Easter Sunday coincides with the International Transgender Day of Visibility, which honors the contributions and accomplishments of trans, non-binary, and two-spirit populations across Canada.
According to the LGBT advocacy group GLAAD, the day was started in 2010 by American transgender activist Rachel Crandall in response to numerous reports about transgender individuals being portrayed in a negative light in the media.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance, which commemorates trans people whose lives were lost in anti-transgender violence, is a separate event from the Transgender Day of Visibility on November 20.
“That’s why it’s still necessary for transgender people to be seen through true, various, and correct stories which reflect the actual lived experience of trans people, both for themselves and for the people who believe they’ve never met a trans person,” GLAAD says on its site.
Tara Sypniewski, a native activist and head teacher for the Ottawa Trans Library, explained the day’s significance and why it is crucial to raise awareness of trans people to CTV Morning Live.
According to Sypniewski, who has been active in the trans community in Ottawa since the 1980s, things have drastically changed in the last ten years for the trans community.
“When I was younger, there were no transgender people in public at all,” Sypniewski said.
“We were typically portrayed as crazed killers or brutally murdered in movies, and there was no positive representation anymore.”
Additionally, the day brings attention to a rise in transgender hate and discrimination.
A nationwide survey conducted in 2020 found that transgender and non-binary Canadians face barriers to accessing public spaces, issues with their healthcare needs, and fear of harassment, which makes some avoid specific public spaces.
Transgender rights have become a popular topic in the democratic world in the last year. The provincial governments of Saskatchewan and New Brunswick implemented rules that would require parental consent for any changes to the labels or adjectives of individuals who are under the age of 16 in classrooms.
Premier Danielle Smith in Alberta pushed for plan changes that would ban all gender-affirming procedures for minors under the age of 17 in Alberta.
Tegan and Sara, two Canadian musicians, released an open email signed by more than 400 other musicians from the audio, video, and literary industries last year, denouncing what they call “anti-trans” legislation in some areas of the country. According to the letter, provincial laws being implemented across the nation “present a clear risk” to transgender people’s mental and physical well-being.
While harassment and threats against transgender people are becoming more common, according to Sypniewski, there has been a surge in trans advocacy and visibility in Canada.
“There’s still dangers and intimidation,” she said.
“Things have improved, and there is a backlash against it, and that’s why we’re seeing all these risks,” she said.
Sypniweski claims one of the benefits of opening the Ottawa Trans Library in 2022 is raising awareness of transgender individuals in Ottawa.
A collection of publications by trans artists is housed in the Ottawa Trans Library along with traditional, significant, and fascinating essays on transgender people and issues.
“It was a humble start; I was just going to share a collection of publications that I had,” Sypniweski said.
The storage serves as a social area as well, with the library hosting a number of events each month.
“The best place to place it was on principal street Ottawa to increase visibility,” she said.
“We’re right there on Somerset Street West, and we’re a part of the streetscape, just like the barbershop next door and the flower shop down the street, because it normalizes transgender people,” said one person.
Canada became the first nation to use a federal survey to gather and distribute data on gender diversity.
Of the nearly 30.5 million people in Canada aged 15 and older living in a private household in May 2021, 100,815 were transgender (59,460) or non-binary (41,355), accounting for 0.33 percent of the population, according to Statistics Canada.
On March 31 each year, the International Day of Transgender Visibility is observed.
Using documents from The Canadian Press.
