This fight is bigger than political grievances between those who fancy themselves leftists versus anyone who falls to their right on the political spectrum.
A crowd of more than 300, plus approximately 40 protestors, gathered on April 10 at the Vancouver Art Gallery for a rally against the medical gender transition of youth. The rally was also meant to support a BC father–whose name is under a publication ban–who was jailed in relation to defying court orders to stay silent about the medical transition of his own child.
Speakers included People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, ex-Conservative member of parliament Derek Sloan, lawyer Lisa Bildy from the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, and others, myself included.
Before the rally, the City of Vancouver issued a statement that it could not stop the gathering because "[i]n accordance with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the City cannot prevent people from assembling on public property for exercising their right to freedom of expression. We want to be clear that we do not issue permits for any rallies or protests," they wrote.
Protestors set off smoke bombs, threw eggs into the crowd, yelled in megaphones, drove around the block honking, and danced–one woman topless. An attendee said that one protestor called a female journalist covering the event a "cunt" and then "dropped her pants and flicked her tampon string at us." Despite minor disruptions, the event and speakers carried on as scheduled.
Below is a copy of the speech I shared:
I want to preface my talk by making it clear just how important I believe it is that anyone who cares about the issue of gender identity ideology works to build non-partisan connections. This fight is too important to not band together with those who see eye-to-eye on this issue.
I'm here as a feminist and as a parent—as well as someone who cares about truth, reality, and the well-being of our children and youth. It doesn't matter if I disagree with the other speakers on other issues or not; we are all here to talk about the medicalization of youth by the cult of gender.
There are not enough of us standing up and speaking out about this issue—so it's critical that those of us who are learn how to work together. This fight is bigger than political grievances between those who fancy themselves leftists versus anyone who falls to their right on the political spectrum. This is about the mental health and bodily integrity of children and youth who are being given unproven, harmful medical treatments that most are not capable of consenting to. It is about lies and regressive gender stereotypes being taught to our children – under the guise of progressivism and inclusivity—in BC's public schools.
My goal today is to reach people who don't know why gender identity ideology is harmful and regressive. I want those whose initial reaction would be to dismiss all of us speakers as bigots to do a double take; I want them to mentally take a pause from trying to be "inclusive" or "progressive" and to just really listen to the arguments—and to their gut feelings, which, in my experience, tend to tip off a lot of people when they start to hear the nitty gritty about what gender identity actually is, and what happens to gender non-conforming youth when we embrace an ideology that says children can be born in the wrong body.
How can anything but harm occur to children and youth when we—as adults—tell them that the bodies they were born with are wrong? And that they need puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries to be their true selves? The alternative is to allow children to be gender non-conforming without suggesting that this indicates there is something wrong with them.
I urge Canadians to look to England, where a scandal at The Tavistock Centre—a gender identity clinic—emerged over more than a year—starting with whistleblowing clinicians and culminating in a court ruling at the end of 2020 that said that youth under the age of 16 cannot consent to the quote "innovative and experimental" use of puberty blocking drugs. A brave young woman named Keira Bell, who detransitioned, was one of the claimants in this winning lawsuit against England's National Health Service. Make no mistake, the same medical scandal is happening right now in Canada. And there will be a reckoning here, too.
I also urge Canadians to consider evidence that increasing numbers of youth, especially young females, many lesbian and autistic, are developing Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria and identifying as transgender in relation to social media usage and peer contagion. The initial research of professor and physician Lisa Littman raised this alarm bell—and unsurprisingly, trans activists have done all they can to discredit her and her work.
One well-meaning parent once told me that her generation experimented with drugs and sex, while her children's generation experiments with their gender identity. She's only half right—partly because there were gender non-conforming icons like Prince and Boy George in her generation—though they never claimed to not be men—and partly because today's youth who are experimenting with gender identity are also experimenting with drugs. Or rather, they are being experimented upon. They are taking hormone blockers and cross sex hormones that have myriad harmful side effects, including lifelong infertility. But with today's youth, we can only blame ourselves for the harm these drugs will cause. Parents need to fight this.
In our public schools, BC's SOGI 123 education is indoctrinating children into regressive gender stereotypes beginning in kindergarten.
One such SOGI lesson, aimed for kids from kindergarten through grade two, teaches the children that a boy in their class who likes dresses is in fact a girl. The children are asked how they feel about this student's parents continuing to refer to him as a boy when he is at home after school hours. That the public-school system is concerning itself with the ideological compliance of parents in their homes should send chills down your spine. This lesson provides a "possible teacher response" that reads "When babies are born, doctors and parents usually decide if the baby is a boy or girl." You cannot get much more anti-science than this. Babies are male or female. We don't get to decide on their behalf.
Another SOGI lesson on gender identity suggests the teacher asks children "What if I don't feel the way I look?" And the provided examples include "What if a boy wanted to join a dance class or play with barbies? What if a girl wanted to join hockey or play with trucks?"
This is the essence of gender identity ideology. It is sex stereotypes on steroids—sometimes literally. We are teaching children that their hobbies, likes, and dislikes either match their physical bodies or do not. We are teaching them to adhere to pink and blue stereotypes; we are telling them there is a "mismatch" if they do not like the toys or activities traditionally associated with their sex. This is not progressive. This is backwards.
I do not want my two sons exposed to an ideology that would tell them that if they wanted to wear pink, or dance ballet, that their body and their mind are not in alignment. Instead, I want my sons to know that I will love and support them no matter how they look; how they dress; how they love; or what they want to do. They were not born in the wrong body. They were born in their own bodies and they are absolutely perfect.
Parents, please band together. Feminists, please continue to speak out. Build connections across the political aisle. We need every single voice; we need all of you.
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