The founding father of a Nova Scotia-based trans advocacy group says Transgender Day of Remembrance is particularly vital this yr amid rising incidents of violence and hatred focusing on youth.
Veronica Merryfield, founding father of the Cape Breton Transgender Community, made the feedback in the present day as she participated in a ceremony to lift the trans flag outdoors the provincial legislature, marking the day of remembrance.
Merryfield says that previously two weeks she’s obtained requests for assist from 5 units of oldsters whose youngsters have just lately skilled transphobia at school — greater than she has ever obtained over such a brief interval.
She says transphobic rhetoric originating in the US has infiltrated Canada, and is obvious in school-based insurance policies reminiscent of New Brunswick’s Coverage 713 and Saskatchewan’s Mother and father’ Invoice of Rights.
Each insurance policies require college students to have parental consent to have the ability to use a most well-liked first identify or pronouns in school, guidelines LGBTQ advocates say are dangerous to trans college students.
Merryfield says that whereas Nova Scotia has not given any indication it could introduce the same coverage, transgender children within the province are at a excessive danger of experiencing transphobia and violence.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Nov. 20, 2023.
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