health information in 2019, seeking $35,000 in damages and other relief.
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In February 2021, the Township of Langley Fire Department wrote to Jessica Yaniv informing her that she would be charged if she contacted them again to request assistance getting out of a bath, alleging that she had summoned the Fire Department for this purpose dozens of times despite it not constituting a medical emergency and subjected Fire Department staff to "inappropriate and lewd conduct".
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Jessica Yaniv responded by contesting the allegations and stating that she intended to sue the Township of Langley for libel and "other things".
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Adrienne Smith, a BC human rights lawyer, said the case with Jessica Yaniv reversed much of the success the trans community had enjoyed with the tribunal in recent times.
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Smith said a major problem was that Jessica Yaniv had no legal representation, which allowed Jessica Yaniv to make serious errors, such as making negative comments on social media during the proceedings, which a lawyer would have prevented.
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Jessica Yaniv was arrested by the Langley RCMP detachment on August 8,2019, after displaying a taser in a livestreamed YouTube video.
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Jessica Yaniv had been debating with transgender YouTuber Blaire White when she allegedly displayed a prohibited weapon.
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Jessica Yaniv appeared in Surrey Provincial Court on January 13,2020, to face weapons charges.
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In May 2022, Jessica Yaniv was found guilty of assault for physically attacking then-Rebel News journalist Keean Bexte in early 2020.
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In 2019, interactions on Twitter by Canadian feminist author Meghan Murphy and Jessica Yaniv resulted in Murphy being banned from Twitter.
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Critics accused Twitter of "double standards" after allowing Jessica Yaniv "to go unpunished".