Login / RegisterPhotos: Genderqueer march in Vancouver shows that trans people still have a way to go to gain acceptance
No matter how you look at it, the annual Vancouver Pride parade on Sunday (August 5) can only be characterized as a fairly mainstream affair.
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We'll see scores of politicians, police officers, community leaders, families, and lots of corporate and union representation. It will be a sign of how much progress gays and lesbians have made over the past four decades in Vancouver.
Tonight's Trans and Genderqueer March, on the other hand, remains on the cutting edge.
That's because the prevailing view of gender as an either-or situation based on a person's born anatomy remains deeply embedded in western society—despite all the evidence to the contrary.
More than 150 people gathered at Emery Barnes Park early this evening for a march designed to challenge old notions about gender and advance the human rights of the trans community. As it's an overtly political event, many held signs, some of which were highly educational.
Participants in the Trans and Genderqueer March leave Emery Barnes Park.
They flooded onto Seymour Street, turned left up Helmcken Street, and headed to Nelson Park. I didn't spot a single politician in the crowd.
Anyone who walked among the throng would have quickly dispensed with any definition of gender as an anatomically determined binary proposition.
That's because there's a lot more fluidity to gender than many people are prepared to admit.
Perhaps one day, the ideas advanced by people in the Trans and Genderqueer March won't seem so far out of the mainstream. A sign of progress will come when they're joined by the same types of people who are so eager to participate in the Vancouver Pride parade.
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Many argue that Pride as we know it today started out as a Gay protest march but look at it now.
The difference is that there were a lot more Gay men and women who participated than Trans* men and women did today.
I couldn't make it to D/T core, in rush hour Friday traffic after work, by 5:00pm. It's hard enough trying to keep a job when you are struggling with GID, even if you are not "out" to your employer.
I understand it's a protest but it would be more beneficial to hold it on a Saturday or Sunday and maybe make it a bit less "militant".
I would love to help make it an actual FAMILY FRIENDLY, NO NUDITY, NON SEXUALIZED, "G"-"PG" rated, popular Trans* Pride Parade/Festival in the very near future.
Why do we have to coincide the march during Pride week anyways?
It makes us look like miserable old farts in the middle of a dance party, which makes many people ignore us and not be aware of why we are even marching.
Just my thoughts on something that I would LUV to be a part of but can't.
Timing - throughout North America, it is becoming a fairly standard Pride Weekend practice to see a Trans/GQ march on Friday, a Dyke March Saturday, and a Pride Parade on Sunday. 5:00 PM isn't the most convenient time for people who have 9-5 day jobs, for sure, but nearly all employers allow people to schedule time off if you give them enough notice. My understanding is that the march will be at 5pm Friday going forward.
Less Militant - You mentioned that it is hard to keep a job when you are struggling with GID. Personally, I don't believe that having a non-conforming gender identity is a disorder at all... I think that it is a beautiful and rich part of a person's make up, which makes us, collectively, a beautiful and rich addition to the fabric of society - not a collection of people with disorders. In a city that is proud of it's diversity, it's a travesty that your gender makes it difficult for you to keep your job, or for others to get past the first glance at an interview table. There are those among us who are working non-confrontational channels to try to change that, but many of us as well who are simply fed up with being treated differently, and who really, really want to exercise their freedom to express themselves in a public space.
Family Friendly/No Nudity/Non-Sexualized/PG - The way to do this is to remove swear words and non-clinical references to genitalia... in one view, this turns the "march" into a "parade/festival", which would be more palatable to people who would frown and turn away from us because we are being indelicate. In another view, we would be censoring our outrage and conforming to the same social pressures that tell us that it's inappropriate for us to stray outside of our neat and tidy gender cages. While there are those among us who are more comfortable expressing our need for rights in a genteel fashion, the truth is that the way we are being treated is far more obscene than a swear word or a pair of breasts.
Why During Pride? - For most marchers, the purpose of the march is to highlight the need for trans/GQ rights and equality... this is what Pride season is all about! Before Pride was a celebratory parade, it was an equal rights march. At times, it still is one. I feel that the trans/GQ community is still discriminated against heavily - even within the LGB community. It's harder for us to get and keep jobs. It's harder for us to find housing. Healthcare for us is an abomination, and we are often discriminated against by doctors who are ignorant of gender issues, or who still believe we need to be "corrected" in some way. Most of the marchers were not marching "against Pride" - they were marching to help the celebratory gay and lesbian communities understand that gender variant people of all sexual preferences are still struggling for freedom and equality. That we're not able to celebrate yet.
I hope that you can join us next year - or march with us during Pride on Sunday (the Trans Alliance Society will be toward the front - I'm not certain what other trans groups are represented in the parade this year).
Watch the video that I took. I counted the number of people who passed by my camera leaving Emery Barnes Park and it was just over 150. You can do it yourself.
Some of them obviously didn't stay in the march all the way to Nelson Park. But there were 150 at the outset.
Charlie Smith