Canada saw an attempt to whip up attacks on trans people on Wednesday, September 20. There were rallies across the country opposed to sex education in schools and for banning a wide range of library books. In most cases the counter rallies in support of trans rights far outnumber those trying to whip up hate.
While some of the people involved in the rallies against trans rights may have genuine views, many do not and behind the movement are various right-wing groups some with links to the convoy in Ottawa in 2021 and US hate groups. Action4Canada is one such organization. It tried to sue the Canadian government over vaccines, opposed drag story times, and stated that “the UN is involved in this agenda, and they are targeting children.” Tanya Gaw, a member of Action4Canada, claimed that a school in Chilliwack, BC had child pornography in the library. The police investigated this claim and found it utterly false.
Moms for Liberty is one of the backers of so-called parent rights in the US, which according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, is an anti-government and right-wing extremist organization with ties to white nationalists, including the Proud Boys.
This drive to build support for anti-trans ideas in Canada has followed a wave of attacks on 2SLGBTQIA+ people in the US that has gained a lot of publicity. Many Republican state governments and politicians use this hate to try to gain support.
There is certainly strong evidence that most Canadians, around 75 percent, support LGBTQ+ rights. A recent study by Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) found that “84% of non-LGBTQ Americans support equal rights for the LGBTQ community,” the highest level on record. Although another study found support for same-sex relationships in the US has fallen in the last year, from 71 percent to 64 percent, this is still nearly two out of three in the US and the long-term trend is growing support compared to 20 years ago. The hate is driven by a small, but determined, minority.
Queerphobic agendas have risen globally. Uganda has made international headlines for its draconian homophobic laws, and Russia likewise has outright banned drag performances, public displays of queer identity, gender-affirming care and changing one’s gender.
Canadian Politicians Jump on Hate Wagon
The attack on trans-rights dresses itself up as “parents’ rights.” This is not a campaign to end child poverty, for a mass house-building program or affordable child care. It is attacking sex education in schools, drag shows and the rights of young people to choose who they are and how they identify. A particular focus of these attacks is Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities (SOGI 123), which helps educators make schools inclusive and safe for students of all genders. It is not about brainwashing or forcing ideas onto children.
New Brunswick’s premier Higgs is using a range of right-wing ideas, including a policy 713 amendment that could force trans children out to bigoted parents, to try to re-gain support. However, he has faced strong opposition, both from within his own conservative party and from the wider population.
In Alberta, the UCP and Danielle Smith have a history with queerphobia, including one former member, now an elected MLA, who compared trans children to feces in food. The right-wing BC Conservative party, with a message of climate change scepticism and support for fossil fuels, and opposition to trans rights, has surged in support in the last few months, picking up support from the more mainstream conservative (and recently re-branded) BC United.
Saskatchewan’s premier, Scott Moe, has jumped on the bandwagon. Gaw, of Action4Canada, stated that her group urged the Saskatchewan government to ban Planned Parenthood and SOGI 123 from schools, which Moe has since done. Moe has announced he will invoke the “notwithstanding” clause to prevent the courts from ruling on the legality of his anti-trans law.
Class Unity to Countering Hate
Some hope that this rise of hate is temporary and will die down, pointing to the Republicans in the US not making big gains in the 2022 elections. This position is naive. Problems do not go away because of one bad election result. Right-wing politicians in Canada, the US and other countries see attacking queer people, especially trans people, as a way to mobilize their base and gain support.
This renewed focus on queer people is simply a repetition, albeit revamped, of the repression historically imposed on us. It is no coincidence that as the multiple crises of the capitalist system increase, the attacks ramp up. It is an attempt to distract works from the real problems. A reckoning is fast approaching for the rich, with the increasing cost of living, dilapidated supply chains, wars and famines, climate catastrophe, and an upturn in workers organizing and struggling.
The capitalist class, as always, seeks to divide workers any way it can. It uses queerphobia, along with xenophobia, racism and sexism, and many other forms of repression, to drive wedges between workers. The bosses hope to pit us against one another, rather than uniting to fight them.
So far, there have been many successful actions to counter queerphobic events, overwhelming the far right and driving them away. In Brandon, Manitoba, hundreds of people attended the school board meeting to successfully encourage the board to reject moves to ban books. In nearby Carmen, another larger public meeting successfully encouraged Prairie Rose School District to reject book censorship.
However, this won’t always be the case. As the right coalesces around this issue, building their forces and biding their time, it is imperative that we do not simply react to them, but act to prevent and end queerphobia. There was once a movement that was dedicated to this. Those within it sought to build a broader movement for queer people and their allies to truly fight for change, especially during a time of hatred and vitriol towards the queer community. This movement, Pride, has sadly been overtaken and corporatized over many years.
Pride and Struggle
The first Pride marches in 1970 New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles came one year after the Stonewall uprising, when gay young people resisted a police attack.
It was a time of struggle as workers and young people rebelled against conservative oppressions, demanding “Liberation.” There were movements of women, Black people, and Indigenous peoples, an anti-Vietnam War movement, and waves of militant strikes.
In the face of the mounting right-wing attacks around the world, the Queer community should celebrate our history of fighting for a better future. Pride season is more than a time to cut loose. It is to celebrate the hard-won victories through mass movements, strengthen the defence of Queer rights today and to organize to extend them.
In response to growing social changes, homosexual acts between consenting adults were decriminalized in 1969. However, repression continued. Legally, gay men could not immigrate to Canada until 1977.
The first Gay rights protest was held in Ottawa, on August 28, 1971, under the banner of the “We Demand” rally. Working queer people understood well they had to organize and make demands and apply pressure to gain their rights. Pride Week in 1973 included an art festival, dancing, food, and rallies for gay rights in six cities. The Gay Alliance Towards Equality organized the first pride events in Vancouver: the pride picnic in 1973 and the first Vancouver pride march in 1976. Although it may seem small, it was public events like these that paved the way for Pride, and the normalization of being queer publicly.
On February 5, 1981, 306 gay men were arrested in bath houses across Toronto. The next day, 3,000 protested outside the police station and Ontario’s legislature. That year, 1,500 marched in Pride, which was organized by the Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Committee. Since then, Toronto Pride has been an annual event. Police raids continued until 2004. This is a stark reminder that capitalist repression of queer people in Canada is not stories confined to dusty old library books, but a real concern that people today can relate to you.
The 1980s AIDS epidemic hit Queer communities hardest. There was massive victim blaming. As governments failed to take action, we formed our own support networks and campaign groups. When the government caved, it was not out of benevolence. Rather, the militant action of Queer people pressured it into action.
Likewise in the United States, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) won access to experimental AIDS treatment that saved thousands of lives. This organization pressured corporate politicians by hosting theatrical protests outside government buildings and disrupting everyday life.
This is how our pride was born. Through bold demands, through struggle, through making ourselves heard and known. Today’s pride is a far cry from this. Our very being has been incorporated into a cynical marketing ploy by capitalists seeking profits.
Rainbow Capitalism
After the hard-won victories of Queer people in the 1990s, big businesses began co opting Pride into their marketing strategies. Corporations set up floats and tents at Pride events, attempting to soften their image with the LGBTQIA2S+ community.
This is not solidarity, it’s corporate “rainbow washing.” Adidas (sponsor of Toronto Pride) sponsored the 2019 Russian World Cup, ignoring Russia’s anti-LGBTQ laws. H&M (sponsor of LA and New York Pride) has manufacturing in China, which brutally represses Queer people. Toyota (sponsor of LA Pride) has donated US$600,000 to anti-LGBTQ candidates in the US since 2019. Corporate sponsorship has a price. Pride is no longer a day of protest for liberation: it is a depoliticized corporate marketing festival.
Recently, the right has accused major corporations like Anheuser-Busch of “going woke.” But these companies are not on our side. The capitalist system is chameleon-like; it disguises itself with all the colours of the rainbow, while continuously dividing and squeezing working-class people — Queer ones harder than most. The same banks that sponsor Pride in June will foreclose on a trans couple’s home in July and slash their workforce in August. The capitalist politicians who march in Pride are all smiles, yet shake hands with the dictators that execute Queer people and will gladly sell military equipment to them (e.g., Trudeau selling arms to Saudi Arabia).
Capitalists will never be our allies, for their only concern is making money. Pushing back and winning further victories requires a true social movement, built not only on a program with a plan to solve inequalities, but one rooted in the working class. Simply electing a gay politician or putting a trans person on the board of a corporation will not create meaningful change.
Political Pride
We must always emphasize the root nature of oppression — capitalism. The capitalists need scapegoats to point to, a group of people to shift the blame on in times of crisis, which distracts from the overall class oppression we share in common. This divide and conquer strategy pits the working class against each other, whilst the capitalists make profits off our backs.
A revolutionary workers’ movement must point to this and build solidarity with Queer people. Conversely, any Queer-led movement must be based on a working-class program. Historically, it has been workers leading the drive for progressive change in society. Bourgeois movements promise change, workers movements deliver it!
Overwhelmingly non-Queer people support the LGBTQ+ population and their rights. Making Pride political and militant, demanding tangible action on Queer rights and connecting it to a broader workers’ movement, has the potential to turn Pride into more than a time to celebrate, but a force for real change.
