Florence Ashley

Florence Ashley
EducationBCL, LLB, LLM, SJD
Alma materMcGill University
University of Toronto
OccupationsLawyer and Professor
EmployerUniversity of Alberta
TitleAssistant professor

Florence Ashley is a Canadian academic, activist[1] and law professor at the University of Alberta.[2] They specialize in trans law and bioethics. Ashley is also the author of the book, Banning transgender conversion practices: a legal and policy analysis.[3] Ashley served as the first openly transfeminine clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada.[2] In 2022, Ashley was awarded the SOGIC Hero Award from the Canadian Bar Association.[4]

Personal life and education

Ashley came out as trans and transitioned in 2015.[5] They use singular they pronouns.[6] Ashley attended McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where they graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Juris Doctor in 2017 and with a Master of Laws in bioethics in 2019. They earned a Doctor of Juridical Science from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 2023, where they were also a Junior Fellow of Massey College.[7][8]

Career

In 2019, Ashley became a clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada, where they worked in the chambers of Justice Sheilah Martin.[9][5] They have described themselves as "the first known openly transgender clerk" at the court.[10] During the same year, the Canadian Bar Association awarded Ashley the SOGIC Hero Award.[1]

Ashley coined the term gender modality in 2022.[11][12]

In 2022, Ashley published Banning transgender conversion practices: a legal and policy analysis,[13] a book about conversion therapy for transgender people. It studies how these therapies be legally banned, and what impact such bans would have on countries that decided to implement them. Ashley believes that conversion therapy needs to disappear and that a formal ban improves the situation without fully solving the issue.[14] They cite the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto as an example, saying that the practices there were so bad that they served as a precedent to get conversion therapy banned in the province of Ontario.[13]

In 2023, they joined the University of Alberta Faculty of Law as an assistant professor.[15]

On September 14, 2025, Ashley was placed on non-disciplinary administrative leave due to comments they made on social media about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.[16] According to a statement from the University of Alberta, the suspension was taken while a review was conducted related to concerns about community safety.[17] Ashley returned to work a week later on September 22, after the review concluded there was "no imminent risk associated with this incident."[18][19] Their statements included criticizing Kirk's legacy with the implication that Kirk was a Nazi and suggesting the assassination may have been an act of "magic" by Etsy witches.[20] Ashley later criticized the suspension and argued their statements fell within the scope of academic freedom and freedom of expression.[19][21]

Selected academic publications

Books

  • Ashley, Florence (1 April 2022). Banning transgender conversion practices: a legal and policy analysis. Law and Society. UBC Press. doi:10.59962/9780774866941. ISBN 978-0-7748-6692-7. OCLC 1276933161. OL 35589970M.
  • Ashley, Florence (13 February 2024). Gender/Fucking: the Pleasures and Politics of Living in a Gendered Body. CLASH Books. ISBN 978-1-955904-93-3. OCLC 1376495878.

Articles

Essays

References

  1. ^ a b Chouinard, Maryse (5 February 2019). "En-"gendering" change". National Magazine. Canadian Bar Association. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Florence Ashley | Directory@UAlberta". www.ualberta.ca. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  3. ^ "Banning Transgender Conversion Practices". UBC Press. Archived from the original on 10 April 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  4. ^ "Florence Ashley, LL.M., Receives the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Community Section Hero Award". www.cba.org. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  5. ^ a b ""À mon partenaire: avant de te rencontrer, je ne me pensais pas capable d'être trans et amoureuse"". Le Huffington Post (in French). 8 June 2019. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  6. ^ "Banning transgender conversion practices: Florence Ashley's first book is an important legal and policy guide to eradicating them". www.nationalmagazine.ca. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  7. ^ "Florence Ashley | University of Toronto Faculty of Law". law.utoronto.ca. Archived from the original on 6 February 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Dis son pronom: les mots de la non-binarité". Le Devoir (in French). 6 July 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  9. ^ "Florence Ashley, JD, LLM". Center for Applied Transgender Studies. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  10. ^ Stewart Lewis (17 September 2025). "University of Alberta law professor put on leave amid review of online comments made after Charlie Kirk's death". National Post.
  11. ^ Ashley, Florence (2022). "'Trans' is my gender modality". In Erickson-Schroth, Laura (ed.). Trans Bodies, Trans Selves. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-19-009272-6.
  12. ^ Ashley, Florence; Brightly-Brown, Shari; Rider, G. Nic (13 June 2024). "Beyond the trans/cis binary: introducing new terms will enrich gender research". Nature. 630 (8016): 293–295. Bibcode:2024Natur.630..293A. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-01719-9. PMID 38858484.
  13. ^ a b "A new book on conversion practices examines exactly what trans people need from lawmakers". xtramagazine.com. 6 April 2022. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  14. ^ "Banning transgender conversion practices: Florence Ashley's first book is an important legal and policy guide to eradicating them". www.nationalmagazine.ca. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  15. ^ "Five distinguished legal scholars appointed to Faculty of Law". www.ualberta.ca. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  16. ^ "Alberta professor reinstated after put on leave over Charlie Kirk social media posts | Edmonton Journal".
  17. ^ Press, The Canadian (29 September 2025). "Alberta professor reinstated after put on leave over Charlie Kirk social media posts". CTVNews. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  18. ^ Mel Woods (30 September 2025). "Alberta professor put on leave amid harassment over Charlie Kirk posts". Xtra Magazine.
  19. ^ a b "University of Alberta professor reinstated after put on leave over Charlie Kirk social media posts | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  20. ^ Jonathan Kay (19 September 2025). "Showing Us Their True Colours". Quillette.
  21. ^ "What Happened to the University's Commitment to Free Expression? Charlie Kirk, uAlberta, and Me". Centre for Free Expression. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
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