Trans Ottawa

And now for something completely different…

When I started this website in 2017, my intention was to focus on the positive. I believed trans people had turned a corner. Trans politicians, artists, musicians, writers, scientists, and really smart trans people were visible and making contributions to society. I wasn’t being naive. I knew there were still transphobes out there blocking our progress, but we had momentum.

All these trans folks haven’t gone away, but the media is more interested in transphobes now. I fell into the negativity trap also. The hateful and the ignorant, most of them Conservative politicians and their followers, trigger my anger and I respond in kind (see below!) Uncovering the stories that celebrate trans people has become more difficult.

But positive stories are out there, and here’s a smattering of them that have appeared lately.

The open letter signed by Canadian artists that denounced anti-trans legislation was impressive not just for the number that signed – over a hundred – but by the diversity of artists. It’s no surprise that Tegan and Sara sponsored it, and that Elliot Page and Schitt’s Creek actress Emily Hampshire signed it, but there’s also elders like Anne Murray and Neil Young, the two surviving members of the classic kids’ show Sharon, Lois and Bram (Sharon Hampson and Bramwell “Bram” Morrison) and “Ottawa’s own” – as we’re fond of saying – Alanis Morissette. Check out the complete list on The Tegan and Sara Foundation web page. It will do your heart good!

Meanwhile, the CBC recently aired the documentary Fluid: Life Beyond the Binary as part of its popular The Nature of Things series. Hosted by comedian Mae Martin, it’s a well-researched doc that, according to Martin, provides a “counterpoint” to transphobic myths about gender identity. If you missed it, you can view it on Gem, CBC’s streaming service.

Finally, years after her death, PEI trans painter, filmmaker and writer Erica Rutherford is being recognized with a display of five of her paintings from the late 60s and early 70s at the prestigious Venice Biennale. Rutherford’s reputation as an artist has grown since her death in 2008. Her paintings at the Venice Biennale, part of an exhibit titled Foreigners Everywhere, opens April 20. The phrase “Foreigners Everywhere” comes from the name of a Turin collective who fought racism and xenophobia in Italy in the early 2000s.

According to the CBC, her work is currently part of an exhibit at London’s Tate Britain museum. When I clicked the link, I ended up on a page for the exhibit Women In Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990. I couldn’t find her name anywhere, but then, it being the UK, perhaps the Tate was too cowardly to include it in an exhibit about women.

Erica Rutherford’s 1993 autobiography, Nine Lives, is available for loan from the Ottawa Trans Library.

Send in the clowns

Can you tell the difference? I can’t tell the difference. Can you tell the difference?

The fellow on the left is Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and media commentator who criticized the passing of Bill C-16. Peterson’s objections to the bill were based on potential free-speech implications, saying if the Criminal Code were amended, he could be prosecuted under provincial human rights laws if he refused to call a transgender student or faculty member by the individual’s preferred pronoun. Since the passage of Bill C-16, no Canadian has been jailed or fined for misgendering another person.

The clown on the right is James Cantor, a clinical psychologist who is frequently called upon for “expert” testimony, although he’s acknowledged that he’s never counselled any trans person under the age of 16. He also cites research that was published in the 1970s and 80s. I survived the 70s and 80s. There was nothing truthful in those decades that concerned trans people. Cantor is one of these gay men who seem to worry about the extinction of their species, as he’s claimed trans youth turn out to be gay and lesbian. Being trans is a much easier path to follow, evidently, although I‘m not aware of any psychologists giving “expert” testimony recently claiming that gays and lesbians don’t exist.

I can’t tell the difference. Can you tell the difference?

Good news!

Ottawa is getting a gender-affirming surgery clinic. It is the first in Ontario, and the second in Canada, to offer facial, top, and bottom surgeries. Launched in September, it is now accepting referrals.

There’s more info on the Ottawa Hospital web page. What a day brightener to get good news for a change!

Petition to the Government of Canada

On November 8th, Fae Johnstone initiated a petition to the Government of Canada urging the government to act for trans equality in the face of rising hate against our community. The petition calls for the implementation of the 29 policy solutions contained in a White Paper tabled in the House of Commons by MP Randall Garrison (NDP MP Esquimault-Saanich-Sooke) in June 2023. The petition is sponsored by Randall Garrison, a long time ally of our community.

I urge all trans folks and supporters to sign the petition. I know it’s easy to be cynical and think it won’t change anything, but change happens in increments and it is important to be counted. For so many years we were oppressed into invisibility. It’s your way of saying I’m here and I’m not hiding anymore. The petition is at https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-4666

More Ottawa Trans History

I get very excited when I’m able to fill a hole in Ottawa’s Trans History. Although I knew about Trans Youth Ottawa, I had no reliable information about it until I met Caitlyn Pascal. What a fortuitous meeting that was! Caitlyn also organized the various Divergence events of which I was completely ignorant. Considering the success of these events, I must conclude I was taking a vacation from being trans those years.

Spring 2004

Caitlyn Pascal and three others form Trans Youth Ottawa as an online forum. Meetings begin in the summer, first at a coffee shop and then at Caitlyn’s house, before finally moving to rented space at Pink Triangle Service (PTS). PTS eventually sponsored the room rental in 2006.

Trans Youth Ottawa issued three pamphlets, the last under the aegis of Pink Triangle Service.

November 12, 2004

Caitlyn Pascal organizes the first of several Divergence dance parties as a fundraiser for Trans Youth Ottawa. These continued until November 2006.

February 14, 2006

Caitlyn Pascal screens the film Enough Man, a documentary profiling trans men and their partners, at the auditorium of the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library on Laurier Avenue. This was effectively the first of a series of movie events that in June 2006 became Divergence Movie Nights (DMN). DMN would hold 73 different events in Ottawa before the final screening December 13, 2012.

The entire Divergence Movie Night Archive can be found on the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine).

Since the Divergence Movie Night group owned the public performance rights for these movies, DMN also had 10 showings through McGill, one in Peterborough, did a project with a University of Ottawa class, showed a few at the Philly Trans Health Conference, and showed a few times in Toronto.

Ottawa Trans History addition

It’s been a long time since I added material to the Ottawa Trans History page of this website. Much of our history has been erased, but some is hiding in plain sight.

I recently came across a cover story published in Ottawa City Magazine in June 2003 titled Love Beyond Gender. It’s about the relationship between two transsexual women: Cynthia Cousens and Sylvia Durand. It was very brave of these two women to tell their story, particularly since Sylvia had been hounded by the media five years earlier because her affirmation surgery had been funded by her employer, the Department of National Defence. Ordinarily, this should have been a private matter, but someone leaked her name, address, and phone number to the defence critic of the conservative party at the time, the Canadian Alliance, and the release of her name in the House of Commons made her life a living hell for a time. (Conservative parties haven’t changed. They’re still targeting LGBTQ+ folks for political gain.)

So cheers to Cynthia Cousens and Sylvia Durand for initiating the cisgender public to the wonder and variety of trans love. The author of the piece wrote that it was a “love story that seems bizarre from a distance but makes sense to them and to most people who take the time to listen.”

Here’s to the beauty of trans relationships!

[Both Cynthia Cousens and Sylvia Durand have made significant contributions to social justice for trans people. Cover image from the Ottawa Public Library’s periodical collection.]

Don’t despair. We are winning.

It’s understandable that the recent pandering of Conservative governments in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan to the ignorant and the hateful may be bringing you down, but this is a storm we must weather, and which we will ultimately survive. How do know? I turned 69 last month and I have seen such changes in my life I could never imagine when I was in my early 20s, broke, and in a hole I couldn’t see my way out of. The change didn’t come easy, of course. It took the passion and commitment of a lot of trans folks to get to where we are now, but I see the same dedication from the people counter protesting against the homophobes and transphobes in the so-called parents’ rights movement. We don’t lack character on our side, and we will prevail.

It’s not just our commitment that will do it, however. This is also largely a fight against ignorance and religious superstition. The transphobes know this too. That’s why they are out there trying to ban books. Ignorance is their friend.

Education is more than just books, however. People in the business of education are people who, by nature, want to learn, and when they learn, they are excited to share. Museums are full of people like that.

Since May of 2023, the Musee de la Civilisation in Quebec City has been hosting an exhibition called Love Me Gender. Here’s the museum’s description of the exhibit: “Delve into the human experience and its great diversity by exploring the many facets of gender identity. See how gender identity in Quebec and elsewhere has changed over time and evolved across cultures.”

This should be a travelling exhibit. I haven’t seen it myself, but my Montreal friend thought it was excellent. Here’s a small sample. These are two related photos she took. The first is an interactive map of non-binary people and traditions around the world and the second a sample of one such culture.

It’s very encouraging that the responsibility to educate no longer rests on our shoulders. Unless the fascists arrive – and that at times appears a possibility – institutions like museums will continue to explore our rich history. People will know that we have been here forever and despite the best efforts of the colonizers and the bigots, we aren’t going away.

Here’s another example from a friend who often visits Spain and likes to haunt old Catholic churches. One day he thought he’d visit the Convent of Santa Clara in Sevilla only to find the city had reinvented it as a venue for the arts. One of the exhibitions was a photo display of the contributions made by trans folks to the city of Sevilla. My friend mused to himself that the many Catholic souls buried in the vicinity were probably rolling in their graves, and added, “Ah, progress…enlightenment…tolerance!” To which, I’d add “acceptance and love”.

In a sense, we have already won this. Trans folks started the education ball rolling, but it’s been picked up by non-trans folks and institutions who have a thirst for knowledge. We have momentum on our side. This doesn’t mean we can let up, nor that the haters are done inflicting damage, but we have come so far, and no one is going to stop us.

[Love Me Gender is on at the Musee de la Civilisation in Quebec City until April 14, 2024.]

Protect trans kids – again!

[Cheers to everyone who showed up Saturday to counter the transphobes and homophobes. (Below.) The Ottawa Citizen reported this protest fizzled, as about 200 counter protesters showed up and only 50 protesters. Skyler MacLeod, who monitors the protest movement and is from our community, observed there was infighting on the other side: “Right now, on their side, they’re very much in disarray. I think the movement as a whole is building steam. It might have fallen apart in Ottawa, but in many other cities there’s a lot of protests planned.”]

Community Solidarity Ottawa is organizing a demonstration against yet another coordinated campaign planned for Parliament Hill October 21st against 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion in the education system. They are asking people to gather in front of the Human Rights Memorial to show our collective support for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and our opposition to the so-called “parents rights” agenda that is nothing more than thinly veiled homophobia and transphobia.

The far right are a nasty lot so be sure to follow a safety plan to keep you and your friends safe. Contact Community Solidarity Ottawa if you’re able to help out on the day of the event.

Vote Conservative. Shoot yourself in the foot.

When I was young, two generations ago, we had Conservative parties in this country that were principled. They believed in science and human rights, and though they were business friendly, they understood that allowing corporations to regulate themselves was a clear conflict of interest. They practiced a made-in-Canada brand of conservatism.

There are many people in this country, even members of current Conservative parties, who are under the delusion that those Conservative parties still exist.

Federally, our last hope to restore that party was Erin O’Toole. Unfortunately, O’Toole made a deal with the devil in courting the far right during his campaign for leader, and when he didn’t live up to their expectations, they did him in and elected someone more to their liking: Pierre Poilievre.

Poilievre is a snake in the grass for LGBTQ+ people. He never says what he thinks, but it doesn’t take much thought to figure it out. Poilievre has never attended a Pride event, his office declines to say why, and he largely keeps his mouth shut whenever those troublesome LGBTQ+ people come up in conversation. Oh, but here’s a photo of him standing beside a guy with a “Straight Pride” T-shirt. After the recent Conservative Conference in Quebec City where the Conservative party members proposed a comically ignorant set of transphobic policy proposals, many observers expected he’d make the Party’s position clear.

Or maybe not.

A recent item on the CBC news site reported that Conservative party advisers said Poilievre intends to remain vague on the subject so long as it suits him. According to the CBC:

‘”He’ll be clearer when it’s beneficial for him,” said one Conservative strategist. Asked to comment on internal discussions within his party on the issue, Poilievre’s office responded by referring to his past comments in the media. Conservative members of Parliament steered clear of the issue when asked, following a directive from the party not to speak publicly about the issue.’

Poilievre clearly considers the rights of LGBTQ+ people things to be withheld and manipulated for his own political gain.

Poilievre’s deputy leader Melissa Lantsman was asked by Vassy Kapelos from CTV News how she reconciles the remarks about trans issues during the Conservative conference with an op-ed she wrote in which she claimed that in order for the Conservative movement to grow, support for LGBTQ2S+ people “cannot be up for debate.” Lantsman replied, “What I will say is the Conservative Party believes in the dignity of every single Canadian no matter where you came from,” adding that there’s “nothing” Poilievre has said to make her question that.

She must think we’re stupid. But then, she’s not talking to LGBTQ folks. She’s blathering to the majority of Canadians who like to think we’re not as racist or homophobic as the Americans, and Poilievre couldn’t possibly be as nasty as that Ron DeSantis guy in Florida. If you’re a member of the LGBTQ+ community in Canada, however, you’re not fooled. It’s hardly surprising that the Conservative Party’s first openly transgender candidate and former Erin O’Toole policy adviser Hannah Hodson left the party after Poilievre took over.

If Poilievre was truly serious about the “dignity” of every Canadian, he’d tell his attack dogs to back down. It’s not Liberal, NDP or Green Party supporters that are hurling hateful rhetoric at LGBTQ+ folks. But he won’t do that because he needs these people to get elected.

Indeed, Postmedia and Conservative columnist Tasha Kheiriddin analyzed the statistics and concluded – rather gleefully, in my opinion – that the Conservatives could conduct a culture war and still win the election. Presumably it never occurred to her to ask whether a culture war would be good for the country. If it means endangering the welfare of LGBTQ+ folks to get elected, the Conservatives are all in.

No, this is not your mom’s or grandad’s Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. That party was principled. This Party follows the made-in-USA conservative playbook, and it wallows, like most current Conservative parties in this country, enthusiastically in the gutter.

Pressed. An exhibit of trans women vinyl

If you’re in Hintonburg Friday, October 13^th – and you should try to be! – drop into the Ottawa Trans Library to celebrate the exhibit Pressed. It’s an amazing show of album covers of trans women collected by Caitlyn Pascal. The collection includes famous names from the past (Christine Jorgensen and Wendy Carlos) and present (Kim Petras and Anohni).

Don’t miss Caitlyn’s collection of trans art books also on display. There are many highlights and rarities on exhibit, including 70s Tokyo Transgender, a fascinating flip book, and Loren Cameron’s classic Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits.

The event runs from 6 to 8 pm, but the library is open from 3 pm so feel free to drop by anytime. The library is at 1104 Somerset Street West, just before it turns into Wellington West.

The haters are ba-a-ck!

You may have heard the haters are rallying again on Parliament Hill and various cities across the country Wednesday, September 20th in what they call the “Million Person March” against the “LGBT agenda”. and “gender ideology teachings.” According to their Facebook page, it’s in support of “children’s rights”.

Well, not all children’s rights obviously. Only the children they like. It’s the usual bunch of religious nuts, homophobes and transphobes trying to take us all back to the 1950s. Pity the children growing up with parents like these who become aware that they belong to that group of people their parents loathe. They have a hard life in front of them. Pity any child, LGBTQ+ or not, growing up with hateful parents.

If you’ve attended any Pride events, you’ll know the warmth and love that emanates from complete strangers who have walked a mile in your shoes. You don’t have to explain to your community how it feels to be targeted by a bunch of religious bigots and privileged heteronormative cis people who hate that you insist on taking your rightful place in this society.

I’ve been reading their posts, and they’re encouraging their followers to try to be civil. They need to do this because what binds them is hate. We don’t need to do it because what binds us is love. There is anger on our side, of course, and rightfully so, but the solidarity that comes from being a targeted community is what makes LGBTQ+ people stronger, more compassionate, more loving.

The haters are going to lose. The unfortunate part is they’re intent on hurting as many people as they can before they do.

Trans folks’ do-it-yourself poster culture

In the 1980s and 90s, when I was still young, there weren’t many “respectable” publishers who would touch trans authors or subjects. So we did it ourselves. We published a lot of fiction and information type publications, most of which were cheaply produced and looked it. I loved these publications, however, and loved that we took the initiative and basically said “screw you” to the publishing establishment.

It’s good that “respectable” publishers are publishing trans books now, but we lost something of that trans free spirit and initiative when they took over. Happily, it’s not lost entirely. Where once we published, now we plaster. Now I see the same “screw you” attitude among the numerous posters that trans folks have plastered onto poles around the city.

I stumbled upon this habit of ours several years ago and wrote about it on this site. I wasn’t 100% sure it was trans folks putting up these posters near the human rights monument, but as I walked further down Elgin Street and more of them focused on trans rights, I didn’t think there was much doubt.

The ones I see now make me smile. I love this on-the-street-activism. Here are a few seen recently:

And another spotted at the corner of Montreal Road and Vanier Parkway in April:

A friend of mine from Montreal sent me a photo of this poster in a bus shelter. It’s good. It suggests transphobia, or rather LGBTQ phobia, is as ridiculous as fear of chickens, but they must have more money in Montreal, as it appears to be heavily sponsored. I like Ottawa’s do-it-yourself attitude better.

Incidentally, you poster people may not know it, but you’re making history. Folks will want to see your posters in the future after they’ve been pulled down. Please donate spare copies to the Ottawa Trans Library!

Book review

Families we keep: LGBTQ people and their enduring bonds with parents

This book asks the question, “Why do we do it?” Why do the majority of LGBTQ people keep trying to have a relationship with their parents when their parents not only often refuse to acknowledge who they are, but are damaging to their adult children’s mental health?

The short answer is that the “connection between parents and adult children is created and sustained by the sociocultural force of compulsory kinship.” We rarely question it, but we rationalize to ourselves why we keep it up. We talk about being close to our parents even when there is serious discord in the relationship. (“We love you, but we don’t accept this.”) We say our parents are less transphobic than they were when we came out, despite their persistently deadnaming us, using the wrong pronouns, and not making an effort. Or we say, well, I only have one set of parents.

Then there’s all the effort we put in to make it work! The authors call this “conflict work”. Conflict work “privileges the family being intact over an individual’s needs.” Often it plays out as duty and obligation instead of love.

The authors interviewed both parents and children for the book and you may recognize your story in these pages. My experience would have fallen under the category of “under the rug”, which is when you come out to your parents, believe you’ve made a breakthrough, and then they act as if you never told them. We know, but we don’t want to know.

There are far more heartbreaking stories than this, however, in which the parent is actually toxic to the child. In one, a young trans woman made her big break away from home and lived fully for several years before a sexual assault, job and housing insecurity all came crashing in on her. She limped back home like a wounded animal, saved from homelessness and violence, but hardly in the kind of place where she could heal.

Financial insecurity plays a huge part in compulsory kinship. It sometimes takes a while to get on your feet, and never more so than now. It’s a role the parents take on, and it is another tie in the parent-adult child bond.

Not all the parents here are maddeningly inflexible, however. The people with the best chance of bringing their parents around are white, cis gays or lesbians who get married and have children. “This dynamic is a prime example of the concept of homonormativity, which is the transplanting of heteronormative values of monogamy, marriage, procreation, and the idealized middle-class white nuclear family onto gay and lesbian people.” Homonormativity has been a successful strategy in gaining legal rights for “respectable” lesbian and gay people “at least in part because it marginalized non-cis people, queer people and people of colour – and their needs – from the movement.”

The authors bravely conclude the book with a few suggestions on how to loosen the bond of compulsory kinship. I say bravely because they had to give it a try, but their solutions are akin to a complete restructuring of society. It seems like the parent-adult child bond, no matter how toxic, will be around for some time yet.

Two trans films from a Canadian perspective

Y a une étoile (There’s a Star) is a feature-length musical documentary directed by Julien Cadieux. The film is about Samuel LeBlanc, a young transgender musician, who sets off on a journey to find a rural queer community in his native Acadia. During his wanderings, he discovers, behind the heteronormative rural landscapes, people determined to live their differences without having to leave their hometown or deny their cultural identity to get there. Looks like a fun trip through queer Acadia!

The Canadian-Swiss film Something You Said Last Night, which was featured at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Shawn Mendes Change Maker Award was at the Bytowne Theatre in July. The story follows 20-something aspiring writer and trans woman Ren, played by Carmen Madonia, and her younger sister Siena (Paige Evans) as they reluctantly accompany their parents on a family vacation. “The realities of being a stunted millennial and a trans woman coalesce as Ren struggles to balance the yearning for independence with the comfort of being taken care of.”

Peter Knegt, of the new CBC talk series We’re here, we’re queer, interviewed director Luis De Filippis about her film. He called Something You Said Last Night “intimate and self-assured” and one of his personal highlights of TIFF.

A recent CBC background story described the movie’s appeal and revealed the large number of trans people involved in the production.

Here’s the trailer:

Reflections on Broadview

The supportive, colourful coalition of parents of trans kids and assorted gender warriors that turned up for the counter protest on Broadview Avenue on June 9^th seemed to confirm the sign one of us was holding that said, ‘We have more fun on this side’. It was certainly a grim, sour looking lot over there, beyond our banners and the police line. They didn’t look like they’d agree on much of anything besides their shared transphobia.

The stone-faced man who always shows up at these protests and Pride marches with a sign that quotes Biblical scripture was there again. It seems he thinks his sign is the definitive statement on the matter and will cause us to throw ourselves on the ground and repent. He was doing his best to ignore the person on our side holding up a sign with scripture which suggested that we are in fact okay the way we are. The absurdity of this battle of biblical interpretation seemed lost on him. After two hours he became frustrated with the ineffectiveness of his message, and his stone face twitched with anger.

Aside from having an extremely narrow view of gender, he’d likely have little in common with the Muslim women who showed up that day. Perhaps they’d agree that the world needs more God, but then the troublesome question of which God would arise and then the whole damn thing would fall apart. We are burdened by religious fanatics whose dogma makes a mockery of ‘love thy neighbour’.

It was hard to find people with much credibility on the other side. A number of them were sporting the regalia of the truckers’ convoy that terrorized downtown Ottawa last year. It takes a certain kind of person to be proud of the fact you harassed senior citizens, trapped disabled people indoors, prevented working people from going to work, endangered folks by spewing diesel fumes into their homes, and kept people awake by blasting horns all night. Canada’s finest losers had come to spread their lesson of complete and utter disregard for their fellow citizens.

So far so good. They were on the other side, and we and the police, who were there in respectable numbers, were keeping them from coming down Broadview Avenue. There was a minor breach of the line, but the cops wrestled the guy to the ground and marched him somewhere down Wellesley Avenue. Occasionally some school kids would approach and ask if they could get through, the number of schools on Broadview Avenue being the reason the transphobes always show up there.

In time, we noticed them moving and realized they were going to try an end around on Tilbury Avenue and half the line moved down Broadview to intercept them there. I stayed at Wellesley and in the commotion noticed that my friend Josephine was on the front line holding a large trans flag that she didn’t have before.

“Where’d you get that?”

“Someone just gave it to me,” she laughed. That’s the way it was. Someone stepped up when someone else faltered.

The line at Tilbury was partially breached and several fascists made their way down Broadview only to be encircled by our side. I joined a small circle of gender warriors who had surrounded a guy carrying a sign. His sign triggered something in me. It declared that kids were too young to know their gender. I knew who I was at 10 years old, and I am that person now at age 68. He seemed suddenly to embody all the pain and frustration I endured for so many years, and my anger blew up from nowhere like a volcano. I called him a fascist, but then peeled away from the circle, frightened by my own rage and this transphobic wound from my youth that still hasn’t healed.

The cops arrested a number of other people, but I stayed only until 1 o’clock and didn’t witness it all. The number of protesters and counter protesters hadn’t diminished much in number by that time, but I was tired, and needed to eat lunch before I started my shift at the Ottawa Trans Library later.

Just before opening the library, I noticed a woman outside our door with a young girl. The girl was looking at me and the woman was stuffing something in our mailbox. I waved to the girl, and she smiled and waved back. I went to say hello. The woman asked if I’d been on Broadview and I replied that I had. She said she was sorry to hear about it, and thought she’d come by to express her support. We had a warm conversation while the little girl smiled at me.

After they left, I pulled out what she’d placed in the mailbox. It was a large dark pink sheet of construction paper with the mom’s and kids’ names over the kids’ cheery artwork. “We stand with you”, it said. My eyes filled with tears.

We have better people on our side.

Are corporations developing a conscience?

When I started this website in 2017, my undeclared intent was to celebrate the accomplishments of trans people and to focus on the positive. That’s been harder to do lately, as most recent news items about trans people report on the abuse hurled at us by transphobes. It’s hard to see the positives when you’re under siege, but seen another way it’s a kind of acknowledgement of the progress trans folks have made in being seen and in the contributions we’re making to society. A hateful acknowledgement, to be sure, but despite all that hate, we are moving forward.

For many years, we were largely in this battle alone, but lately many good hearted people – among them parents of trans kids, people in education, and those with a passion for social justice – have become valuable allies. The last group I’d ever imagined would join this list was the corporate world.

Corporations are very good at pink or green washing and saying things without any meaningful action to support them, but lately corporate America seems to have found a backbone. First there was Hersey, with their inclusion of Fae Johnstone on one of their candy bars. I thought this would be a one off, but then Bud Light enlisted Dylan Mulvaney, a trans actress, comic and influencer to help promote their beer. Bud Light even gave her a custom can with her face on it to commemorate the one year anniversary of her transition.

The result was predictable. Mulvaney became the subject of anti-trans attacks and the loudmouths of right-wing media called for a boycott of Bud Light and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch. The boycott hurt their sales among U.S.conservatives, but it was minuscule and the company’s stock actually rose after it reported strong quarterly earnings.

The rantings of right wing loudmouths attract disproportionately more attention than they deserve, but the loudmouths have their crackpot followers. The possibility that they will be violent towards trans people can’t be denied.

Now Miller Lite has apologized for all the years they turned women into objects with the sexist imagery in their advertisements. The 90 second spot featuring comedian and actor Ilana Glazer is both amusing and truthful, but soon the sourpusses among US conservatives were calling for another boycott over… what? Support for women brewers? An acknowledgement that Miller perpetuated misogyny and sexism? We can’t have that! We demand the right to be sexist pigs! What a miserable little world they live in.

I still find it hard to believe that corporations have found a conscience, but it’s a start. Now if Google and Facebook would come on board and stop profiting from spreading hate, maybe the haters would be silenced back under the rocks from which they crawled.

[Postscript – June 7, 2023. Since I wrote this piece, Anheuser-Busch has demonstrated that it has the backbone of a slug. It put two executives on leave and blamed an outside agency for the campaign.

Fascism has been traditionally good for business, as fascist regimes often align with powerful business interests. They merge political and corporate power to create a totalitarian state, and promote the idea of nation over individual rights.

The Guardian recently analyzed the level of support toward LGBT+ communities among businesses and organizations. Interesting reading in the face of so much corporate pink washing before Pride .]

Give us your oppressed and vilified trans folks

A petition initiated by activist Cait Glasson of Waterloo, Ontario and authorized by Mike Morrice, Green Party MP for Ontario’s Kitchener Centre, is asking the federal government to extend the right to claim asylum for trans and non-binary people “by reason of eliminationist laws in their home countries, whatever country that may be.”

The petition notes the rise in hate and rhetoric in the UK and USA, countries that have traditionally been regarded as “safe countries”. It is not easy for trans people from these nations to successfully apply for protection.

Canada isn’t perfect, but considering the race to the bottom that’s going on in the UK and many US states, this is an important petition that supports trans folks in these and other countries. Petition details and where to sign can be found on the Parliament of Canada Petitions page.

There is more on the petition and its sponsors on the CBC News site.

Georgina Beyer dead at age 65

March 2023 – Georgina Beyer, the world’s first openly trans MP, has died of kidney disease at age 65. Beyer was an actor, drag performer, sex worker and radio host before she pulled off a surprise victory as a Labour MP in her home country of New Zealand. A passionate advocate for the LGBTIQA+ community, her brutal experience as a sex worker was instrumental in her arguing on behalf of sex workers and her pivotal role in decriminalising prostitution.

New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective grieved her passing, saying the collective “cannot put into words how deeply we mourn the passing of Georgina Beyer – an extraordinary woman who served her communities fearlessly”.

New Zealand prime minister Chris Hipkins offered his condolences, and said, “I certainly think Georgina has blazed a trail that makes it much easier for others to follow.”

This is the way we go forward, with people like Georgina Beyer. RIP. A life well lived.

Sweet reward! Ottawa’s Fae Johnstone honoured by Hershey

For years, Fae Johnstone has been a strong Ottawa-based voice advocating for women and trans folks. Now she finally gets a sweet reward: her own candy bar!

As part of their social media campaign in support of International Women’s Day, Hershey’s Canada has released five limited edition candy bars that feature the faces of five women to “shine a light on women and girls who inspire us every day.” It’s a great initiative that they’ve named “Her for She”, but even more meaningful for including Fae Johnstone as one of those women. How great is that? I’m usually a huge skeptic when it comes to corporate pink-washing, but this took some courage on the part of Hershey. Although the campaign is by Hershey Canada, the company is U.S. based and there has been a predictable call to boycott the brand’s chocolates by haters and crybabies. There have been loud voices of support also, however, and the company has indicated that they have no intention of backing down.

Most of all, this is a wonderful salute to Fae Johnstone for her tireless work on behalf of trans people. Congratulations Fae!

Transphobia’s desperate mutation

When I was young, the cisgender world’s transphobia consisted of us not being important enough to consider. When they did condescend to consider us, they operated under the certainty that they could crush us like ants on the pavement without anyone much caring.

Our response as trans folks was to stay out of the way as much as possible. We had very few allies and hardly any resources so we lived in the shadows. That kind of living takes its toll, of course, and many of us didn’t survive. In those days, however, no one counted suicide statistics among trans people. No one cared.

There’s only so much of this living you can tolerate. Sooner or later oppressed people rise up because the consequences of fighting back become acceptable when compared to the harm being continually inflicted on them. Whether it’s out of rage or justice, people revolt.

And so was born trans activism. Everything we’ve accomplished in the last 40 years has come with much pain and many setbacks. Nonetheless, I am often astounded at the changes I’ve seen in my lifetime. I’m happy I lived long enough to see improved trans health care, supportive parents, and trans people in public life.

But can I say that we live in less transphobic times than when I was young? I’ve been wondering about this lately, because the same types of people who felt confident when I was young that they could crush us like bugs have felt their power slipping away, and they don’t like it.

They don’t like that after years of invisibility, we are now living openly. They don’t like that the unthinking army that they counted on in the past to keep trans people in their place has woken up and is no longer unconsciously doing their bidding. They don’t like that we have cisgender allies. They see that marginalized groups that were previously fighting among themselves for the scraps the people in power were offering are now working together, and they don’t like that too.

To counter this, they needed to change strategies. The transphobia of my youth has mutated into a different yet entirely familiar beast. Transphobes have adopted the tried-and-true method of provoking fear. If you paint us as predators or amoral people threatening the values decent folks hold dear, you can get a significant portion of the population to stand against us. It doesn’t matter if you’re telling lies. In the culture of the southern US during the Jim Crow era, racists had no trouble convincing people that Black men were raping White women. When I was young, it was common knowledge that gays and lesbians shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near children because in a homophobic society everyone took for granted that they’d be “indoctrinating” kids into their “degenerate” lifestyle, or at worst, preying on them. In a transphobic nation like England, for example, the TERFs have it easy convincing people that trans women are a threat to cisgender women. You can get away with a lot of lies if you provoke fear among a population predisposed to hating the Other.

When powerful people see that they are losing their grip on the population, their attacks become fiercer. Their focus lately has turned to youth because fear for your children is the easiest fear to incite. They have managed to convince a portion of the population that teachers and social workers – traditionally viewed as caring professions – are now part of a plot by a dominant transgender lobby. That sounds ludicrous to the average powerless trans person, but it still works. When accompanied by hate messages and death threats, it’s clear desperation is setting in among the transphobes.

It’s all designed to make us invisible, to rouse the people to do their dirty work for them again. They even try to wish us out of existence by saying we aren’t possible, that there’s only two genders and two sexes and that’s the end of it. They remind me of myself when I was a little kid and my mom was telling me something I didn’t want to hear. I’d put my hands to my ears and start talking loudly to drown her out. In the end it didn’t matter though. My mom was always right, and we are too.

I’ve lived through both kinds of transphobia. When you experience them personally, it doesn’t much matter which one was worse. They’re both pernicious and ugly. We are, however, in a stronger position to battle the current one than we were the older model. That’s probably the best accounting I can give of it. And when we triumph over the current one, we’ll be stronger again to combat the next wave that comes along.

More Canadian activists you should know

Many of you will be aware that Rupert Raj’s activism goes back over 50 years. Rupert is still fighting the good fight and recently sent me a list of more Canadian trans activists to supplement the biographies I’ve compiled and which lately I’ve regrettably neglected. The list is especially welcome for including many Indigenous and Black people, and people of colour.

Thanks Rupert, and thanks to all the Canadian trans activists working to make this a better country for all of us; and when I say all of us, I mean every Canadian.

The books cited in this list are available at the Ottawa Trans Library.

Dual Identity: Indigenous Trans/Two-Spirit

Elizabeth “Raven” James (Vancouver) – activist – chapter in Trans Activism in Canada: A Reader (2014)
Sandy Leo Laframboise (Algonquin/Cree-Métis) – (Vancouver) – female activist – chapter in Trans Activism in Canada: A Reader (2014)
Kiley May (Mohawk/Cayuga) (Toronto) – female filmmaker/actor/activist
Tami Marie Starlight (Cree/Nehiyawak/Norwegian from Peguis Nation) (Vancouver) – activist
Brandon Rhéal Amyot (Métis) (Orillia) – trans activist
Judge Kael McKenzie (Métis) (Winnipeg) – Manitoba provincial court judge – activist
TJ Cuthand (Plains Cree/Métis) – male filmmaker
Johl “Whiteduck” Ringuette (Anishnawbe/Ojibwe/Algonquin) (Toronto) – male Indigenous chef/ activist

Multi-Identity: Indigenous Trans/Intersex/Two-Spirit

Alec Butler (Mi’kmaq) (Toronto) – filmmaker/activist

Dual Identity: Indigenous Latin American-Canadian Trans

Danielle (Dani) Araya (Toronto) (Mayan) – program facilitator/activist

Multi-Identity: African-Canadian/Indigenous Two-Spirit/Trans

Monica Forrester (Bear Clan) (Toronto) sex-worker activist

African-Canadian trans

Amanda Cordner (Toronto) – gender non-binary queer actor/filmmaker (plays gender-fluid person 7ven on TV show Sort Of)
Roslyn (formerly Leslie) Forrester – program facilitator/activist (no relation to Monica Forrester)
Yasmeen Persad (Toronto) trans-female educator/program facilitator/activist
Nik Redman (Toronto) trans-male health researcher/DJ/activist
Ty Smith (Toronto) – trans-male TS consultant/activist

People of Colour trans

Bilal Baig(Toronto) – South-Asian) (Muslim) gender non-binary actor/filmmaker (Sort Of)
Norma Lize (Rainbow Refugee Society) (Vancouver) Lebanese – newcomer activist
Shadmith Manzo (Toronto) (Mexican) – group facilitator/activist
Vivek Shraya, PhD (Calgary) – South Asian trans-female professor/multimedia artist
Nael Bhanji, PhD (?Toronto) – South Asia trans-male academic.
Tom Cho (Toronto) – Chinese author.
Kusha Dadui (Toronto) – Iranian trans-male youth worker
Kaspar Saxena (Toronto) – Indo-German trans-male filmmaker
Kenji Tokawa (Vancouver) – Japanese trans-male lawyer

Caucasian – English

Angela Dawn Wensley (Vancouver) – activist – TransGender Publishng memoir
Carolyn Middleton & Connie Radbone (Transition Toronto/Transition Support) (Toronto)
Corey Keith (Calgary) – gender non-binary activist/author – TransGender Publishng chapter in Glimmerings and/or TRANScestors
Jade Pichet (Pride at Work Canada) (Toronto) – activist
Karen Wood (Cornbury Society) (Vancouver) – male crossdresser/group founder/activist
Katherine Anne Johnson (1949-2014) (Vancouver) – prison activist – co-edited (with Stephanie Castle) Prisoner of Gender: A Transsexual and the System (1997)
Gayle Roberts (Vancouver) – writer/activist – TransGender Publishng memoir
Michelle DuBarry (Toronto) – male crossdresser/drag queen
Michelle Hogan (Trans Health Lobby Group, Torchlight) (Kitchener) – /group founder/human rights activist
Micheline Johnson (Ottawa) – group facilitator/activist
Rachel (formerly, Sally) Lewis (Xpressions) (Toronto) – activist – fonds at The ArQuives
Stephanie Woolley (Toronto Trans Alliance ) (Toronto) – activist
Bobby Noble, PhD (Toronto) – professor/author/activist
Chase Joynt, PhD (Victoria) – trans-male professor/filmmaker/activist
Dan Irving, PhD (Toronto) – activist/professor/co-editor (with Rupert Raj) of Trans Activism in Canada: A Reader (2014).
j. wallace skelton, PhD (cand.) (Toronto): teacher/activist.
Joshua Goldberg (BC FTM Network, Transcend Transcend Transgender Support & Education Society. Trans Care BC) (Vancouver) – health researcher/activist
Kevin Wilson, RC (Lukas Walther (BC FTM Network, ) (Vancouver) – counsellor/activist
Kinnon Ross McKinnon, PhD (Toronto) – academic/athlete/activist.
Lukas Walther, RC (BC FTM Network) (Vancouver) – therapist/activist
Nicholas Matte, PhD (Toronto) – professor/author/activist

Caucasian – French-Canadian Quebecois

Gabrielle Tremblay (Montreal) – actor)
Nora Butler Burke, PhD (cand.) (Montreal) – academic student/immigration activist.
Michelle de Ville (Montreal) – early activist
Inge Stephens (Montreal) – early activist – ATQ & FACT Toronto member

Caucasian – English Quebeckers

Patricia (Pat) Fisher (1932-????) (FACT Quebec) (Montreal) – 1970s/1980s activist – deceased.
Dale Altrows (former FTMI Canadian rep) (Montreal) – male activist
Jo Vannicola (Montreal) – Non-binary actor.

“My belief was reaffirmed: information is power”

README.txt is Chelsea Manning’s highly readable memoir

I like Chelsea Manning. I thought I’d say that up front before I reviewed her book, README.txt. By her own admission, she is an “advocate for transparency and open government.” I support that too. Transparency and open government are friends of democracy and anathema to dictators and fascists.

The US Army tried to portray the massive leak of documents she released on US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as endangering lives on the ground; but if you’ve seen the excellent BBC series Once Upon a Time in Iraq, you’ll know that the US military operation in Iraq was a mess. Chelsea Manning’s grievous sin was that she revealed that to the world before the US felt comfortable admitting it.

Manning is a smart woman. It’s not as if she leaked these documents thoughtlessly. Her job was intelligence analysis and she was very good at it. The army relied on her ability, but they weren’t so good at detecting that she also had principles. Under the smothering and sometimes absurd atmosphere of the US military’s policy of “Don’t-ask-don’t-tell”, that wasn’t so clear. Early in her career, however, Manning realized that the classification of government documents was not based on any demonstrable threat to national security. “The classification system doesn’t exist to keep secrets safe, it exists to control the media.”

Her work for the US Army is interesting enough, but the story that leads up to why she enlisted in the first place is no less interesting. A tough home life with parents that drank too much leads eventually to her living out of her father’s old beater 1992 Nissan Hardbody truck and resorting to mild criminality to survive. “I wasn’t just living on the margins, I was falling off the edge.”

She had computer skills, however, and enlisting in the army seemed like the solution to multiple problems. In the background there loomed the gender identity question, but this too was swept up in the reasons why she needed to enlist: ” I thought it would be a good way to externally enforce my own masculinity. I figured I wouldn’t have the desire to wear women’s clothing in such a regimented environment – if there was a uniform, I wouldn’t have to think about gender presentation at all.”

Despite being found not guilty of giving information to an enemy – “not guilty of treason, in other words” – she was sentenced to 35 years. It’s the going price for her having embarrassed the government, “disclosed unflattering truths, made officials’ lives more complicated, and revealed just how poor the army’s security procedures were.”

No longer having to face a transphobic world and justice system, however, she immediately began her transition. “There was no reason anymore to play along with masculinity.” The authorities were, of course, not cooperative, but here again Manning’s innate intelligence gave her an advantage. She knew her rights and understood how things worked, talents which, incidentally, also served her well in a hostile prison environment.

In one of his last acts as president, Barack Obama commuted her sentence. It didn’t erase her conviction, but acknowledged an over punishment for the crime. (Ya think?)

This is a highly readable memoir. Chelsea Manning reveals herself to be a woman of principle, not just for the one act of disclosure for which she’s famous, but with the way she conducts her life. People of principle scare the hell out of authoritarian governments.

It’s why I like Chelsea Manning.

README.txt is available for loan from the Ottawa Trans Library.

Sophie Labelle at the Ottawa Trans Library!

In collaboration with Trans Outaouais, we are proud and delighted to present trans activist and writer Sophie Labelle. Sophie is the author of numerous much loved books and comics for children and young adults. She will be at the library Sunday, December 18th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. This is a French language event. The library is located at 1104 Somerset St. West in Hintonburg.

Two issues of Triple Echo

It’s been a challenge keeping this website current while being preoccupied with my Ottawa Trans Library duties. I don’t consider myself a serious writer, but writing is nonetheless something I need to do from time to time, and I’ve been feeling the absence of it in my life lately.

Since I’ve not written anything new, it’s a good time to dig up something from my past. A friend scanned a few copies of Triple Echo, the ‘zine I published around the turn of the century, and I’m adding them to the digital archive I’ve already uploaded.

It’s difficult reading something you wrote over 20 years ago. It’s not just that the terms I used then may seem inappropriate now. It’s coming face to face with the ideas and arguments I believed then and wondering whether I still believe them now. I was almost fearful of uploading these for that reason, and yet reading these issues now reassured me that they’ve stood up pretty well. I may cringe at parts of them, but on the whole I have nothing to be ashamed of. What a relief!

Triple Echo v1 no1 was published in December 1998, but at the last moment I decided I’d put 1999 on the cover. First issue, first blunder. The date remained 1998 on the inside. Oh well.

Earlier that year, I organized a photo shoot of my friends in New Edinburgh Park and Rideau Falls, and used the photos for this issue. The reproduction isn’t great, but the memories are. I also like what I wrote in the editorial: “The trans community is at an interesting point in its history. We are on the verge of creating our own culture instead of just mimicking the one we have had to grow up with.” So true, and I’m glad I lived long enough to see it.

For the cover of Triple Echo v1 no3, I used a photograph my friend Sharon took of a mannequin behind a display window. She looks pensive and almost real. I’m not sure what message I was trying to convey, but I loved the photo and it seemed meaningful.

Digital archive of Notes from the Underground completed

These are the last issues of the Gender Mosaic newsletter, Notes from the Underground that I have that were not scanned. Unfortunately, there are missing issues from Margo’s term as editor. These are MR9, MR12, MR14, MR18, MR21 and MR22 (issue numbers are at the top left.) If any former GM member still has a few of these lying around, I’d be happy to take them off your hands.

I like that Margo always had an upbeat, rallying headline to each issue she edited. From vol. 2, 2000: “Power and Presence is Yours. However You Must Reach Out and Be Seen”. Vol. 4 2000 preached unity: “One Community – Respecting and Benefiting Through Our Individual Differences”. Or vol. 4 2001, “What If We Refuse to Apologise” (Right on! Unfortunately, this issue is short pages.)

Aside from the above mentioned missing issues, the digital archive of Notes from the Underground is now complete.

2000-02 MR6 2000-03 MR7 2000-04 MR8

2001-04 MR14-partial 2003-3 MR20 2004-01 MR23