DO THE RIGHT THING
Supporting a student who chose to come out at his high school almost cost me my job. Being a Vancouver Province columnist while teaching full time apparently made me an easy target, or so they thought.
The Province heard about the incident and sent a reporter and media support to the school.
Doing the right thing and standing up for your principles may cost, but that price is steeper if you ignore your conscience.
"These are many: we face huge barriers in securing housing, jobs, and healthcare; threats to our physical safety; relentless and harmful transphobia online and in the media; and a lack of representation across institutions from politics to medicine.
It’s also a week in which we celebrate trans achievements and highlight our successes. Each year, trans communities across the world become a little stronger, a little more organised, a little more cohesive. And at the end of the week, on Trans Day of Remembrance (20 November), we remember those we lost.
We honour those killed by transphobic violence and those who died by suicide. We take a moment to think of them and to share our memories of those no longer with us.
And we ask cisgender people to stand with us, this week and every week. To this end, at the beginning of this year, we asked eight trans and non-binary people how cis people could be better trans allies in 2021.
Sam Feder, director of Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen – a documentary about Hollywood’s damaging portrayal of trans people – offered these words:
“I would love anyone who is moved to be a better ally to look around their world and find one concrete place where they can make a difference.”
Those words, after the hellfire of transphobia that 2021 turned into, seem particularly resonant now. One concrete place to make a difference. Where to start?"
Money
Write your MP, MLA, Senator or Congressperson
Attend Protests
Share knowledge
Educate yourself on inclusive language
Read the details of how to support and educate here