LGBTQIA2S+

JAG strives for municipalities to become more queer-educated

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Callan Forrester – LJI reporter

JAG is an organization based in the Montégérie that offers resources to queer and trans people, as well as educational resources for people who want to be more informed about the 2SLGBTQIA+ (Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, plus) community. For this Pride month, they have a few new developments to share and activities to celebrate.

To kick off Pride month, JAG hosted a gala to celebrate the accomplishments they’ve had this year. This is a tradition that has been going on for many years and is now in its third edition post-pandemic. “It’s an environment where we can get together with our members and talk about what we did throughout the year in a way that’s fun, with the anticipation of Pride,” says JAG’s general director, Dominique Thibert.

This year’s gala took place on May 30, and it had a full house, with about 100 attendees at Pointe-Valaine Cultural Centre. The event was pay-what-you-can, as a way to make it accessible to anyone who wanted to be there. Thibert stresses that this kind of accessibility is a big part of JAG’s mandate. They want their spaces to be as inclusive and accessible as possible. The AGM took place on June 17 and was open for anyone who registered to attend.

“With the rise in hate, there are a lot of people experiencing physiological distress … they need to be with their people and talk in our groups to break social isolation,” says Thibert. He himself grew up in the Montérégie, and shares that he went to great lengths to find his community while growing up. “I would walk on foot from Saint Hubert to Montreal to go to meet-ups with the community of LGBT people aged 25 years old and younger … If I had had that here, it would have been exceptional and would have hugely changed my life.”

JAG offers all kinds of resources for the community, such as courses and reading resources online, and posts on their social media that break down different queer issues in a digestible way. Their website, lejag.org, has a calendar for tracking available resources each month.

Organizations like JAG are important now more than ever. “All of the problems that were happening before this rise in hate are still there. People are still searching for their identities; they need answers to their questions about having a diverse sexuality,” Thibert explains. The problem is that now they are also doing damage control to fight some of the rhetoric surrounding queer issues. “We’re doing what we’ve always done, but now we’re also fighting the misinformation that’s in the community.” He also stresses that it would be great if the government admitted the need for more services for queer and trans people.

One of the projects that JAG is working on at the moment involves a service to encourage municipalities “to focus on the importance of having inclusive spaces.” The service will be a way for elected officials to better understand the needs of queer and trans people in their communities. “Municipalities are the closest thing to the population; it’s they that are able to put measures in place against the violence that queer people could experience,” Thibert explains. It’s a big project and will work collaboratively so that the municipalities have support from JAG and the tools to make safer spaces in the region at a governmental level.

For any young queer people who are currently struggling, Thibert reminds them to “Take care of yourself before anything. Know your limits.” Sometimes it can feel overwhelming, but if someone has the capacity, he encourages them to “Go look for resources. There are groups on Facebook that are exceptional for the discovery of self. Get in touch with JAG, join a group discussion, go find people like you to create a bubble that will help protect you from the hate that’s out there.” Finding a community of similar people is the key to protecting yourself.

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CVR recognizes International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia

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Callan Forrester – LJI reporter

May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. This is a day to recognize the violence and oppression that the queer and trans communities are still facing, to learn how to be a better ally, and to celebrate queer identities. This year, Chateauguay Valley Regional High School (CVR) made a point to highlight the day.

CVR has had a Pride group in the past; however, this year there were not enough students that signed up to have an active group all year. That being said, they were still able to organize a day of activities and education in honour of IDAHBT. Pamela Bussey, one of the club teachers, explains that they will try to get it going again next year “a little later in the fall, once kids have settled into friend groups.”

When it comes to having a queer pride club at CVR (which is for both LGBTQ+ students and allies), the response from students varies. For example, Bussey explains that “The energy during the trivia game was great! There were definitely kids there who are LGBTQ+ but also lots of kids who aren’t, and everyone enjoyed the game and took part. It was lovely to see very straight-identifying middle-schoolers taking part.” She sees a spectrum of responses when going classroom to classroom to advertise the club at the beginning of the year. This year, she did this with Fraser McClintock, who helped spread the word. She says that it makes a huge impact “to have a very well-liked and respected man there, who is not LGBTQ+, sending the signal that a Pride group is fine and normal and open to everyone – he made a point to stress that.”

For Bussey, now more than ever it is important for schools to have these kinds of clubs, “especially in light of all of the anti-trans rhetoric online, and movements both in the U.S. and Canada to restrict Trans people’s access to public spaces and sports,” she says. She explains that a lot of bigotry comes from a lack of understanding, adding, “Like so many other schools, CVR has some students who will use openly homophobic and transphobic language. This is almost always due to a lack of knowledge of LGBTQ+ people and a general discomfort with what we don’t know.” Having this club helps to normalize queer and trans identities and perspectives. It helps to open the discussion up so everyone can become more educated. “We are sending the message that all students, staff, and community members are important and welcome,” she says.

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Montreal community takes to the street to defend trans rights

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Demonstrators gathered at 8 a.m. on Sept. 20 to counter the “1 Million March 4 Children” protest. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Francis Turcotte,
Local Journalism Initiative

Anti-trans protests across the country are being met with resistance

Demonstrators gathered at 8 a.m. on Sept. 20 to counter the “1 Million March 4 Children” (1MM4C) protest, a nationwide anti-trans rights protest taking place on the same date as last year.

The anti-trans protest was organized by far-right groups like Hands Off Our Kids, who are campaigning to ban sexual orientation and gender identity curricula in public schools across the country.

Trans-rights activists gathered at Place Vauquelin whilst the anti-trans group formed across rue Notre-Dame E. at Place Jacques-Cartier.

The 1MM4C started marching and the counter-protest attempted to follow, but after being blocked by police, they went through Champs de Mars towards rue St. Antoine. 

The counter-protest was met by riot police, preventing protesters from moving west toward St. Laurent blvd. The counter-protest moved back up towards rue Notre-Dame and towards the Palais de Justice, where they caught up with the 1MM4C group again. Tear gas was fired toward counter-protesters twice at around 11 a.m., then the police pushed toward the group without warning.

A spokesperson for the SPVM told The Link that she could not comment on the use of violence at the protest as the SPVM does not comment on police intervention. 
 

Protesters and counter-protesters gathered across the street from each other on rue Notre-Dame E. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Montreal-based trans rights activist Celeste Trianon, who has been organizing pro-trans marches and protests across the country, said these recent anti-trans movements could lead to major consequences for the community. 

According to Trianon, the main potential consequence would be that these groups would manage to occupy a much more public space, which would allow anti-trans rhetoric to spread further and seep its way into the Canadian mainstream through media, politics, or other avenues.

“We’re seeing how [anti-queer groups have] led to public opinion of LGBTQIA2S+ existence in Canada going down, which used to never be the case,” said Trianon.

Zev Saltiel, a trans parent and activist, said police brutality has escalated recently. “In the past, when we had these protests, police have intervened, but they never deployed tear gas on us,” Saltiel said.

“I was monitoring about six different counter-protests last year, and people all across the country were talking about it,” said Trianon on the 1MM4C protests last year. “We had Prime Minister Trudeau weighing in for the counter-protest and saying that transphobia has no place in Canada.”

Saltiel believes that most people influenced by the nationwide transphobic group are not educated on trans issues and lack an understanding of what it really means to be trans.

“Have [transphobic protesters ever] had a conversation with a trans person? They probably have–they just don’t know that they have,” said Saltiel. “People are afraid of things they don’t understand.”
 

Counter-protesters held up signs with slogans such as “Protect Trans Kids” and “Trans Resistance 4ever.” Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

According to Saltiel, anti-trans protesters used children as a tool to persuade others to join their cause, by chanting taglines such as, “Protect the children”, and bringing their young children with them to the protest

“It’s an easier target,” Saltiel said. “People don’t really understand that children don’t have access to gender-affirming care, […] but people are convinced, for some reason, that the kids go to school and get surgery.” 

Still, Trianon said she thinks there has been an increase in groups looking to protect queer and trans folks. 

“People have actually formed more and more groups in order to help defend trans people in these times of heightened violence against them,” she said.

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