It’s a dangerous time to be 2SLGBTQIA+ in Canada.
As Pride Season kicks off, a rapid rise in anti-2SLGBTQIA+ discrimination and propaganda is also gaining momentum among right-wing groups.
School boards are being infiltrated by bad faith actors spewing hateful rhetoric, protests against the drag community are becoming more volatile, and politicians at every level of government are working to set back the clock on decades of progress.
Egale Canada recently released a report detailing some of the nearly 6,500 attacks on 2SLGBTQIA+ communities in the first three months of 2023 alone.
Their latest campaign, Pride Unravelled, visualizes each of these attacks as a missing thread of the pride flag. The organization has emphasized the total only reflects reported attacks.
“If we included every act of violence and unreported threat, there wouldn’t be any flag left to fly,” the report reads. “There’s a rising tide of hate in this country that can no longer be ignored.”
Rights of queer and trans youth in jeopardy in Atlantic Canada
The report comes as the province of New Brunswick is mired in controversy, due to a review of a policy that sets minimum standards for the rights of queer and trans students in provincial schools.
Known as Policy 713, the legislation sought to provide minimum standards to protect and uphold the human rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ students in schools while also promoting equity, diversity and inclusion practices.
While Premier Blaine Higgs has said he will not remove the policy, his government is reviewing three components that he claims is “causing confusion and misunderstanding.”
Those components focus on the participation of trans students in sports, access to washrooms based on gender identity, and the right for students under 16 to have agency over their name and pronouns without parental notice.
Asked about his stance on so-called conversion therapy, which was banned by the federal government in a unanimous vote in 2021 after being labeled by human rights groups as torture, Higgs did not denounce the now illegal practice.
“It may be a reality,” Higgs said. “I’m not saying that I’m in support of that reality or not.”
A brief from the New Brunswick Women’s Council proves the organized anti-2SLGBTQIA+ rhetoric in the province is far from an isolated incident.
The organization noted members of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities have been subjected to protests on drag storytime at public libraries, as well as pushback to professional development for teachers that provides training on sexual orientation and gender diversity.
The province has also seen a rise in coordinated requests to review 2SLGBTQIA+ affirming sex education books in libraries.
“This is a recipe for violence—which the community is already at elevated risk of,” the brief concludes. “It is also a threat to all marginalized groups and to democracy in New Brunswick.”
In the meantime, lawmakers are “reviewing” a policy they implemented as a majority government just three years ago.
‘We’re talking about democracy’
For Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, who called Florida Governor Ron Desantis’ Don’t Say Gay bill “as American as a Big Mac,” says it is no surprise similar rhetoric has made its way North of the border.
Owusu-Akyeeah is the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity (CCGSD), a national organization dedicated to eliminating all forms of anti-2SLGBTQIA+ discrimination in schools.
At the time, Owusu-Akyeeah sounded the alarm on a growing weaponization of childrens’ rights among right-wing groups.
“They simply just need to exist in proximity to a young person and they get called a groomer,” she said in an interview with rabble.ca last week.
Owusu-Akyeeah explained the rising use of the term “groomer” is nothing new, adding that queer and trans folks were weaponized in a similar way during the Cold War era since they were viewed as a threat to Canada’s national security.
“History often repeats itself,” she said. “And I think history is a great teacher and provider of context.”
Ultimately, Owusu-Akyeeah says the key message is that promoting diversity and inclusion along with education about sexual orientation and gender diversity gives young people an opportunity to have their own agency — something she says is often absent in far-right debate.
“They present children as being people who don’t make decisions, who can’t think for themselves, who don’t have agency,” she said. “And I think for those of us who are progressive workers and friends who are advocating for young people, we are fighting for that space for that agency to flourish.”
As an educator, Owusu-Akyeeah’s work centres around early intervention when it comes to understanding power dynamics, along with how to confront sexism, misogyny and homophobia.
After all, she says young people who are taught to celebrate diversity and challenge the way power dynamics manifest in their communities often make better decisions and are more engaged citizens. They also become better communicators, neighbours, partners and friends.
“Protecting the children isn’t actually what they want to do,” she said. “It’s to oppress children. It’s to remove their agency.”
Despite the rapidly rising rhetoric, Owusu-Akyeeah appears hopeful.
“Education is a powerful institution that transforms societies,” she said.
In order to combat the hateful rhetoric, Owusu-Akyeeah suggests centering the voices and experiences of young people.
Journalists can do the same, she says, by interviewing young activists, people who used to run Gay Straight Alliances (GSAs) in their schools, and covering protests led by students.
More specifically, Owusu-Akyeeah says it is imperative that newsrooms not get caught up in a “very rudimentary idea of what objectivity is supposed to be,” and remember that at the heart of the conversations and human beings and their livelihoods.
“When you present situations like that, as simply black and white, it really, in my opinion, is some one of the most dehumanizing things to do,” she said. “We’re not talking simply trans kids playing sports, yes or no. We’re talking about democracy, we’re talking about access to space, we’re talking about expression.”
What the federal government can do to protect 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadians
On May 25, the Society of Queer Momentum (also known as Momentum Canada) published an open letter addressed to the federal government, calling on political leaders to meet six key demands.
Among the demands from Momentum are the appointment of a special representative on addressing and preventing anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate. The special representative would be tasked with providing guidance and organizing activities that combat these kinds of hate.
Experts also believe a new grant program to address anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate and misinformation would give groups like pride organizations more finances to help with security costs and other safety measures.
The government should also publicly condemn hatred against Canada’s 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, the group says, while also ensuring the issue is addressed in the upcoming National Action Plan on Combating Hate.
Momentum also wants to see a Canadian Special Envoy on International LGBTIQ+ Human Rights appointed to promote equality and human rights on a global scale.
The society, made up of more than 100 feminist, labour, social justice, and allied organizations, is urging the government to host a national summit on third-party violence that includes unions, governments, employees and civil society organizations.
In their open letter to politicians, Momentum sounded the alarm on the “staggering rise” in anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate across the country, with a 64 per cent increase in hate-motivated violence between 2020 and 2021.
With drag events and other queer spaces being weaponized against queer and trans communities, the society has seen a rise in rhetoric that compares 2SLGBTQIA+ people to pedophiles and child abusers — propaganda pulled right out of the old school playbook against gay people.
“After the progress made – legalizing marriage for 2SLGBTQIA+ people, protecting transgender rights, banning conversion therapy and more – we hoped the next generation of 2SLGBTQIA+ youth would grow up in a country that truly accepted and supported them,” the letter reads. “Without action, that dream will slip away.”
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Nick Seebruch, editor
