Gender Justice Must Include Two Spirit, Trans, and Queer Folks
For 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, DWS and other Yukon organizations working to prevent violence are creating spaces for learning more about how GBV works and what prevention can look like.
You are not alone. You deserve support.
As we have tough convos about violence and abuse, please take care of yourself. You are the expert in your life and know best how to take care - whether it’s reaching out to loved one, being on the land, taking time for yourself, or connecting with resources.
Want to help to prevent violence? Sign up for the two FREE workshops DWS is offering on December 6th and 7th. More information and sign-up here.
Image description: Digital image with text, ’gender justice must include Two Spirit, Tran, and Queer Folks’ on background of colourful northern lights.
Ending gender-based violence will benefit everyone in our communities.
Too often the gender justice movement has excluded, forgotten about, silenced, and harmed Queer, Two Spirit, and Trans folks.
As we work to end systems that hold up gender-based violence (sexism, patriarchy, colonialism, classism, ableism), it’s also important that we fight for the liberation of Trans, Two Spirit, and Queer folks. These are intertwined not separate issues.
Want to refresh on the LGBQT2SAAI+ words and terms? Check out:
Egale’s glossary
Image description: ‘2SLGBTQI Glossary of Terms’. PDF here - https://indd.adobe.com/view/publication/6b39407e-5495-431a-8933-1333f5795156/bbnv/publication-web-resources/pdf/Glossary_eng+fr.pdf
The facts:
From YWCA South Hampton Roads:
LGBTQ communities experience the same rates of intimate partner violence and sexual assault as heterosexual communities, about 1 in 4.
Nearly 1 in 5 lesbian, gay, or bisexual students has been physically forced to have sexual intercourse, more than three times the rate of their heterosexual peers.
More than 60 percent of LGBT sexual and domestic violence survivors who responded to a National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs survey said they were denied access to domestic violence shelters.
In a 2014 national study, more than half of transgender individuals who accessed homeless shelters were harassed by shelter staff or residents, and almost 29 percent were turned away altogether.
Multiple studies indicate that over 50% of transgender people have experienced sexual violence at some point in their lives.
In a study by sexual assault centers, prosecutors’ offices, law enforcement agencies, and child victim services, 94% of respondents said they were not serving LGBTQ survivors of IPV and sexual violence.
Canadian Facts
The TransPulse Survey found that one in three trans, two-spirit and/or non-binary people had considered suicide in the past year.
Queer folks are three times more likely to experience physical or sexual violence than heterosexual folks and twice as likely to be violently victimized.
Queer folks are more likely to experience ‘sexually inappropriate behaviours’ (we would call this ‘sexual harassment’) than heterosexual folks while:
in public (“over half of sexual minority Canadians (57%) reported that they had experienced an inappropriate sexual behaviour in public in the previous 12 months—more than twice what was reported by heterosexual Canadians (22%)”)
online (“sexual minority Canadians (37%) were more than twice as likely to report experiencing inappropriate sexual behaviours online as heterosexual Canadians (15%)”)
at work (“44% versus 22% for heterosexual Canadians”)
LGBQT2SAI+ folks belong in the gender justice movement because they are experiencing this violence BECAUSE of their gender and/or sexuality or someone's assumptions and/or presumptions about their gender and/or sexuality.
Myths and Lies
There are so much misinformation about why we should exclude LGBQT2SAI+ folks from the gender justice movement, especially excluding them from services for folks who’ve survived gender-based violence.
Let’s confront some misinformation with facts!
All this gender stuff is new and created by kids these days!
Nope. Two spirit folks have exists on this land for millennia. AND queer and trans folks have been around for centuries, but have often been erased. From Stonwall.org.uk:
The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise includes the legendary tale of Hervard, who was named Hervor at birth but later changed his name to reflect his gender. As a child, he was encouraged to engage with feminised activities such as embroidery, but his skills with a sword and bow were much stronger.
Follow @RainbowHistoryClass to learn more about Queer history!
All these new words for gender and sexuality are made up and too confusing!
Yup - all words are made up. Nope - it may be new to some folks, but not too confusing to learn if it means LGBQT2SAI folks feel seen and included, especially when something simple like using someone’s correct pronouns has a direct link to suicide prevention.
Alok Menon points out that when folks are interested in motivated, they will learn the intricacies of complicated things like sports brackets and have deep opinions on vacuums, but there is empathy lacking when it comes to non-binary and trans people:
“You choose what your care about. It’s never been about comprehension. It’s been about compassion.”
Trans women aren’t women and trans men aren’t men.
Nope. Trans women are women and trans men are men.
At DWS whenever we say ‘women’ we are including trans women.
If someone is trying to make the argument that body parts (uterus, vulva, etc) or hormones are what make women, then they are reducing women to parts, which is what sexism often does.
Is a woman who has a uterus but doesn’t give birth a woman? Is a woman who has a hysterectomy still a woman?
Jeffery Marsh gets to the point:
Carol Hay dives deeper in the New York Times:
The current debates over trans women bring us back to the question of what set of core experiences supposedly make someone who was assigned female at birth a “real” woman. Is it menstruation or childbirth? Nope — lots of women don’t experience those, either by fate or by choice. What about being subject to sexual violence and harassment? Trans women face as much if not more sexual violence than cis women. How about simply a lifetime of unwanted objectifying male sexual attention? There are plenty of women who don’t meet the standards of superficial sexual attractiveness who do not get such attention, and some of them even long for it. And surely we don’t want to go back to the days of defining women by their hormones or even their chromosomes — if for no other reason than we’d leave out the estimated 1.7 percent of women who are intersex.
When a cis woman complains that trans women haven’t had the same experiences as “real” women-born-women, then, what she’s really saying is, “Trans women haven’t had the same experiences as women like me.” If 30-plus years of intersectional feminism has taught us anything, it’s that this is precisely the move that feminists need to stop making.
And Laura Baito has something to say too:
Including trans and Two Spirit folks will weaken the movement.
Feels unreal, but feminists in the 1970’s actively excluded lesbian women from their organizing
Quick story: In 1969, leader of the National Order of Women, Betty Friedan, called lesbians the ‘lavender menace’, “claiming that outspoken lesbians were a threat to the feminist movement, arguing that the presence of these women distracted from the goals of gaining economic and social equality for women.” Basically, Friedan was saying that it wasn’t worth it for NOW to piss of homophobes to include lesbians in their movement, an argument which would seem ridiculous today but is still happening in some spaces.
Queer women’s response to outright hatred from NOW leaderships was direct action:
The Lavender Menace was one of the groups created as backlash to this exclusion of lesbians. The group formed in 1970, with many members involved in the Gay Liberation Front and the National Organization for Women. The group, including Rita Mae Brown who resigned from a NOW staff job, disrupted the 1970 Second Congress to Unite Women, sponsored by NOW. The congress had excluded any lesbian rights issues from the agenda. The activists cut the lights at the conference, and when the lights came on they had shirts with the name "lavender menace" on them. They handed out a manifesto they called "the Woman-Identified Woman."
From ThoughtCo.com
Lots of ‘gender critical’ folks (a code-word for TERF - trans exclusionary radical feminist) claim that including trans and Two Spirit folks in our movements to end gender-based violence will distract from ending sexism. Sound familiar?
Intersectionality only makes us stronger.
AND LGBQT2SAI folks are overwhelmingly the targets of violence.
Image description: Text, “Until all of us have made it, none of us have made it.” - Rosemary Brown, first Black woman to run for the leadership of a federal political party on black and white picture of Rosemary, a dark skinned black woman with curly hair, smiling.
Welcoming trans, Two Spirit, and queer folks in our bathrooms/shelters is DANGEROUS!
Nope. Overwhelmingly, if we’re gonna talk about who perpetrates the majority of violent crime, it’s cisgender men.
Jackson Katz has a response to folks who claim that talking about men being the perpetrators of most violent crime as ‘male bashing’:
In fact, cutting-edge violence prevention work across the US and the world involves attempts to transform cultural definitions of masculinity that equate manhood with power, control, and dominance. To call this work "male-bashing" is to betray an ignorance, or utter lack of empathy with the realities of violence in the lives of boys and men including sexual violence at the hands of other men.
AGAIN! LGBQT2SAI folks are overwhelmingly the targets of violence.
Freaking out about public bathrooms also ignores that stranger danger is a myth. Most kids and women are harmed by someone they know and trust.
Still worried about bathrooms?
In the 21 states and more than 300 cities with LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections, there has been no increase in public safety incidents in restrooms.
Yukon’s Action Plan
For 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, Yukon gender justice groups have created 16 Calls to Action.
Implement the Government of Yukon’s LGBTQ2S+ Inclusion Action Plan, to ensure that people have access to public services free of discrimination, harassment, or violence, particularly in the area of healthcare and social services.
Although created in July 2021, there are still lots of the action plan that have not been implemented.
From the 16 Calls to Action:
One of the largest gaps having a direct and immediate impact on 2SLGBTQQIA+ Yukoners is in access to healthcare and social services. While the government committed to improving access and clearly communicating about affirming healthcare for Two-Spirit, trans and non-binary and intersex people, in reality access to that care has been plagued with delays and lack of communication.
Check out Queer Yukon’s website for more info on their advocacy for gender affirming care in the Yukon.
WHAT CAN YOU DO:
The 16 Calls to Action has some ways you can take action to support safety and liberation for Queer, Trans, and Two Spirit folks.
Call on the Yukon government to:
Improve access to Two-Spirit, Trans, and Non-Binary affirming healthcare;
Improve access to supportive mental health and wellness services for 2SLGBTQQIA+ Yukoners;
Provide comprehensive, ongoing training for all medical and administrative personnel in the territory on supporting 2SLGBTQQIA+ patients, with clear pathways for redress if patients experience discrimination or inappropriate behaviour;
Immediately remedy medical staffing shortages across the territory, particularly in rural communities, and ensure staff in all communities are competent to support 2SLGBTQQIA+ patients;
Implement Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) policies and encourage schools to support gender and sexuality alliances (GSAs) or similar clubs; and,
Commit to timelines for implementation of the above, as well as the remaining action items in the LGBTQ2+ Inclusion Action Plan, and regularly report on progress toward achieving these goals.
Next Steps
Daily actions to welcome LGBQT2SAI+ plus folks:
Image description: Infographic with text, “Gender: Socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions, and identities of girls, women, men, and gender-diverse people. Sex: Biological attributes of humans and animals, including physical features, chromosomes, gene expression, hormones, and anatomy.
PDF here - https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/documents/igh_s17_infographic_gender_sex-en.pdf
Follow, support, amplify, hire, and read Two Spirit, Trans, and Queer folks!
Learn more about LGBQT2SAI, history, struggles, and joy.
Learn the different between gender and sex.
From Canadian Institutes on Health Research:
”Sex' and 'gender' are often used interchangeably, despite having different meanings:Sex refers to a set of biological attributes in humans and animals. It is primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, gene expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy. Sex is usually categorized as female or male but there is variation in the biological attributes that comprise sex and how those attributes are expressed.
Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions and identities of girls, women, boys, men, and gender diverse people. It influences how people perceive themselves and each other, how they act and interact, and the distribution of power and resources in society. Gender identity is not confined to a binary (girl/woman, boy/man) nor is it static; it exists along a continuum and can change over time. There is considerable diversity in how individuals and groups understand, experience and express gender through the roles they take on, the expectations placed on them, relations with others and the complex ways that gender is institutionalized in society.”
Unlearn the gender binary and gender roles, and learn that there are more than two genders!
Learn and try your best to remember friends and acquaintances pronouns. Normalizing asking for and introducing yourself with your pronouns is one thing cis folks can do to create a slightly safer world for queer folks.
Cis folks! Be prepared to shut down transphobia, queer hatred, and colonialism when it comes up, even if there are no LGBQT2SAI+ folks around!
Shelters! Be prepared to welcome queer, trans, and Two Spirit folks. Women’s Shelters Canada has created Community of Practice: Supporting Trans Women in VAW Shelters and BC Society of Transition Houses has a whole lot of resources!