Billboard Chris

Chris Elston, known as Billboard Chris, is a Canadian anti-transgender activist.^[2][3][4][5] Elston travels around the world, frequently to schools, hospitals, legislative buildings, college campuses and public events, including pro-trans events, wearing a sandwich board with statements like "Children cannot consent to puberty blockers" and "I love J.K. Rowling" on it. He films the conversations he has with people about the subject and then posts the recordings on social media without the person's consent. As of 2025, Elston has been arrested several times in multiple countries^[6][7][8] and charged with five cases of harassment in addition to disturbing the peace and instigating.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

Elston has collaborated with many conservative and anti trans groups including: Moms for Liberty, Gays Against Groomers, Genspect, Do No Harm, Independent Women's Forum (IWF), and the Heritage Foundation.^[9]

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network has referred to Elston as one of the "most prominent anti-trans activists" in Canada.^[14]

Elston began learning about gender-affirming care for minors in 2019, claiming he became interested in the topic when he saw the term 'puberty blockers' and thought "What the heck are those?" In September 2020, he began traveling to different locations wearing sandwich boards containing messages opposing gender-affirming care for minors and then engaging with individuals in public conversations about the subject.^{[15][14][16][17]} He claims to have been frequently assaulted as a result of these activities.^[2][15] One such sandwich board read that "Children cannot consent to puberty blockers",^[17] although access to puberty blockers for transgender youth in Australia is supported by four medical organizations – the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Australian Endocrine Society, and AusPATH.^[18]

In 2020, after J.K. Rowling began making her views on transgender issues more public, Elston and a friend of his paid to have a large billboard put up above Hastings Street in Vancouver to show support for Rowling's views. The billboard was taken down following backlash.^[19][20][21] Elston claims to have borrowed the idea from a UK anti-trans activist who had put up the same message on posters at Edinburgh Station. According to Vancouver city councillor, Sarah Kirby-Yung, Elston's billboards were intended to "stoke hate, exclusion and division". Following the removal of his billboard in Vancouver, Elston payed for 15 billboards across the United States to display the message.^[11]

After BC provincial Green Party candidate and trans woman, Nicola Spurling, raised concerns about Elston's wife being a school teacher given his activism, Elston showed up at her home, took pictures of her house and posted it on social media along with her name, address, email and phone number.^[11]

In June 2023, Elston was a speaker at the Moms for Liberty National Summit and moderated a session about "gender ideology" and how to fight it.^[22]

In early 2025 Elston was invited to the White House to witness President Trump sign Executive Order 14201 which aims to ban transgender youth from participating in school sports that align with their gender identity.^[9]

In June 2025, Elston and Lois McLatchie Miller, a Scottish woman who works for the Alliance Defending Freedom, were arrested in Brussels. The two were accused of causing disruptive behavior while holding signs that read "Children are never born in the wrong body."^{[23][24][25][7]}

Elston strongly opposes gender-affirming care and supports banning it for all ages, including adults.^[26][27]

Elston believes "there is no such thing as an LGBTQ community", claiming that transgender identities are a mental illness and equates the "Q" in LGBTQ with pedophilia. He has also condemned human rights organizations for supporting transgender rights and has referred to trans and queer people with slurs.^[9]

Elston believes that trans people should be "automatically disqualified from holding any position as teacher or professor."^[28]

Elston strongly opposes bans on conversion therapy for trans youth.^[11]

Elston resides in British Columbia, Canada and has two daughters. His wife works as a school teacher in Surrey. Prior to his anti-trans activism, Elston worked as an insurance salesman. In 2023, Elston claimed to have quit his job to focus on "saving children from transgender ideology".^[15]

Elston claims to have had "a brief stint" with Scientology in the 1990s before fleeing the cult. Before pivoting to anti-trans activism, Elston focused on criticizing Scientology on social media.^[11]

In March 2024, the Australian online regulator eSafety ordered that X remove a post by Elston about an Australian trans man who is employed as an LGBTQ health expert. The post was a link to a Daily Mail article about the person and his role in the World Health Organization. Elston stated in the post that "people who belong in psychiatric wards are writing the guidelines for people who belong in psychiatric wards."^[3]

Determining this posting to be cyber-abuse and therefore in breach of Australia's Online Safety Act, the Australian regulator declared that the posting had misgendered him, mocked his gender identity and equated transgender identity with a psychiatric condition.^[3] Consequently, the United States Department of State issued a statement in support of Elston. Elston's case was funded by Alliance Defending Freedom International, the international subsidiary of the conservative organization Alliance Defending Freedom, and in Australia by the Human Rights Law Alliance, which was founded by the Christian advocacy organization Australian Christian Lobby.^[29]

In July 2025, a tribunal in Melbourne overturned the government order to remove the post.^[30]

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