Time to fight rights backlash

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We’re coming to the end of Pride Month in Canada and looking back on the more than 50 years of celebrating Pride in this country, I have to wonder what exactly we have learned as a society.

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Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/06/2023 (825 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We’re coming to the end of Pride Month in Canada and looking back on the more than 50 years of celebrating Pride in this country, I have to wonder what exactly we have learned as a society.

I say this as an ally and friend of the LGBTTQ+ community and as a straight white woman who has enormous privilege. In this country in the last month, I have been appalled by discussions about book banning and the suspension of a school trustee in Manitoba and a gender identification policy in New Brunswick.

Much of the anti-LGBTTQ+ backlash has been talked about as defending the rights of parents, protecting children or as an issue of religious freedom and a response to the “woke” Liberals who are going too far in the latest fight for minority rights. Along with it, is a fear of violence against those who identify as LGBTTQ+.

The Pride flag. (Mike Sudoma/Winnipeg Free Press files)

The Pride flag. (Mike Sudoma/Winnipeg Free Press files)

To protect their rights, all levels of government must work to address this issue. As a society, we need to demonstrate that the last 50-plus years of Pride parades have made a significant difference in ensuring their lives can be lived without fear or judgment.

The three-month suspension of Louis Riel School Division school trustee Francine Champagne earlier this month because of social media posts that “targeted the 2SLGBTQIA+ community” is just one example. A LRSD meeting last week was hijacked by protesters upset about the suspension. In attendance was Patrick Allard, a failed independent candidate in the Fort Whyte byelection and a former candidate for school board in Ward 8 of the Winnipeg School Division. Allard is a vocal anti-vaxxer and anti-LGBTTQ+ rights as well.

Attempts to ban books in Brandon, the Prairie Rose School Division (PRSD) and the South Central Regional Library (which has branches in Altona, Manitou, Miami, Morden and Winkler) have been ongoing as well. Sexual education books that talk about sex and gender health, sexual and gender identity have been derided as graphically sexual and “abusive.”

These protests not only suck up resources of already beleaguered school trustees and librarians, but they also create a climate of division. Portraying supporters of LGBTTQ+ literature for young people as “groomers” or “pornographers” plays into the old stereotype that all gay men are pedophiles. It’s reprehensible and it’s hateful.

In New Brunswick, Premier Blaine Higgs has stood his ground on an education policy that parents must be informed if their child asks at school to be identified by a different gender or name, despite prevailing advice that this may put the child’s safety at risk. The policy change has prompted backlash from within Higgs’s cabinet, with resignations by ministers who are objecting to his leadership.

There’s been concern of rising tide of anti-LGBTTQ+ globally. In the United States, after the war on Roe vs. Wade has been won by the religious right, the fight now seems to centering on a war on those who won’t conform to gender rules.

Last week, hundreds of Americans gathered for the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. to hear major Republican presidential challengers. The speeches were filled with conspiracy theories about the transgender community and a denouncement of Pride activities, including an affirmation that God hates Pride.

In the U.S., 15 bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth have been passed into law, as have seven bills allowing or requiring the misgendering of transgender students, along with a handful of other measures targeting drag performances or school curriculum. All told, more anti-gay bills have been introduced in statehouses in 2023 than in the past five years, according to HRC.

In Russia, new legislation makes it illegal to spread information about “non-traditional sexual relations” and outlaws any public events, performances or communication about LGBTTQ+.

Uganda has put into place the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and a life sentence for promoting and funding of same-sex activities. Canada has condemned this decision.

In Italy, the new right-wing government has moved to restrict the rights of same-sex parents, limiting recognition of parental rights to the biological parent only in families with same-sex parents. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called out Italian leader Giorgia Meloni’s stance in May at a meeting of the G7 summit.

Poland has also been criticized for backsliding on democratic rights and its stance on abortion and LGBTTQ+ rights. The Polish government has called LGBTTQ+ rights as “an attack on the family and children” and has allowed municipalities and regions to declare themselves “LGBT-free zones.” Trudeau also voiced his concerns to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki when he visited Canada in early June.

But the prime minister can’t just speak out, as important as that is — these actions need to have repercussions.

And the heavy lifting can’t be left in the hands of school trustees, librarians and politicians on the outs with their leaders.

Religious leaders need to do more to speak up with messages of love and acceptance.

As a community, we must stand up against hatred and bigotry. Being neutral is not an option.

Shannon Sampert is a communications consultant, freelance editor for Policy Options and former politics and perspectives editor at the Free Press. She teaches part time at the University of Manitoba.

shannon@mediadiva.ca

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