Transgender Day of Remembrance
Ottawa
Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil
November 20 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil at the Human Rights Monument, 220 Elgin St.
Instagram
Kanata
Transgender Day of Remembrance
November 20 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
An evening of action organized by Centre33 in honour of Transgender Day of Remembrance. Centre33, 33 Leacock Drive, Kanata
Instagram
Outaouais
La Journée du Souvenir Trans
November 20 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Trans Outaouais invite sa communauté à se recueillir pour une vigile en honneur des membres de la communauté trans
Maison Communautaire Daniel-Johnson, 22 Rue Arthur-Buies, Gatineau, Quebec
Instagram
Perth
Transgender Day of Remembrance
November 20 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Commemorate Transgender Day of Remembrance with Queer Connection Lanark, Behind town hall- bandshell
Website
University of Ottawa
Transgender Day of Remembrance Social
Nov 20, 2024 — 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Join us November 20 at the Transgender Day of Remembrance Social, where you can connect and share experiences in a warm, welcoming atmosphere.
Website
Kitchissippi United Church
Transgender Day of Remembrance Sunday Service
November 23, 2025 at 10 am
630 Island Park Drive
Guest preacher will be King Julez and service will be followed by a light lunch and discussion.
News, Views and Reviews
I haven’t added anything to Trans Ottawa since my opinion piece on Alberta (below), but I’ve been taking notes and I thought I’d dump them all on you now. In my absence, I see Danielle Smith has shared another ignorant opinion about trans people, but more on that later. I thought I’d start with international news and work down to the local level. Let’s start with the shit show that is the Trump administration.
How low can they go?
When Donald Trump was elected, I started a file that I called US-Trump-Craziness. It consisted of clips and links from news articles that chronicled the corruption, racism, authoritarianism, sycophancy and stupidity of the Trump administration. I think my intention was to document it and write some kind of stirring article ridiculing it, but since the idiocy out of the USA is a daily event, my file is essentially useless. If you can’t see the damage Trump and company are doing, there’s nothing I can say that will open your eyes.
Despite that, every now and then, Trump does something that goes beyond the usual narcissistic stupidity and is so vile that even I’m astounded. His reaction to the peaceful and extremely well attended ‘No Kings’ protest had me wondering about his mental health, and hoping that somewhere in that gang of sycophants there was someone with enough backbone to keep him away from the nuclear button.
In case you missed it, following the ‘No Kings’ protests, Trump posted a weird clip to Truth Social in which he is shown wearing a crown and flying a plane with “King Trump’ emblazoned on the side and dropping feces on the protesters.
Pardon the expression, but holy crap! This is the president of the United States! Setting aside how it demeans the office of the president, disregarding that what made America great was in fact the right to protest, and acknowledging the numerous commentators calling the post petulant and childish, does no one else find this scary? Does this not seem like someone living in his own fantasy world who has suddenly had a glimmer of reality penetrate his dim consciousness? What an immensely fragile ego!
It’s hard to argue with Illinois governor JB Pritzker who said, “there is something genuinely wrong with this man”.
Okay, one more thing and I’ll stop
The Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), another nice sounding name covering for a hateful organization, has urged the US supreme court to overturn Colorado’s ‘conversion therapy’ ban. Well, of course they did. “In Chiles v Salazar, ADF is representing a woman who objected to a 2019 Colorado law outlawing conversion practices for youth under age 18. The law applies to licensed mental health clinicians who seek to change a patient’s gender identity or sexual orientation, discredited tactics that major medical associations have said are ineffective and harmful.” Will no one rid us of these troublesome priests?
The USA is not alone
According to a recent study of 60 countries and the European Union, politicians “in at least 51 countries used homophobic or transphobic rhetoric during elections last year, from depicting LGBTQ+ identity as a foreign threat to condemning “gender ideology”. The study was done by Outright International, an NGO that promotes LGBTQ+ rights globally. There was some good news: “gay, bisexual and transgender people ran for office in at least 36 countries, including for the first time in Botswana, Namibia and Romania – albeit unsuccessfully.”
It’s a terrifying picture in many countries. As a community, we need to stand up for queer and trans folks world wide. In Ottawa, Capital Rainbow Refuge supports and sponsors LGBTQI+ refugees. Please support them if you can: https://capitalrainbow.ca/
Meanwhile, back in Alberta
When asked about rumours that Alberta was going to use the notwithstanding clause to ram through its transgender laws should they be deemed unconstitutional, Alberta premier Danielle Smith resorted to lying. “Puberty blockers, by definition, stop the process of sexual maturity and it means that you’re sterilizing children, and we’re not going to do it.” No, they don’t sterilize children. The meds most commonly used don’t cause permanent physical changes. When a person stops taking them, puberty starts again. Not that it matters to Danielle Smith. It’s all politics for the far right, and ignorance is king.
Justice Allison Kuntz issued a temporary injunction against the legislation in June, writing that denying treatment risks causing youth emotional harm and exposing them to permanent physical changes that don’t match their gender identity.
Change at the Transgender Archives
Aaron Devor will be stepping down from leadership of the Chair in Transgender Studies. The search is on for a new Chair, who is expected to be in place by July 01, 2026.
The Chair in Transgender Studies had its official launch January 01, 2016. At the time, it was the first and only research chair in Transgender Studies anywhere in the world, and it remains so today.
Aaron Devor had a long career studying gender diversity and engaging with the Trans+ community activists prior to originating The Chair in Transgender Studies at the University of Victoria. It was during his time as Dean that he solicited the first archival collection of what was to become the Transgender Archives, now a joint project of the Chair in Transgender Studies and the University of Victoria Libraries.
Big thanks and best wishes to Aaron! For more, see the Chair in Transgender Studies and the Transgender Archives websites. You can also download a copy of Lambda-Literary-Award-nominated book The Transgender Archives: Foundations for the Future from their website.
Closer to home…
A cast of many non-binary performers updates the Rocky Horror Show at the Gladstone Theatre October 23rd to November 1st. In this production, non-binary performer Jarrett Stoll takes on the lead as Frank-N-Furter. Check the Gladstone site for ticket info.
The movies!
MAX Ottawa is partnering with the Digital Arts Resource Centre and Qu’ART to organize ChromaQueer, an exciting new 2SLGBTQIA+ film and arts festival. ChromaQueer will run at Arts Court from Friday, November 7 to Sunday, November 9, featuring over 25 events and 60+ artists.
The weekend festival brings together audiences with film makers and experimental multimedia artists, drag performers, poets, film lecturers, dancers, singers, and party goers to build new bonds within our city.
Highlighting queer perspectives, new stories, and showcasing some of the creative brilliance in Ottawa, from across Canada, and around the world, the film lineup weaves documentaries and narratives through themes including hookup culture, queer nightlife, coming out, romance, resistance, transitioning, and the hidden powers found in our creative communities.
More at https://www.chromaqueer.ca/
And one final thing!
October 26 is International Intersex Awareness Day, a day to encourage dialogue and raise awareness about the lived experience of intersex people. The Egale website has much more info.
Oh Alberta!
Pink triangle patches next for Alberta trans women?
Provincial rules banning trans athletes from female sports came into effect September 1st in Alberta. The legislation is called Fairness and Safety in Sport Act, a name which reflects far right governments’ penchant for justifying repressive measures by calling them something nice. To ensure everyone follows the law, parents of kids in the Edmonton Public School system will need to sign a form vouching that they were assigned female at birth. According to the CBC, “If a written challenge questioning a student’s right to compete as female is made and it’s deemed to be valid, the child will have to provide a birth registration document. Eligibility complaints must also be reported to the province.” The rules do not apply to children under 12 years old. Small mercies.
This measure is probably designed to reduce the number of unpleasant instances where parents police the gender of another parent’s child. How damaging it can be for a girl to be accused of not being feminine enough. Since having the poor girl submit to a full body exam was too much – even in Alberta – this seemed to be the better option. If indeed Edmonton Public Schools were insightful enough to see how potentially divisive and ugly the legislation can be and were trying to ward off its worse possible effects, then I suppose I can admire the initiative to some extent. At the same time, having to justify who you are to the authorities is fundamentally abhorrent. What it means is you are a category of people that we either disapprove of (at a minimum) or hate (in the extreme). The Nazi labelling of people with the Yellow Badge and the Pink Triangle immediately comes to mind.
‘”Sport is for everyone, which is why Alberta’s government is working to make sport safe, fair and accessible for all Albertans,” Vanessa Gomez, the press secretary for the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, said in a statement to CBC News.’ Um, no, you’re lying. Sport is obviously not for trans girls over the age of 12, but the Alberta government has solved that problem by erasing them.
Meanwhile, on the book banning front
It was also the Edmonton Public School system that understood the full implications of the Alberta government’s book banning legislation. They read it and understood that to be in full compliance they were obliged to ban books like The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A statement from the Edmonton Public School Board admitted that, “As a result of the ministerial order, several excellent books will be removed from our shelves this fall.”
When you decide that books that are obvious classics need to be removed, outrage is sure to follow and no outrage was greater than Premier Danielle Smith’s. In a classic piece of far right victim hood, she blamed the Edmonton Public Schools for her own government’s incompetently worded ministerial order. “Vicious compliance”, she called it, and then said the order was paused while it was being rewritten to restrict only books with sexually explicit images. All this has generated interest in the banned titles, a common side effect of banning books. The co-owner of Magpie Books in Edmonton said people have come into the shop “asking for our vicious compliance section.” Perfect.
Meanwhile, our beloved literary icon Margaret Atwood stepped into the fray and made the Alberta government look stupid like only Margaret Atwood can. In a social media post, she offered up a short story for 17-year olds about two “very, very good children” named John and Mary.
“They never picked their noses or had bowel movements or zits,” she said in the beginning of her story. “They grew up and married each other, and produced five perfect children without ever having sex.”
Meanwhile, the new ministerial order is said to be focused on graphics not words. To demonstrate the kind of offensive material Smith wanted removed, she “had producers of her live-streamed news conference play a slide show of pages from graphic novels that visually depict acts like oral sex or a man fondling a female breast.” Um, okay, but, …you’re live streaming this?
I suspect kids have access to far more vile images on their phones than they’ll find in books, which at least provide context. However, book banning and transphobic policies play to the rabid base of the United Conservative Party of Alberta. During last November’s leadership review of Danielle Smith, the UCP members demanded in their resolutions going further on transgender policies: to end public funding of transitioning health services and non-binary options on ID cards, as well as a ban on trans women in women’s bathrooms or shelters.
And when they get that, they’ll demand Pink Triangle patches for trans women.
Book review
Candy Darling: dreamer, icon, superstar
It’s a puzzle why a major publisher like Farrar, Straus and Giroux would take on this biography of someone whom most people have little to no knowledge of. It is true that Candy Darling achieved some fame, even notoriety, as one of Andy Warhol’s “superstars”, but that was long, long ago. She was an interesting character in the midst of a sea of interesting characters in the fertile New York City arts scene of the 1960s. She was trans, gorgeous and one of the more talented actors among Warhol’s coterie, but she also did sex work when necessary and was perpetually homeless, crashing with friends until she had to return to her mother’s house in Massapequa, Long Island to recharge. There she was welcomed as long as she arrived by night and never showed herself to the neighbours; a “recurring lesson in shame, associated with family.” No benefits to stardom at home.
This well researched biography by Cynthia Carr captures the amazing energy of the arts scene in New York during that period, where aspiring artists and actors mixed with successful ones, and even Off-Off Broadway plays were covered by major publications. There seemed to be no end to the unlicensed theatres run by passionate artists and unlicensed bars owned by the mafia. These places fueled people’s creativity and allowed marginalized people to step out at a time when homosexuality and even crossdressing were illegal. In this frenetic atmosphere, Stonewall was bound to happen sooner or later.
Candy was no activist, however. She was a film buff who wanted to be an actor. She found her way to acting in those Off-Off Broadway plays, the plots of which seemed like some 1960s version of Dadaism. Here’s Jayne (Wayne at the time) County’s opinion of Jackie Curtis’s plays: “…just weird people dressed in strange clothes saying lines that had nothing to do with each other at all.”
Despite that, Candy came to Andy Warhol’s attention. His “superstar” description was ironic, and yet he did pick outstanding people for his projects. Candy was “beautiful, polite, witty, poised”, because, as her friend Agosto Machado said, “she’d seen how it was done in the movies.”
Candy could be vain and self-centred, but her obsession with beauty was not narcissism. “It was how
she affirmed her identity in a world where there was very little support for even the idea of gender fluidity.” It was her armour against a cruel world. “She’d created a persona and an image, and she wanted a chance to live it, to show it off even, in a world where she was constantly getting the message: you’re not real.” She rarely showed her true self, but in one of her notebooks, she wrote, “I’m very sure there is no love or personal happiness for me in this world… Grief is my private and constant companion.”
Candy knew she was a woman, but she lived in a time when no one questioned the gender binary. She was born male, and despite Candy’s natural femininity, for which she was of course bullied, that’s what she had to be; and because she herself was locked into this binary thinking, it was impossible to conceptualize how she could fit into a world that often celebrated her for being part of a “freak show”.
This book about Candy’s life captures the awfulness of how things were better than any history book could. It shows why trans liberation had to happen. We – and cis people who have a genuine interest in learning – have built a body of knowledge since Candy’s time that would have helped her enormously if she were alive today. We will continue to build this knowledge so trans people can live full lives. It’s this that the far right wants to erase, like the Nazis tried to do when they destroyed the Magnus Hirschfeld Institute.
The author’s dedication to this book summarizes her own knowledge journey: “This book is dedicated to the trans community. As I worked on this biography of the transgender pioneer Candy Darling, I saw that community increasingly demonized in ways both cruel and traumatizing. So, dear trans community: May this account of one life make a difference. May you be understood. May you be appreciated. May you be loved.”
It’s all we ask. Why is it so hard?
Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar, by Cynthia Carr. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024. ISBN 9781250066350 (hardcover).
Erica Rutherford at the National Gallery
I and a few of my colleagues from the Ottawa Trans Library were treated to a tour of the Erica Rutherford exhibit now on at the National Gallery until October 15th. I highly recommend you visit.
Erica Rutherford was a trans woman artist born in the UK who spent a large portion of her life in Prince
Edward Island, where she became a pillar of the PEI arts community. She passed away in 2008, but her art has recently gained recognition. Some of Rutherford’s works were shown in Tate Britain’s Women in Revolt Exhibition from November 2023 to April 2024, which inspired interest from the Venice Biennale, where five of her works were displayed in the spring of 2024.
The current exhibit at the Gallery was first shown at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown in June 2024, but is being exhibited in Ottawa with the extra resources that the National Gallery is able to bring to the project. It is the first exhibit by a Prince Edward Island artist presented at the National Gallery, and it’s really good.
When you consider Donald Trump’s attacks on the arts in the US, how great is it that a national institution like the National Gallery is staging an exhibit by a trans woman? Even more impressive is that they consulted with the local trans community, and then invited us to a tour. This is the kind of country I want to live in.
Erica Rutherford: Her Lives and Works is on now until October 13th. The Gallery is free on Thursday evenings from 5 pm.
Election aftermath
I hope I don’t need to write about this again soon
I regret that I’ve spent so much time writing about Pierre Poilievre and the nastiness of the Conservative Party of Canada recently. I’m alarmed at the rise of the far right, however, and appalled that people don’t seem to take it seriously.
Strange as it may seem, I’m not against conservatism, or at least the brand I grew up with. I do, however, share author Charles J. Sykes opinion that the current warped version of it has “lost its mind”. In this country, we used to have a respectable federal party called the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. They believed in democracy and human rights, trusted science, respected the environment and didn’t regard journalists and democracy with contempt. The current federal conservatives call that radical leftist ideology.
For the time being, Canadians decided that Poilievre’s sneering sounded a bit too “Trumpian”, and that maybe the Conservative Party is not the right party to lead the country at this time. While I’m temporarily relieved, I’m not fooled. The far right continues to pose a threat to transgender people, and to the country in general.
Conservative supporters demonstrated their lack of respect for democracy by trying to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Poilievre’s defeat in his own riding. Either it was done deliberately, or they are so delusional they believe the trucker’s convoy that occupied Ottawa for two weeks in 2022 was one happy party. It’s hard to fathom they would think Poilievre praising the occupiers and delivering Timmy’s coffee to them would be acceptable to the voters in an Ottawa riding. So now Poilievre is fleeing to where he knows he’ll be accepted: Alberta.
Speaking of which, let’s consider Alberta premier Danielle Smith, another of Canada’s leading far right lights. With the defeat of the federal Conservatives, the woman who hangs out with the American far right is suddenly stoking the fires of Alberta separatism by introducing a bill that would lower the threshold required to get the vote, although she claims not to be a separatist herself. (Oh no, not me. (Far right plausible deniability raises its ugly head again.) She claims the people of the province are “hurt and betrayed” by the election of the Liberals so she’s going to take her ball and go home.
Poilievre and Smith are rippers. Ripper is the title of author and historian Mark Bourrie’s book on Pierre Poilievre. The title is based on New York Times columnist David Brooks view that there are two types of individuals: rippers and weavers. Rippers can be on the right or the left. What they have in common is they see politics as war. They don’t care about the destruction that’s caused as they fight for power. They create division and then take advantage of it. Weavers are people who try to fix things, who want to bring people together and try to build consensus.
There are a lot of rippers around now. They feed into the anger people have over the ongoing cost of living crisis. They trash so-called ‘woke’ policies that only ensure everyone gets a fair chance. They attack transgender people as “groomers” and portray one of the most marginalized communities in the country as a threat to society. Rally the two minutes of hate and people will follow you anywhere.
For the far right, the climate crisis is an opportunity to foment class warfare. Green policies and innovations are all unaffordable for the working-class and are being imposed by an out-of-touch elite. Do what you need to do to get power. Ignore that northern Alberta is on fire every year.
When I started this website in 2017, it was in part to celebrate the many achievements of trans and gender diverse people. I felt like we’d turned a corner and were being respected for the things we were doing. Eight years later, I’m spending far too much time beating back transphobia. I regret that I don’t see much changing in the coming years.
For the time being, we’ve been granted a reprieve, but we should not be fooled. The once respectable Progressive Conservative Party of Canada no longer exists. Like the Republican Party in the US, it was devoured by the far right. Canadian Conservatives are not yet as bat shit crazy as the Americans, but that gives me no comfort. I do not trust them.
Monday April 28th is election day (part 1)
Queer Momentum (www.momentumcanada.net) is asking for your help spreading the word about their non-partisan Drag the Vote and Vote Rainbow Equality campaigns.
Drag the Vote is a campaign powered by drag artists, advocates and allies across Canada. It is primarily a Get Out the Vote initiative, aimed at mobilizing 2SLGBTQIA+ people and allies to make our voices heard in the federal election.
Vote Rainbow Equality is their central campaign focused on mobilizing Canadians for freedom, equality and human rights. It will dispel disinformation about queer and trans people and uplift policies that make life better for 2SLGBTQIA+ people and all Canadians.
Monday April 28th is election day (part 2)
Queer Momentum is a non-partisan campaign, meaning it does not back any one political party. It’s a very Canadian approach and it’s admirable that they are inviting people across party lines to think about issues that may adversely affect the 2SLGBTQI+ community. However, it’s pretty hard to avoid the elephant in the room. There is only one federal party that is a threat to 2SLGBTQI+ people and that is the Conservative Party of Canada.
The far-right is not so much a political movement as it is a religion. They believe in their ideology as any religious fanatic would and regard people with what they consider leftist or progressive views as blasphemers. They support the most reprehensible people – hello Donald Trump – because their ideology aligns with theirs. You only have to listen to their rhetoric. Conservative parties in the past would agree to disagree with the opposition. The far-right responds with sneering, derision, insults and the threat of violence.
The trajectory of western Conservative parties the last few years has been one where relatively normal political parties get hijacked by the far-right. It’s a gradual process. At first, the reasonable party members try to accommodate the concerns of the far-right in the interest of party unity, but it’s not long before the far-right is the tail that wags the dog, and shortly thereafter, they are the dog.
It happened in the UK and it happened to the Republican Party in the USA. A party that was once principled enough to be ready to impeach one of their own presidents over the Watergate scandal, is now a party of sycophants and imbeciles.
Pierre Poilievre is an ideologue. In January, when the Conservatives had a 26% lead in the polls over the Liberals, he was boasting about his far-right politics and vowing never to change. But he’s had to shut up a bit since his lead collapsed. The more insults he threw, the more he yapped about eliminating “woke” ideology, denigrated trans people, and targeted reporters that he felt were biased against him, the more he sounded like Trump.
Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods yet. Many Canadians don’t care about the well being of the 2SLGBTQI+ community. If they think the Conservatives will put more money in their pocket – a dubious proposition, considering they are the party most supported by corporations – then the lives of queer and trans Canadians will be collateral damage.
Whenever asked questions about their far-right politics, the Conservative Party of Canada reverts to the same, mindless boiler plate drivel: it is “time to put Canada first for a change with a new Conservative government that will axe taxes, build homes, unleash resources and bring home the jobs”. Snakes in the grass.
As trans people, we don’t have the luxury of not seeing who they truly are. This country is undoubtedly flawed, but the stereotype of the polite Canadian exists for a reason. There is a social fabric to this country that needs to be preserved, and the current Conservative Party of Canada is a threat to it.
Ottawa is a trans town!
This article is a love hug to the Ottawa trans community. You are the best!
I’m always impressed with the speed with which our community reacts whenever the transphobes skulk into town. And skulk they do, because they know when they come to Ottawa, their attempt to provoke hate will always be met with fierce resistance. The number of trans people and supporters that rally on short notice and arrive in great numbers to greet the haters is truly impressive.
The latest skulking incident was the rental of the Ottawa Public Library’s auditorium February 15th to screen the transphobic film Adult Human Female. This event was not widely publicized, but once again our community was there in numbers to protest. But it didn’t end there. A group quickly formed to interrogate the OPL’s “intellectual freedom” policy that allowed this movie to be screened. Under the pretense of neutrality, the OPL’s policy risks legitimizing harmful rhetoric against vulnerable communities. This issue is far from settled.
I’ve celebrated this quick reaction, large number, counter protest by Ottawa’s trans community before when the haters showed up on Broadview Avenue. Transphobes are not welcome here!
But wait, there’s more! After the rapid response, and the commitment to keep this from happening again, comes the support! Motivated by the screening of an anti-trans film at the OPL, the Grove Studio and Art Hub has organized a film screening of their own. It’s a fundraiser for the Transgender Media Portal and the Ottawa Trans Library to be held at the Grove March 21st. More info and Eventbrite tickets here.
The grassroots, on-the-street, we-won’t-be-erased activism by Ottawa trans folks who paper our hydro poles and light standards with posters and flyers is another great example of the community’s 
resistance. I was walking down Elgin Street in August 2021 and stumbled upon a series of them, and more recently saw another on Montreal Road. But the one that made me laugh was the one I saw just hours after I started thinking about writing this piece. I was walking down Beechwood Avenue and came across this priceless poster. It’s far more gentle than I’ve been to Poilievre, but it captures just the right tone to engage passers by. (Note the clever insertion of the mini Trump in the corner.) Beautiful!
An article like this would not be complete without a shout out to “Ottawa’s own” (as we like to say whenever we’re proud of someone from our city) Fae Johnstone! Thanks for your tireless efforts on behalf of all Canadian trans folks, Fae!
And lastly, the Ottawa Trans Library at 1104 Somerset Street is, if I do say so myself, a pretty cool place too. Come visit us sometime!
Oh no! More Pierre Poilievre!
Samuel Johnson, a man of letters and the first lexicographer of the English language, once said “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” His memorable observation has been proven over and over again, but we never learn from it.
Today is flag day in Canada. It’s supposed to be a non-partisan day in which we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the banner that is respected world wide, but which the Conservatives and their followers keep trying to claim as their own. They desecrated it during the Truckers Convoy that occupied downtown Ottawa with its thuggery in 2022, and now Pierre Poilievre is wrapping himself in it again for his own political purposes. The sneering man who would be prime minister is holding a “Canada First” rally at the downtown convention centre. The Conservatives are emphasizing their “Canada First” messaging now that Trudeau is stepping down and their mindless repetition of “Axe the Tax” has grown stale. They also recently released a new ad featuring Poilievre’s wife Anaida, in which the Poilievres raise a Canadian flag together and speak of working to “bring home Canada’s promise.”
Does that sound Trumpian to you? ‘Make Canada Great Again’ would be a little too derivative so this is what we get instead. Following in the footsteps of his southern buddy, Poilievre announced this week that he would pay for a new Arctic military base by cutting foreign aid. The Vatican’s charity said the US cuts were “reckless” and could kill millions of people. Poilievre framed it as a noble gesture that would slash funding to “dictators, terrorists and global bureaucracies.” Right.
The far right may wrap themselves in patriotism, but they are all singing from the same hymn book, and that hymn book was written by white, male, heterosexuals.
Arts
Laverne Cox in new sitcom
Laverne Cox returns in what sounds like a charming new sitcom available February 6th on Prime Video. Clean Slate was executive produced by the late, legendary Norman Lear, responsible for ground breaking shows like All in the Family and The Jeffersons. Cox plays Desiree Slate, an art gallerist who is forced to leave New York and move in with her cantankerous father Harry Slate (George Wallace) back home in Alabama. It’s hard to imagine a sweet natured show about a trans woman in Trump’s USA, but it’s nice to live the fantasy sometimes. There is a positive review in The Guardian: “The show doesn’t treat Desiree or her transness as a curiosity or a punchline, instead poking gentle fun at her art world pretentiousness and reliance on therapy speak and astrology.”
October 29, 1983
[As a break from my ranting about fascists, I’m serving up an entry from my journal from 1983. Halloween was the safest time to be out then, and though I welcomed the freedom, I hated that I was presumed to be in costume. My observations about men make me wonder if they’ve changed at all in 40 odd years. I was 29 years old on October 29, 1983, and this is how I spent my evening.]
Laura, Rachel and I went to Penguin Restaurant at six o’clock for dinner. The place was not very full and the waiter, though he was abysmally slow, treated us cordially. After about an hour and a half, it started to fill up, mostly with men and rarely in costume. The waiter seemed to forget about us completely sometimes and the atmosphere wasn’t too promising; so we went to the [Byward] Market and ended up in Friends and Company. What a stroke of luck because we stumbled into a superb party.
It was not very crowded when we came in, but there were a few people in costume there already and they all seemed friendly. The waitress was an immense improvement over the fellow in the Penguin and within an hour of our arrival it was obvious there was something in the air.
I had an excellent time, but I’ll begin first with the negatives. We were feeling confident walking around in our skirts, but we became aware, after a few hours, that the world has got to change a lot yet. There are still a lot of jerks around and under the insolent comments which they disguise as jokes, there lurks the threat of violence. One is aware that under different circumstances they would love to try to beat the hell out of you. It’s no surprise either that these men are such complete jerks with women also.
One young French woman came in dressed as a man – David Bowie-like – and when I smiled at her, she came by and very gallantly kissed my hand. It was hilarious. We were going to the dance floor later and she was accosted by this asshole who I’d noticed before as being one of the jerks. He wouldn’t leave her alone and I was close to doing a very unladylike thing to him. These men are such morons. They are not there to socialize; they are there to get what they want, even if it’s by forcing it upon someone who’s not the least bit interested. The more I observed them, the more I noticed how socially awkward they really are. They seemed to stick out like sore thumbs.
But there were a lot of positives. Besides the David Bowie girl, there was Patricia who was a lot of fun, and her room mate, who was a real knockout. There was Claudette, who sat beside me and asked innocently if I did this often and was surprised when I said yes. I started her thinking, I know that, but it’s odd to feel the walls they put up after they discover the truth. There were so many other women who smiled at me and couldn’t resist making a friendly comment… and yet it was almost sad, in a sense, because I knew their attitudes would change if I told them I liked it.
There were also some women who had difficulty right away. Towards the end, there was one young woman who asked, quite nastily I thought, if we got our kicks going around in drag. Well, it was hopeless educating her in five minutes so I thought I’d ignore her and find some other girls to talk to before they threw us all out. (I succeeded in this, incidentally.) Laura told me later that after I had gone, she told her, “Your friend looks good though.” That was nice of her, but she couldn’t have told me before? [What was that about?]
When I was leaving, two pretty women at the exit smiled at me, and one said, “Nice legs.” This was the sort of night it was, but though I enjoyed her comment, by this time I almost felt disappointed. They were joking with me and enjoying my retorts (I wagged my finger at her and said in mock seriousness, “I’ll bet you’re just saying that”), but I knew it would all change if they knew the truth.
I met so many lovely women that night, and yet I hadn’t met any, and there was a slight longing in my heart that wouldn’t go away as I drove home.
I want the child I want!
The Guardian reported that a 28 year-old trans woman in China won compensation from a hospital that subjected her to seven electroshock sessions to “cure” her of being transgendered. It was the first time a trans person successfully challenged the use of conversion practices in the country.
Her parents had been “very opposed” to her gender identity and had sent her to a mental hospital believing she was “mentally unstable.” The electroshocks, delivered without her consent, had caused ongoing heart problems which require medication.
“A study published in 2019, based on a survey of 385 people, found that nearly one in five transgender youths in China reported being forced into conversion practices by their parents.”
According to a report in Chinese media, the doctor claimed that she might pose a risk to the safety of her parents if they killed themselves because of her gender identity. Try to digest that logic, if you can. It’s parental rights taken to extreme: I want the child I want. It may kill her, but at least I’ll be happy!
The Movies!
It’s been a while since I had time to post items to this website, but with the Transgender Media Portal now available (see below), it seems fitting to return with some movie notes!
Crossing is a film by gay Swedish/Georgian filmmaker Levan Akin. It’s the story of a retired teacher searching for her long-lost trans niece in Istanbul. Crossing doesn’t shy away from the enormous challenges of being trans, but is ultimately an optimistic story of evolving generational acceptance. Akin said that he was inspired by a story he’d heard of a Georgian man whose granddaughter was trans. “She had been ostracised by the whole family, and he used to come down from the village regularly to sit and drink tea and eat fruit with her. That was my way into Crossing.” Lovely.
The trailer for the film is excellent with its atmospheric scenes of Istanbul and the core cast of interesting characters. Crossing is due in theatres July 26th and available on Mubi August 30th.
Three documentaries also caught my attention.
Many trans folks with an interest in history will know Jackie Shane, the R&B singer from Nashville who found a home in Toronto in the 1960s. Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story is a profile of this fascinating artist “uncovering the true story of a woman forgotten and let down by an industry she helped revolutionize.” Available on Crave this fall.
Paul B Preciado is a bit of a shit disturber. In his 2019 lecture at the École de la Cause Freudienne annual conference in front of 3,500 psychoanalysts, he demonstrated the discipline’s complicity with the ideology of sexual difference dating back to the colonial era. He was booed off the stage and never finished the talk, although it has now been published as a book.
Orlando, My Political Biography is his documentary interpretation of the Virginia Woolf novel in which the protagonist changes gender midway through the story to become a 36-year-old woman. “In making his film, Preciado invited a diverse group of more than twenty trans and nonbinary people to play the role of Orlando and to participate in this shared biography. Together, they perform interpretations of the novel, weaving into Woolf’s narrative their own stories of transition and identity formation.” Available on the Criterion Channel.
Lastly, a documentary from 2021 that I recently learned about after reading a review on The Guardian site. The End of Wonderland is about Tara Emory, a veteran artist who also works in the sex industry. Tara must confront her family history of hoarding, her art, and herself as she faces eviction from her packed studio, Wonderland. The author of the Guardian review noted with apparent surprise that no one seemed to give Tara any grief about her gender. I presume when you live in a maliciously transphobic country like the UK, it’s hard to imagine there is a place where people don’t care. The End of Wonderland was written and directed by Montreal filmmaker Laurence Turcotte-Fraser. The trailer is a sympathetic snapshot of a woman driven to create.
You can rent The End of Wonderland from F3M.ca. Les Films du 3 Mars (F3M) promotes Quebec and Canadian auteur films.
And finally! This pride season, until August 30th, you can make a difference in the lives of 2SLGBTQIA+ youth by participating in Prime Video Canada’s “Watch to Give Back” program. The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity has been selected by Prime Video Canada as one of the beneficiaries of their program this year.
Between June 1, 2024 and August 30, 2024, if you rent or buy one of the 17 titles highlighting 2SLGBTQIA+ voices and stories included in the Watch to Give Back program, 100% of your purchase will be donated to CCGSD!
Watch a movie, help out! Can’t lose!
And now for something completely different…
When I started this website in 2017, my intention was to focus on the positive. Trans people had turned a corner. Trans politicians, artists, musicians, writers, scientists, and really smart trans people were visible and making positive 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. 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 Tegan and Sara’s 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?
Trans Ottawa 