The Geography of the Issue:
Trans rights are human rights, or at least they should be. It's sad how people get thrown aside and treated as lesser people because of who they are, who they can't stop from being. This issue is DEFINETLY on a global scale, for obvious reasons. Of course, every country is different and some are further along than others in the protection and acceptance of their fellow citizens. In some contries such as Russia, strict laws are put against LGBT people, with zero tolerance being the norm. Trans people are not allowed to marry and outside LGBT couples can't even adopt Russian kids. Below is a chart stating what people thought of on the topic of LGBT relationships in various countries.
Canada's Responsibility:
Even though it is DEFINITELY not exclusive to Canada, our proud nation has a big part in the world and we need to enlighten our country on the matter. Although no laws are in place against the gender-related side of the LGBT community, and actually PROTECT the rights of those people, we fail to educate our youth thoroughly on this topic, and there are more than enough transphobic people out there (and anyone who discriminates against any form of non-binary identification). Canada needs to step up to the plate and be a front runner in LGBT acceptance, and maybe our lowering scoring neighbor, Uncle Sam, may follow suit. Recently, Canada passed a huge milestone in its involvement in relation to trans and other non-binary people, specifically in our prison system. From now on, inmates in Ontario will all be housed according to their personal, self gender identification, not based on their physical sex.They also will be referred to using the correct pronouns and name that they choose. This however, is a small step, but one in the right direction. If this was applied to all citizens of Canada, the world would hopefully follow, and we could live free.READ MORE HERE
I agree with you that Canada is much better when dealing with transphobia when compared to the states (even though neither country has laws specifically put in place to protect trans people). What really sucks though is that Although Canada as a whole is pretty good with this, PEI is actually veeeery close minded. I guess you could say that a lot of the population can be pretty stuck in their ways, and that's a hard thing for them to get out of. Overall, very good post! You have a good way of digging through the negative parts of this topic (such as transphobia) and also touching on some of the positive aspects of it!
ReplyDeleteThat is one of the most disappointing parts of PEI because it's so small people don't get the exposure that they really need. This is when education could come in handy. It could give the people willing to learn and change the chance. I agree with Carly completely; props to Cole for searching through all the negativity and finding positives to share alongside the negatives
DeleteThat is one of the most disappointing parts of PEI because it's so small people don't get the exposure that they really need. This is when education could come in handy. It could give the people willing to learn and change the chance. I agree with Carly completely; props to Cole for searching through all the negativity and finding positives to share alongside the negatives
DeleteThat is one of the huge downsides to living in such a small place. Although we may not see much outward negativity in our media (such as our newspapers), there's also not much, if any, representation of transgender people. One of the upsides is that because there is not many people, information gets around much quicker, giving the opportunity for blogs like this to educate people. Good comment Carly and great post Cole!
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