Vancouver Dad Protects Kids From Gender Ideology as ‘Human Billboard’ Talking Truth on Street

(Courtesy of Chris Elston)

A Vancouver dad was shocked upon hearing that puberty blockers were being prescribed to kids with gender dysphoria. A father of two young daughters, Chris Elston’s concern led to investigation which led to his conclusion that no science was behind this at all. So, he vocalized his concerns literally from the rooftops.

When Elston’s efforts to voice his dissent on a street billboard in Vancouver were frustrated, in his mind the only option was to go out and become a human billboard. Donning a sandwich signboard, he hit the streets to have conversations with regular people.

Having spoken with some 11,000 people, he says 90 percent agree with his message; the other 10 percent were hoodwinked by propaganda that preys on people’s natural compassion and nurturing instincts. “They say that if you don’t transition children, they will kill themselves, therefore we need to sterilize them or else they'll die,” Elston told The Epoch Times. “This is a lie. There’s no evidence to support it; all the evidence in the world actually points to the opposite.”

He said, “There are no studies in kids on this, but we know with adults: 10 years after transitioning is when suicides peak and they’re 19.1 times [more likely to commit suicide] than their peers, after adjusting for similar mental health comorbidities.”

Elston also cited a study that followed 139 boys from age five growing into their 20s which determined that in 87.8 percent of cases of severe gender dysphoria, after puberty, the condition simply went away.

Chris Elston poses beside Chloe Cole, who previously underwent transition surgery before rejecting transgenderism and embracing her biological womanhood. (Courtesy of Chris Elston)

The father of two says, while countries such as Finland, Sweden, and England have systematically reviewed the evidence—or lack thereof—supporting transition treatments for kids, and ultimately rejected them, Canada and the U.S. have barreled down the reverse direction. He says Canadian Conservative politicians won’t even speak with him.

Turning the Tables, Speaking Truth to Power

Of his motive for becoming a human billboard, Elston said he “learned about this business of giving children drugs which stopped their bodies from going into puberty, stopping the development of children, giving them the opposite sex’s hormones, and doing surgeries on kids as well.”

He said, “People don’t believe that, but there’s all the proof in the world. And it just really impacted me, so I started researching this, and the more you research this, the more crazy it gets.”

So, Elston geared up by having wearable signboards printed and cheekily controlled nomenclature—levying words as progressives do—by self-identifying as a “dad.” His sign then defined a “dad” as a “noun” and “a human male who protects his kids from gender ideology.” His other signboard read, “Children cannot consent to puberty blockers,” cleverly turning the whole consent debate on its head.

Turning the tables while speaking truth to power became Elston’s strategy.

“They can take down my billboard off the street, but they can’t take it off my back, because it’s not actually hate speech,” he said. “I realized right away when I started going outside wearing these signs, in terms of media or social media, it’s way more powerful than some expensive billboard because there’s a person behind it. And that was inspiring people.”

Elston’s face-to-face street conversations, intended to educate, are bound to succeed—of that he’s certain. But he’s met resistance. In 2021, he was violently assaulted on a street by masked Antifa members dressed in black. They didn’t say anything. They just walked up, punched his head, and broke his arm with a large traffic cone.

But Elston has committed himself to nonviolence, as he was almost charged by police when he fought back last time. “The police are not on my side, necessarily,” he said. “A lot of police are, but some of the authorities, and definitely the politicians, are not on my side.”

Though most whom he speaks with are on his side, a loud, raging minority stand on the far side of a rift that is hard to cross. With no hope of convincing angry individuals, he deploys a measured strategy of calm, compassion-based dialogue, presenting ideas they already agree with but which contradict the propaganda they have swallowed.

Chris Elston is joined by his supporters to demonstrate against gender affirmation treatments and surgeries on minors, outside of Boston Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 18, 2022. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

He says things like, “We shouldn’t be putting children in some stereotypical box,” and, “There’s no right way to be a boy or a girl,” which causes them considerable “cognitive dissonance;” they don’t know how to respond. “There’s competing ideas going on in their head,” Elston said. “We thought he was a terrible bigot. He’s saying something that makes a ton of sense.”

What’s in a JK Rowling Billboard?

Elston’s idea of becoming a walking signboard stemmed from another billboard that made waves in the UK relating to the author of the Harry Potter books, JK Rowling, who spoke against transitioning children. Someone put up a billboard in an Edinburgh train station saying, “I [heart] JK Rowling.” It lasted one day before being taken down.

Elston put up one similar with the same verbiage in Vancouver. It was vandalized with paint and removed the next day. Vancouver councilor Sarah Kirby-Yung derided it as hateful, saying the sign gave her “that feeling in the pit of your stomach.” Rather than back down, though, Elston doubled down by putting up signs across the U.S.—including in Times Square and Washington, D.C. As the U.S. has stronger free speech laws, those billboards stayed up.

Chris Elston speaks one-on-one with a bystander at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. (Courtesy of Chris Elston)

While billboard advertising failed Elston in Canada—Patterson folded under pressure from Vancouver officials—his faith in one-on-one street talks remains steadfast. “We just need to educate a certain percentage of them before we can put an end to this madness,” he said. “Because people don’t know what’s going on, or they’ve been lied to about what’s going on.”

Sheep No More

Elston says he has found allies in alternative media and conservative groups who have helped him reach millions with his message. Traveling and speaking, he recently visited the U.S. Capitol to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and he saw how House Republicans are aiming to curtail Biden’s so-called “gender-affirming care,” which advocates transitioning children.

Meanwhile, in Canada, the government unanimously passed Bill C-4 in December 2021. Touted by legacy media as a “bill to ban conversion therapy,” critics say the benign-sounding bill is anything but. Even feminist activists have trashed it for its prohibition on all intervention on behalf of kids that might affirm their biological gender.

“Bill C-4 makes it a criminal offense to help the child feel comfortable with their sex,” Elston said, before lamenting his countrymen’s willingness to comply. “All of Canada’s medical bodies, they just do the approved standard of care.”

If Canada really wants to follow the science, it should do as Finland, Sweden, and England have and follow it, he said, before noting what many dutiful Canadian doctors are probably thinking: “A lot of doctors are speaking out against this, but they won’t get listened to by their medical bodies … They’re refusing to conduct a systematic review; why won’t they just review the evidence and report on it?”

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