What Canadians can do
We don’t control U.S. policy, but we do control our response.
Speak up: When Pride visibility is under attack—even elsewhere—we need to be louder in our solidarity. Local businesses, schools, and governments should reaffirm their support explicitly.
Support queer media and organizations: From Rainbow Railroad to The 519, Canadian orgs are doing frontline work that often fills in the gaps left by political inaction.
Challenge imported rhetoric: Whether it’s book bans or “parental rights” bills, we must recognize when American talking points show up in Canadian debates—and push back accordingly.
we had pride way before we had legal recognition for pride
PRIDE IS A PROTEST. IT WAS THE FUCKING GOVERNMENT WE WERE LARGELY PROTESTING. If they backslide, we will fuck their shit up all over again.
Your daily reminder that trans rights are human rights. Gay rights are human rights. Any government trying to roll these back is only rolling back rights for all of us to be who we are.
Supporting trans people is not taking away from women, these things aren’t zero sum.
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Seeing sports exclusively through the lens of competition is toxic masculinity.
Sports is the only ring where it kinda makes sense to have separate leagues, but how much of an issue is this actually?
There’s no way it’s worth the rhetoric and actions people have been taking.
John Oliver has a episode on this and it changed my mind. Sure at the top level there has to be conversations about this but for kids and non pros which lets be honest is the vast majority of people playing sports, just let people play.
Agreed; it’s not worth the rhetoric and actions. And while there’s definitely merit in assessing trans athletes to try and keep things as fair as possible (though they never stopped Phelps from competing, so “fair” is kind of a joke), it’s far more complex than a simple “there was testosterone so they have an advantage!”
For the “nonathletic” groups - think community-level sport - based on what data is available, there is effectively no statistical difference between cis and trans women’s physical performance after 2+ years on hormone therapy.
When it comes to elite athletes, trans women outperformed cis women in Fat-free mass index, Absolute hand grip strength, and Absolute Vo2Max, but under-performed in Relative VO2Max to mass, Ratio of expiratory volume to vital lung capacity, and Absolute countermovement jump (lower body power). The lower Relative VO2Max, and Expiratory volume can lead to disadvantages in terms of speed, recovery and endurance.
While hand grip strength is considered an indicator of overall muscle strength, to quote the first article linked:
The correlations between hand grip strength and individual sports are reviewed comprehensively in Cronin et al. Though maximum hand grip strength has a strong relationship with maximum upper or body strength in some movement patterns such as in powerlifting strength, there are weaker relationships with other movement patterns. There is evidence that hand grip strength is a poor correlate of knee flexion or extension strength and is far more reliable as a marker of physical function if used together with lower limb strength. Hand grip strength is more relevant for some physical performance activities such as rotational movements that transfer force and torque to the hand (ie, ball throwing), but shows poor correlation to movement patterns that require technical ability, physical capacity, aerobic fitness or tactical ability (ie, tennis stroke placement or cricket fielding performance)
It will require a lot more information before any athletics group would be able to make a truly informed decision, and it’s going to have to be sport by sport. Elite athletes are all outliers in their genetic makeup (Phelps, The average height of a WNBA player, etc). We know athletes have different hormone levels depending on the sport they play, but it’s chicken vs. egg on whether the hormones or elite performance came first. So trying to decide what is an acceptable advantage re: “pro athlete genetics”, vs. an unacceptable advantage re: “transgender genetics” is little more than opinions and politics at this point.
/info dump
Some people assume nefarious individuals would go into ladies change rooms, washrooms, or prisons.
Nefarious people would do that regardless, if they chose.
These idiots really think that a fucking sign will stop nefarious people from doing what they wanna do
It does happen, like we had a trans woman in BC (40s maybe) going into women’s washrooms and talking to teen girls, and asking them about their periods, but I seriosly doubt this is the normal behaviour of 99% of trans persons; it is the behaviour of a creep, wanting to talk inappropriately with teens.
Out of curiosity, what is with peoples usage of sports as some magnificent example of why trans rights shouldn’t be allowed to exist?
Speaking as a nonbinary person, I don’t care about sports. I genuinely have no interest in it. Why am I not allowed to exist comfortably just because someone old fart in another country got mad their sports team lost? Like, oh noooo, our existence is spoiling your beer and fun times with the bros. Who cares.
It lets them reinforce the idea that “mens better than wimmens at sports” as well.
The whole thing is about reinforcing gender roles and views. Notice how they never go after transmen? Dudes may as well not even exist. It’s all about the transwomen and the potentiality to not look or act like their ideal of a woman. Must be stamped out!!!
Every fucking attempt to police transwomen in toilets has done nothing but harass cis women. There’s a reason for that
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let’s talk about public roads. you obviously think of yourself as a non-threatening driver, but can you say that nobody will abuse the ability to go 95 through a red light? better limit all cars to 30.
the argument you are using is treating an entire group of people like they are criminals just by existing. innocent until proven guilty.
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Why would anyone have an issue what other people self-identify as? My name is Todd, but I’d like you to call me Steve. Does this impact your day?
No it doesn’t, just curious. I could see a scenario where they want no segregation based on sex/gender/race/age/etc… since anyone can identify as they want.
So to stop the possibility that someone would sneak into a different bathroom to peek at someone’s genitals, you suggest we have people checking peoples genitals to even enter the room?
That takes a hypothetical problem and guarantees it.
I hate to laugh but you are right, that does seem to be happening. I just cant rationalize an answer that appeases everyone.
I just also feel that both side seems to be strawman’ing the other, so a discussion seems somewhat ridiculous every single time with no one agreeing on anything.
On the basis that one person may or may not abuse the situation all trans people deserve to be accused and/or treated as second class citizens? There are current real world incidences of cisgender women getting harrased and assaulted in these very “safe zones” under the guise of protecting cisgender women.
The exclusion of trans women from these spaces creates a culture where some people are on the lookout for those who “don’t belong”, and this is leading to women who don’t fit visual/societal definitions of feminity and womanhood to getting singled out and harrased in these very spaces.
Trans women are not “the other gender” as you put it, they are women; trans men are men. Bad actors who want to assault women or vulnerable people will do that any way they see fit, their gender identity is irrelevant. Being inclusive to trans people does not eliminate safe spaces, they are also deserving of being protected.
It feels like an incredibly large amount of work, and we don’t really see gay people and lesbians making an issue out of change rooms.
- Trans men get the ability to compete with other men, I assume you mean trans women get to compete with other women.
- No one actually cares about women’s sports until “the trans issue” comes up. This argument is just an excuse to try to harm trans people. Most people can’t name a WNBA team, or name more than 5 female athletes.
- Biological differences is what professional sports are. That’s why people who have similar builds seem to play the same sports.
I’d argue the sport influences the build more than the build influences the sport, with the exception to height. Athletes in the same sport have similar builds due to training in similar ways to use the same muscle groups. Cyclists have strong legs because they train to cycle, they didn’t wake up one day with massive legs telling them to be a cyclist.
I do agree that people in the same sport will train the same muscles, but they normally start with a biological advantage in order to be good enough in the sport to start to train specifically for it to begin with. There are other things than height, such and foot/hand size, torso length, natural testosterone levels, how fast your body removed lactic acid, if you were born with a cardio-vascular issue, dozens of factors that affect your balance, and much more.
Someone with Ehlers-Danlos isn’t likely to become a powerlifter.
Like that’s going to stop people from celebrating. What a moron.
It still sucks though. It really makes lgbtq people feel unwelcome in society.
Remember, TACO.
So rainbow TACOs at the pride parade this year?
Derek Berry is our prophet they were always right.
When the U.S. shifts gears on human rights, we feel the tremors. Policies and perspectives from the U.S. often embolden similar sentiments here, especially in communities already skeptical of inclusive education or trans rights. We’re not just passive observers—we’re downstream recipients of American culture and, increasingly, its political aftershocks.
So when Trump declares Pride Month is over, it reverberates in Canadian classrooms, Pride parades, and policy tables. The question isn’t if it affects us. It’s how long until it does.
This is a real concern. A lot of the time people aren’t acting on strongly held values so much as just following the tide. Without MAGA craziness in the USA we wouldn’t have had truck convoys and Fuck Trudeau flags here. While some of us are well grounded in our values and unlikely to become bigots just because others are doing it, many will just drift gradually into it, especially if it’s easier to be a bigot than not. We need to double down on lobbying politicians for commitments to LGBTQ+ rights and supporting organizations that do this. Here are some I know of, for anyone who wants to get involved:
Rights erosion already happened in the UK. Take this extremely seriously.
Told a guy to headbut a box knife if he had a problem with a crowd funded and volunteer painted rainbow crosswalk
I’m tired of anything short of violent acceptance
Oh yes, Lord Turducken of the Queef. I’m so sure that just because you said you’re angry about rainbows that suddenly we will just go away.
Us queers have never asked for permission from you sundried tomato looking asses. Ain’t about to start now.
Attend Pride events, march in the parades, whatever your orientation is. Arguably they can benefit from more organic support and fewer bank floats.
What does that even mean. I don’t think it was ever made a public holiday. Might as well declare an end to saint patricks day for all it will do.
next up, mandatory Columbus day
Thanks, anti-electoralists/accelerationists and protest (non-)voters for doing your part to increase human suffering. /s
