Montreal community takes to the street to defend trans rights
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.
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.”
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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