Our Neighbors To The North.

Are seeing the antt-LGBTQ movement move north.

As Pride flags are once again targeted, 2SLGBTQ advocates say it's as important as ever to fly them

Debates happening amid a rise in divisive rhetoric against 2SLGBTQ rights

CBC News

By Nick Logan

May 11, 2023

After the southwestern Ontario township of Norwich made a controversial decision last month to no longer fly the Progress Pride flag on municipal property, it didn't take long after for people to start emailing Kim Huffman, a councillor in neighbouring Norfolk county, calling for a similar move.

It may have only been a small number of messages, but she's making it clear she has no intention of following Norwich's lead.

"Don't bother wasting your time asking me to put any kind of motion forward or to have any kind of discussion regarding the Pride flag in Norfolk County," she told CBC News. In her first term, Huffman said, she was the councillor responsible for getting the county to raise the Pride flag at its administrative building in the first place. 

Huffman says she wants her community and others, especially in rural areas, to show they are inclusive — especially for younger people who may not see the same degree of visibility and allyship that exists in large cities for two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (2SLGBTQ) people.

[…]

There have also been reports across Canada of 2SLGBTQ and transgender flags being stolen, damaged and even burned.

The violence is spreading north.

Raising a Pride flag is "a recognition that not only do we exist, but we have the right to exist," said Wilson, a professor in the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan, where she teaches a course called Queering Our Classrooms and Communities, among others, and she is the co-chair of the organization 2Spirit Manitoba. 

But not everyone thinks that way…

Progress on 2SLGBTQ rights hasn't always been linear, said Robin Metcalfe, a long-time 2SLGBTQ rights activist based in Sheet Harbour, N.S., where he is also involved in organizing the seaside community's Pride activities.

"In recent years, trans people in particular have been in the front line of fighting for their rights, and it's been a very hard fight," Metcalfe said. 

[…]

That has contributed to anti-2SLGBTQ discourse throughout the U.S. but also in Canada because "we're part of the same larger cultural zone," said Metcalfe.

"Right-wing forces and very homophobic and sexist and racist forces are feeling more empowered to speak right now and more entitled and probably feeling somewhat threatened because the order [of privilege] is changing," he said.

We are seeing this pushback in fascist countries like Russia and Hungary.

Raising a Pride flag, she said, is both an opportunity for people to learn about and acknowledge the history of marginalized groups, as well as their current challenges, and to help rectify some of the past. 

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I should be arriving at the cottage about now, I want to check on the kitchen remodeling, i haven't heard from them in awhile.