It’s Transgender Awareness week, in addition to being Post-Election-Hate-Crime-Hyper-Awareness week. I’ve decided that during this month of posting, I’m also going to keep my eye out for Proof of Humanity, i.e. when people do stuff that shows their compassion for other people, in spite of the forces that seem determined to quash tenderness among Earthlings.
Today I was fortunate to attend the Level 2 workshop offered by Egale Canada Human Rights Trust (of which I attended Level 1 last year). Again, some amazing discussion happened. It was calming (though emotional) to be in a room full of educators doing their sincere best to learn to be better allies and/or advocates.
I’m going to share a few things we saw and discussed today, in brief only. Being in Level 2, we got to go a bit deeper on certain topics, including non-binary gender identity. This brief TED talk, by a brilliant Canadian named Ivan Coyote, is so direct, so simple and beautiful, and so sad. It made many of us cry today – but more importantly, it made us think and care.
Then there’s this charming person with a smiley, loving take on LGBTQ+ labels that you know belies the painful struggles in their past.
Then, for all of us who are sick and tired of monolithic gendered toy aisles at the store, a rant from a very small person who feels the same way.
Finally, I am fiercely collecting the bits of proof that diverse, progressive people are going to continue to care about each other instead of fearing each other, despite global pressure to freak out and reject all kinds of otherness. I loved this quote from Stephen Marche in The Walrus last week, regarding Canada’s status as “the last country on earth to believe in multiculturalism”:
Canada’s relative position of strength—if that’s how you can describe not being overwhelmed by loathing for others—should not render us complacent. Quite the opposite. Right now, while we are not in the darkness, we must make multiculturalism work. We must make it work better and we must make it work for everyone.
The story making the rounds today about the multicultural kindness-fest for a guy on the Toronto subway just fits the bill perfectly at this moment.
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Good stuff! Caring folks. Riley reminds me of AB in her firm opinions and strong intent to convey them to others.
I had that same thought! And the tone, too.
Wow, so many good links! Thanks. And wow, great that you got to go to that workshop. Is it something that everyone in education gets to do, or is it only if you’re interested? It seems like something that is really important to get educators educated about…that story about the little girl in Ivan’s talk is so sad; she didn’t have anyone on her side, even those who were supposedly her guardians in that place.
I know – that’s when we mostly cried. Even the straight, cisgender men in the room. The Level 1 training was something (I think) any interested teacher could do, as long as there was space – and they offer them at least once a year. I had to check with the organizers to see if I could attend, because there were already two people from my school going – most of the people there were the equity rep for their school, and space is limited.
As you know, G trick or treated one day in his Elsa dress. Not one single person said anything bad, I didn’t notice any mean looks and a number of people (all moms) commented on how much they loved his dress. It was heartwarming.
That warms my heart too! And really, how could anyone not love that sight? I saw at least one little princess-boy at our kindergarten Halloween parade too… They’re my favourites. <3 <3 <3