Not Celebrating

It's Canada Day today and I'm not seeing a lot of reason to celebrate and, for that, I think I'll fly a different flag.

I guess it's a good day if you're a cishet white person, but if you're not in that demographic then the cause to celebrate is much harder to find. For me, as a trans person, all I see is a firestorm of hate aimed at me and my community, in my country, and governments that are either enabling it or doing little to nothing about it.

From social media to newspapers around the country, my daily dose is cis people debating whether I should be allowed to exist, speaking over us constantly. Telling me that my existence is harming them. That I am inherently evil for being authentic in myself. Enormous and dangerous lies are being told about trans people daily, leading to substantive harm, and nothing is really done. I'm supposed to celebrate that?

We like to pretend Canada is different, but we're lying to ourselves. When a bigot screams at a 9 year old girl at a track meet because she isn't sufficiently feminine for him, we're not different. When a school board in Calgary places children's safety at risk under the abusive guise of "parental rights", we're not different. When a Premier of a Province can unilaterly make a school system unsafe for marginalized kids, we're not different.

We. Are. Not. Different.

Newspaper opinion writers claiming trans women will "destroy" women's sport as though the one trans woman who made it to the Olympics, and placed last, is what places women's sport at risk and not the chronic underfunding and sexual exploitation of women athletes by these same "defenders" of the sport.

We. Are. Not. Different.

Hate is rising, virtually unchecked in this country. Political leaders are spouting and enabling misinformation and hate without consequence. Bernier, and several others, are walking free despite promoting an active hate campaign against trans people with lies and innuendo. There's no consequence for driving hate here, the laws are toothless, they're not enforced.

We. Are. Not. Different.

So, yeah, what am I to celebrate? I'm not even human to some of these people. So don't talk to me about Canada Day until this stops, I'm not interested.