To say it’s a difficult time to be trans is an understatement. It’s not because our rights are being trampled at every turn—that reality is as old as time. I know this because I’m an elder trans who has survived much worse than what’s currently happening. It’s a difficult time for us now because the people who used to be there with us have turned their backs and walked away. This includes those who hold the power within the federal NDP: leader Jagmeet Singh and his top advisors.
Canadians love to be smug about how great we are when it comes to social justice issues. We especially love to be smug when comparing ourselves to the U.S. Maybe, and this is a big maybe, some of that smugness was once deserved. However, in this current moment in history as it intersects with trans rights, that’s no longer the case. When it comes to the federal NDP and the behaviour of Singh and party brass, I think their recent self-praise has been downright shameful.
I see people looking to examples of anti-trans laws and rulings in the U.S. and U.K. for examples of our superiority, while ignoring the reality that, in the last two years, the rights of trans Canadians have come under attack. The rights of trans children have been suspended in Saskatchewan, and trans children in New Brunswick and Alberta have lost the right to self-identify, access affirming healthcare and play sports. The NDP have not shown up. In fact, they’ve exploited the situation for political gain.
The NDP line on the suspension of trans rights seems to be to call it a “distraction” from Conservative failures. Singh, who used to be a human rights lawyer, repeated this “distraction” line in an interview with Power Play. This talking point ignores the fact that the elimination of our rights is the goal. It is part of the Conservative party’s policies. Conservatives are banking on the fact that progressives will wave it off as a “distraction.”
And it didn’t stop there.
The federal NDP’s silence on what is happening to trans people in the U.S. has been deafening. Their failure to call on the government of Canada to issue a needed travel warning for trans Canadians is deeply troubling. For a party that has run a campaign on what they’ve done and will do to help ordinary Canadians, the fact that trans Canadians are excluded from the equation is disturbing. I couldn’t find a single mention of LGBTQ2S+ people in the NDP platform, while the Liberal platform mentions us 10 times, with a specific mention of protecting our Charter rights.
During this current federal election, when asked about protecting the rights of trans Canadians’ access to healthcare (something Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has stated he does not support), “the NDP did not say whether it would incorporate health services for transgender people into the Canada Health Act,” according to the Canadian Press. Instead, the NDP pivoted to affordability and safety issues with a weak attempt to tie them to issues that affect trans people. Reading this, I became hot.
Then they took credit they no longer deserve. When asked about trans people in sports, the party said in a statement to Xtra that the NDP “has been leading the fight for trans rights for over a decade, including successfully adding gender identity and gender expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code.” But they haven’t been the leaders. Trans people have been and continue to be. We lobbied them. We gave them the words. We did all the hard work. The NDP took the credit. This is the way of politics.
How do I know this? Because I’m one of the people who has done work on a lot of legislation that benefits trans people while others take the credit. I was one of the architects of the federal conversion “therapy”-practices ban. And in 2018, after the B.C. NDP tabled legislation giving women who get abortions time off work, I notified the minister responsible that the language of the bill excluded trans and non-binary people, which resulted in an amendment to the legislation before it passed. To only give a couple examples.
I was a volunteer policy and strategic advisor on Singh’s 2017 leadership campaign. I contributed to his LGBTQ2S+ policies; policies that helped to get him elected as leader. Parts of my contributions later became official NDP policy, including the use of the “X” gender marker on federal documents, competency training for RCMP officers and the inclusion of trans people in data collection so the federal government can fund initiatives to meet our needs. I was B.C. MP Alistair MacGregor’s campaign manager during the 2019 federal election. I was a member of my Electoral District Association. I, and others, did a lot of work in the NDP, and cis people took the credit.
I did this work because Singh was a human rights lawyer who promised to stand up for my rights and the rights of trans people across the country in ways never promised before. He listened to those affected by these issues and took their advice. I believed him when he said he would never stop that fight. He broke his end of the bargain the moment he said attacks on my rights are a distraction from more important issues. He’s continued to break that promise ever since. He made a conscious decision to turn around and walk away. I feel like Lex in Jurassic Park, screaming, “He left us! HE LEFT US!”
Liberal leader Mark Carney has been far from perfect. He royally messed up after the French-language debate when, during the post-debate scrum, he was asked by a right-wing media outlet about the number of genders and said there are only two sexes, which gave those right-wing extremists exactly what they wanted. But I can’t blame him. He isn’t a career politician, and, unlike his opponent, he’s not a former human rights lawyer. He is a 60-year-old cis white man who is still learning. Carney’s advisors failed him by not preparing him for that moment which we all knew would come. But when asked directly at a campaign stop in Calgary about our human right to healthcare, he did not pivot. Carney said, “We will defend [healthcare] for all Canadians—for all Canadians, without exception,” which is far more than the NDP, who’s taking credit for giving us our rights.
I’m resentful that I had to hold my nose and vote for my NDP incumbent because that is the best way to block the Conservatives from getting elected in my riding of Cowichan–Malahat–Langford. I’ve never not voted NDP, but I would have happily voted Liberal to block the Conservatives. I’m resentful because there isn’t a single NDP MP who has kept their promise to stand up for and protect the rights of those most vulnerable.
The NDP has forgotten that there is no issue more important than human rights. They have decided to step over the bodies of trans people while pivoting to other issues. They broke their end of the social contract made with trans people when we put in all that labour without credit.
Without our human rights, issues surrounding housing, affordability and safety don’t matter. We are nothing without our human rights. The subject of my rights is society’s most important issue. Being able to afford food means shit if I become illegal again.
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