Standing strong

Community responds to hurtful ad in Times

Over a hundred people took part in protest rally at Wellington Park on Sunday after a hurtful and divisive advertisement was published in the March 10 edition of the Times. Couched in the language of women’s rights, the ad was an attack on transgender people, and there was much anger directed at the newspaper on social media. Two Letters to the Editor were published last week, and editor and publisher Corey Engelsdorfer offered an apology for printing the ad, and will also provide two pages in a future edition to the community most affected by the advertisement so that their voices can be heard. In a display of community resilience, there was no anger expressed at the rally. Instead, the organizers used it as a call for this to be a learning experience, so that the community could heal from this rift and then move forward together. The mood at the protest was buoyant, and there was an unyielding determination to ensure that the hard-won rights of the transgender community remain inviolate. Organizer Erin LaChance spoke at the beginning of the rally. “We are here to share our stories, and we’re here to share our love and make some change. I have learned so much, I’m still learning from all of my people—the trans people, the straight people, the gay people. There’s so much learning to be done here today, and I think that’s the best part of it. If we all educate ourselves, we can all know how to handle these situations calmly,” she said. “I’m so happy that you’re here. We’re here to heal, we’re here to love. We’ve definitely had heartbreak the last few days, so we’re just here to grow and move forward together.”

She said there are resources available for the LGBTQ community, including TRANSforumQuinte based in Belleville and DiscoverYouth, a drop-in centre for County youth that is operated out of the Picton Library. She added there is a new fundraising initiative with the goal of obtaining a dedicated space for DiscoverYouth.

Erin LaChance is one of the organizers of the rally and saw the event as a means to educate the wider community and stand strong for transgender rights.

Wellington resident Rihanna Harris, who is a Grade Six student at PECI, also spoke to the people attending the rally, welcoming them to her hometown. “Thank you for coming today to continue to work on making our community an inclusive one. Prince Edward County is a place where people come together to help each other, to live in harmony with each other, and we come together to inspire each other,” she said. “We need to continue to speak up. When we come together anything is possible, and we are stronger. We need to learn from this and go home today thinking about this experience as one full of hope and promise. I’m excited to think about the opportunity and lessons we are setting by our example today. This will only inspire our next generation.”

The people attending the rally came from all walks of life, illustrating the broad support for this cause. Sarah is a small business owner in the County and also works for the provincial government, where she has the role of being a positive space champion. “I have long been involved with the power of words and the power of perception and I was disturbed by the ad that I read in its disguise as women’s rights without giving validation to the legal definition in Canada of women, whether it’s trans women, non-binary women, cis-gender women. And when I heard about the gathering today I was delighted at the strength of the community. There’s no place for discriminating against other people. It’s absolutely unacceptable, and it’s against the law.”

Erin LaChance said the advertisement in the paper was the latest in a series of attempts by the group to spread their message. “They’ve been trying to promote what we call hate speech, but they’re disguising themselves as a women’s lib group. When one of their ads was run in our community paper, the Times, that spread very quickly and made us feel very hurt, confused and scared, because it is such a strong message to put something like that in your local newspaper. We just didn’t understand where that came from. So we thought, let’s get together and talk about this. You can call it a protest, if you will, but really I think it’s just the community gathering to educate each other and heal through this.” She was grateful the strong turnout and the level of support. “This is more than I could have expected. I’m really overwhelmed with the show of support. We won’t stand for hate speech in our town. This is 2021 and we can’t allow that kind of advertising to run in our local paper ever again. We’ll just keep fighting the good fight with our hearts on our sleeves. We’re here to show love in our community, and I’m so proud of everyone.”