Poor Sam Sotiropoulos.

The Scaroborough Agincourt elected Toronto District School Board trustee has had to spend a number of days on the defensive over a tweet he made recently about transgender people.

Until I see scientific proof that transgenderism exists and is not simply a mental illness, I reserve the right not to believe in it. #TDSB

— Sam Sotiropoulos (@TrusteeSam) August 30, 2014

Of course, as Sam pointed out in subsequent tweets, everyone seems to have gotten it wrong, rushed to judgement and misinterpreted his comments.

Sam never said that he believes that transgender people are mentally ill.  He just reserves the right to do so.

Yesterday, Sam went on Newstalk 1010 with Jim Richards to clear the air.  Richard's repeatedly tried to get Sotiropoulos to confirm whether he did or not believe that transgender people were mentally ill, but Sotiropoulos refused to answer.

He then went on to back up his claim, or rather his reservation of the right to make a claim, with expert opinions:

"Well to date, and I've cited an expert in the field, an expert in psychology, a distinguished gentlemen, not some fly by nighter, a former head of the American Psychiatric Association, and as far as he's concerned he's seen no scientific evidence for the notion in and of itself."

Unfortunately, for Sotiropoulos, Jim Richards came prepared with actual scientific proof that transgender people exist and is not simply a mental illness.

As Richards pointed out immediately, 2 years ago, "the American Psychiatric Association stated that it's no longer a condition and it shouldn't be a illness, and the only reason that they considered a diagnosis, is so that transgender people would be able to get help for it at a doctors or psychiatrist."

Unfortunately, this wasn't the proof that Sotiropoulos was looking for.  He instead claimed that the field was divided.

Richards then asked what prompted him to make this statement or rather reserve the right to make the statement.

Sotiropoulos: "I've heard from parents and there are a fair number of parents who've contacted me who fear that their kids are involved in some type of social engineering experiment."

It's not the first time, that Sotiropoulos has made inflammatory comments about the queer community on Richard's show, suggesting in April that the Toronto Pride Parade may contain nude "kiddy diddlers" after trying to have nudity banned at the parade.  

He proceeded to send out thousands of robocalls to Scarborough residents claiming that he's not homophobic.

Two years ago, the Ontario Human Rights code was amended to include protections for transgender people.  The code covers all schools in Ontario.