Author: Chris Elliott; Photo: Project Power Back
As I gather my thoughts to write this blog post, I’m having to consciously suppress my anger which is overwhelming me. When my feelings are big, communication is difficult but talking about this is more important than being angry.
Tomorrow morning, I will be joining a counter-protest against a demonstration that a) shouldn’t be happening and b) is fuelled by ignorance, hatred, and everything that I stand against. The reason? People in this country want to eliminate queer education in schools. That is to say, there is a group of people that doesn’t want kids to be taught that queer people exist and are equally deserving of dignity and respect, that some families may have 2 dads or 2 moms or a Trans parent or something outside of the hetero-norm, or even that it’s ok to love who they love or be who they are. As if that wasn’t scary enough, government officials and lawmakers are agreeing with them and are implementing policies that don’t represent the views of the majority. Nothing about this is ok.
Let me be unequivocal right from the start: there is no valid reason for this protest. 2SLGBTQIA+ people don’t pose a threat to cis- and straight people. We don’t take anything away from them or lessen their place in this world in any way. But if the people on the wrong side of this protest believed this, this protest wouldn’t be happening and I wouldn’t have to spend my time, energy, and spoons to show up and prove to the young people affected by this bullshit that they’re not alone and they are loved, even when the people that they’re supposed to depend on are now openly discriminating against them.
It’s one thing to stand up for something you don’t agree with. It’s a whole other thing to say we need to take away the rights of other people because their existence doesn’t correlate with your beliefs. A difference of opinions is that the red Skittle is the best Skittle, not whether or not queer people are allowed to be who they are. That’s called bigotry and is not a valid reason to protest.
I’ve attended protests before because I knew it was the right thing to do. It didn’t feel like if I didn’t go, there was the potential for the policies and laws that directly affect the people I care about to change. This isn’t the case with this one.
Over this past summer, the New Brunswick Education Minister Bill Hogan changed policy 713 so that it would be mandatory for teachers to acquire parental consent before verbally using a student’s preferred name or their correct pronouns if they don’t identify with the ones they were assigned at birth. In short, kids must be outed to their parents if they want to explore their gender in a safe environment which is what school is supposed to be. This shortsighted and narrow-minded way of thinking is going to get kids killed. And to what end?
Ever since then, other provinces have been piggybacking on the brazen ignorance of the New Brunswick education system. One in particular that I would like to highlight is Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe. Moe’s government is attempting to implement a very similar policy in Saskatchewan schools and has already been met with legal filings by organizations such as Egale Canada who correctly point out that this policy is unconstitutional and is in direct opposition to the rights of the children that it applies to. The kicker is Scott Moe knows this and is already threatening to use the notwithstanding clause because he knows this policy won’t stand in court. The use of the notwithstanding clause would allow the Saskatchewan government to remove constitutional rights from citizens (in this case, Trans kids) without the courts or the public being able to stop him. Smells like fascism to me.
Standing up against the injustices that the world is facing usually fuels my fire. This is the way I usually explain to people what we do at Make Waves Collective:
Imagine that Gen Z and Gen Alpha are the soccer team. You don’t have to tell them what they need to do to “win the game” or motivate them to play in the first place. They’re ready to do the work for a better future that is theirs. They already have that radical sense of empathy that tells them what’s right and motivates them to act. I have every faith in the world that they will make change happen. What we’re here to do is to drive the minivan. That is, to support them in whatever way possible and in the way that they need. That’s what motivates me in a sometimes hopeless world of ignorance and inequality.
But by no longer teaching about diversity and inclusion, will the generations coming up behind Gen Alpha have that same sense of empathy? Will they care about people who don’t look or sound like them? Will we slip back into raising generations of people who only care to improve our own situations at the expense of others?
We can’t afford for that to happen.
The other thing that’s different about this particular protest is it’s completely unnecessary and outdated. For a long time, I believed that we were moving forward specifically with 2SLGBTQIA+ acceptance and understanding. This is a huge step backwards. Didn’t we already fight this battle? Didn’t we already establish that queer people are deserving of dignity and respect?
Kim, there’s people that are dying. And you’re wasting our time by making us go back and fight battles that were moving in the right direction before you went and fucked with them again.
I hate confrontation but I will always stand up for what’s right and doing so often gives me more energy and not less. This protest is different. This one feels heavier and more dire. This one is costing spoons, not giving me more.
To the protestors that are hurting kids by pushing their homophobic and transphobic agendas: stop being the problem and start being part of the solution. A solution that truly shows love for your kids and not hate for anyone that’s not like you.
Tomorrow morning, I will be at the Confederation Building in St. John’s to stand in solidarity with the students whose rights are being taken away rather than protected by those in power. While the hatred that is motivating these protests is finite, hope is not. And that makes all the difference.