by Key Paul Straughan LATE GREAT MOVIES DOUBLE FEATURE (Opening in the style of Science Fiction /Double Feature) In the subterranean cellars all across cis suberbia, ( b-movie sci-fi, horror and camp, oh my) There were weirdos peering for a glimpse of queering across screens of the TV ah ( b-movie sci-fi, horror and camp, […]
Tag: trans
How do you solve a problem like misgendering?
To illustrate the daily erasure trans folx face in a world privileging cisgender norms, I offer my experience at the supposedly trans-positive Compass Community Clinic. Trans people are notoriously underserviced in healthcare care, with known disparities in trans and gender minorities’ ability to access healthcare (Scheim et al., 2017). Perceived discrimination in healthcare settings contributes […]
Social Justice Urnings in the United Church
Dear Right Reverend Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, I am writing to you as moderator and as the primary spokesperson and representative of the United Church to return two memorial urns I supposedly stole from a United Church in the Horseshoe Falls Regional Council. I am not sure if you will have use for these damaged items […]
Are you a trans?
Erasure of gender minority people is a defining characteristic cisgender systems operate, as they assume anyone outside the binary is impossible (Namaste, 2000). Since gender minorities are erased, when one turns up in real life, say at a doctor’s office, a social emergency occurs, usually resulting in a cascade of microaggressions to letting you know […]
ETFO: Transphobia is in the eye of the beholder
The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) needs Jesus; more specifically, they need to heed the savior’s story concerning kicking up dust about the speck in the other person’s eye, all the while having a plank in your own (Matthew 7:3-5). I had a come to Jesus moment when ETFO was supposedly addressing workplace transphobia, […]
Two transgender teachers too many to many?
To Whom it May Concern, I’m writing this open letter to thank you for allowing me ten minutes to delegate about my lived experience as trans person, my whistleblowing activities and the subsequent retaliatory investigation and actions by my employer for having done so. Trans and gender-diverse voices are not often heard or are usually […]
Workplace Whistleblower Protection
Today I peaked in terms of lifetime personal bravery and courage. I walked into the same building and sat in the same room where I was interrogated for over six hours on May 29, 2019, an experience that traumatized me so profoundly that I got PTSD. It went a little something like this… Thank you […]
The haunting pain of being a ghost person
When family members started calling me a ghost person, they may have been making fun of my physical appearance (white face, kohled eyes and red lips) and my pre-nineties channelling of goth in the eighties. At least they noticed my failure to perform gender and used the word “person”. It may also have been my […]