Columnists
Sweet transvestite
The Rocky Horror Show just finished a four-night run in Picton—a town of 4,000 in rural Ontario— with great reception from its local audiences. Of course, the show and its film adaptation are silly, campy fun, and it’s that, along with the movie’s cult following, that drew people to the Regent. But beyond that, the acceptance of a show about a sweet transsexual, and the kudos given to the man who portrayed him in this rural performance, echoes a slow but necessary change that’s underway in our society.
Transgender issues have been coming to the fore recently. In pop culture, trans actors have been cast in trans roles, an entire television series has been created around its creator’s very real experience with a transgender parent, and a former star sports figure has publicly transitioned into a woman.
In the US, conservative politicians in several states have been receiving criticism and outrage for what have been dubbed bathroom bills— using baseless, accusatory arguments about potential threats to discriminate against trans people.
In Canada, a bill was tabled yesterday—symbolically on International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia—to include the rights of transgender people in the Canadian Human Rights Act.
This isn’t new. It was tabled once before and passed in the House of Commons, during the Conservative government reign, in 2011. But private member’s bill C-389 died when parliament was dissolved for an election.
But it seems the meeting of politics and culture has developed a more hospitable environment for legislative movement on gender identity as a human right.
Even conservatives are coming around, with Dufferin-Caledon MP David Tilson going on record to say that despite voting against previous bills, he would support this one. To him, trans rights is a new issue that just required some getting used to.
But it’s not a new issue. Trans people have been around since prehistory. Advances in medical and social rights have come in fits and starts for centuries, pushed back by transphobia.
The Stonewall Riots in New York City in 1969, considered one of the most important moments in the modern fight for LGBT rights, included notable contributions from the trans community that were later suppressed by both mainstream and gay culture.
Even within the LGBT community, there has been a long history of trans people being discriminated and suppressed. This is a group of people who have fought long and hard and even alongside those who should have been their greatest allies for decades to get to this point.
And of course, nothing’s perfect. Canada is just one country. And within it, people are still discriminated against because of their gender identity. There’s a long way to go toward mainstream acceptance. But perhaps the fact that rural Ontario can embrace a sweet transvestite (and read about trans rights in one of its local paper) is a good start.
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