Canada’s trans activism goes into overdrive
by Laurel Duggan, Unherd:
Justin Trudeau’s government is pressing ahead with a series of radical measures.
Canada has long prided itself as a bastion of LGBT rights, and over the last year it has been doubling down on its support for the transgender movement.
In the year since Canada announced its Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, the country has poured tens of millions of dollars into gay and transgender initiatives at home and abroad. This includes a government-funded marketing project aimed at increasing public support for the LGBT community, numerous research projects, disease prevention efforts and funding for LGBT entrepreneurs.
So far, the action plan’s achievements include an expansion of “unjust 2SLGBTQI+ offences” eligible for “expungement” — such as certain public indecency, nudity and obscenity offences. For example, Canada made convictions related to indecency in bathhouses eligible for expungement, noting that bathhouses are “safe spaces for the two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex (2SLGBTQI+) communities”.
The Canadian government is also putting indigenous peoples at the heart of its LGBT activism. Across the government, the term “LGBTQ2” has been replaced with “2SLGBTQI” so that two-spirit people are recognised at the front of the acronym. The Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan has funded 17 organisations aiding indigenous LGBT populations and four organisations promoting indigenous LGBT voices as part of a broader push to support intersectional LGBT populations. One such programme received more than $500,000 to “[foster] connections between Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations [and] create opportunities for 2SLGBTQQIA+ individuals to network, share ideas, compare work, and learn from each other in a way that respects their uniqueness.”
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