Toronto community rallies for trans rights and autonomy

On Friday, March 31—Trans Day of Visibility—students, activists, and community members gathered outside the US Consulate to rally for trans rights, autonomy, and existence. The rally was organised by Students for Queer Liberation in solidarity with marches across the US, primarily in response to the recent wave of anti-trans legislation across the country. The group calls on the Canadian government to speak out against this attack on trans rights and autonomy, and stands against ongoing hate in Canada and worldwide.

In 2023, 492 bills have been introduced in 47 US states which deny trans people the right to healthcare, education, legal recognition, and the right to publicly exist; 26 of these have passed. These bills restrict trans students from accessing washrooms and participating in sports; target free gender presentation in public; ban educators from talking about sexual and gender identity with students; prohibit minors from accessing gender-affirming healthcare; and force minors to detransition. Some have recognised this as nothing short of attempted genocide: at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference in March, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles stated that “Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life, entirely.” 

Anti-trans sentiment has been on the rise for the past several years; 2021 was the deadliest year on record in terms of deaths and anti-trans bills. Recently, a series of emails were leaked revealing the working group motivating this surge: in 2019, Republican Fred Deutsch began working with anti-trans activists, doctors, lawyers, and other politicians to introduce a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors, setting a precedent for subsequent attacks.

The rally on Friday brought together members of SMASH UofT, York University’s TBLGAY, The PEARS Project, Policing Free Schools, Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction (TIHR), International Socialists, and ESN Parkdale as speakers or organisers, and many others showed up in support. 

“Today is Transgender Day of Visibility—but visibility without protection is a death sentence,” said an organizer part of the new Students for Queer Liberation and first-year Vic student. In solidarity with Queer Youth Assemble, which is organising protests across the US, the group calls on the US federal government to pass the Equality Act and the Equality Amendment, the Canadian government to condemn anti-trans violence, and demands that Canada guarantees the right to asylum for LGBTQ people fleeing oppressive states, including transgender and gender-diverse people in the US. 

Matteo L. Cerilli, member of TBLGAY and children’s fiction author, spoke on the importance of intersectionality and solidarity: “We can’t stop coming together and supporting each other. […] Hate lives in the shadows, and bills like this can only pass when people look away.” He also noted the connection between colonialism, racism, and transphobia: “The attempted erasure of Two-Spirit identity and the record-breaking number of Black trans lives lost in recent years proves that trans lives have been under attack for centuries. Now, because the dominant culture (including white trans people) has allowed this to fester, this attack only grows larger, and [to this] we say no more.”

Andrea Vásquez Jiménez also spoke on intersectionality, as well as policing bodily autonomy and gender expression in schools. She is the Founder, Director and Principal Consultant of Policing-Free Schools, working to uproot policing and carcerality in educational spaces. “The increasingly violent spaces for Trans-students disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, racialized, disabled, neurodivergent and undocumented Trans-students. We see the policing of educational resources such as books […] not permitting students to see themselves within texts, erasing their existence.” She says these issues are interconnected and global: “I’m also here in solidarity with all those in the Global South, who have called out Trans Genocide for years and have been demanding accountability on a global scale […] Moving collectively toward liberation is a must.”

Micah Kalisch and Jay represented The PEARS Project, commenting on the increased risk for trans people to experience sexual violence, and fighting for bodily autonomy for all. Dennis Wamala is a human rights activist working with many organisations in Canada and Uganda. He spoke on the importance of allyship, stating that those who pose a threat to trans rights will come for the rest of the LGBTQ community as well: “If you do not fight now, the fight will come to your door.” Another protest took place on April 2 at Dundas Square, standing against the anti-honosexuality bill passed in Uganda. Alex Adams, an activist and socialist, and Fatima, a member of the encampment support network, also spoke at the rally.

The organisers offered several actions that individuals can take to support the cause. First, petition e-4268 calls on the House of Commons to guarantee trans and gender-diverse people the right to asylum in Canada. Second, people can donate to organisations such as Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction (TIHR) and Native Arts Society, TwoSpiritsToronto, No More Silence, and TransPrideToronto. Third, on-campus queer groups, such as VicPride, may not all do advocacy work, but are important for building community. Students for Queer Liberation will be expanding and organising more actions in the near future, so students can stay tuned for updates.