Posted on 11/30/2023 10:22:13 AM PST by jerod
Canada has long been seen as a safe haven. Now, that’s changing
Aden Polydoros spent more than a decade living in Arizona as a transgender man until, he says, a transphobic experience in the summer of 2022 prompted him to move to Canada.
He moved to Vancouver this April. He says he's lucky. As an author, it was easy to take his work with him. He also started studying screenwriting as he hopes to write for movies some day.
Polydoros, 27, says he feels safer in Canada. But nationwide protests in September over LGBTQ-inclusive school policies disturbed him.
Many demonstrations were held under the same name, "1 Million March 4 Kids." Organizers say children should not be taught about LGBTQ identities in school, which they say amounts to the "indoctrination and sexualization" of children.
The transgender community and its allies reject this accusation, arguing that education helps LGBTQ children describe and understand themselves, and know they are not alone.
They see allegations of "indoctrination" as thinly veiled transphobia, in part because they echo homophobic arguments used in past decades against lesbians and gay men.
"I thought I wasn't going to encounter [transphobia] here," Polydoros said. "I guess I was a bit naive."
He's not the only one to have second thoughts. Activist Erin Reed, who tracks anti-transgender legislation in the U.S., says hundreds of state-level bills targeting trans people have forced some people to consider moving to friendlier states. And, now, with restrictive national legislation being tabled on topics like gender-affirming care, transgender people in the military and teaching about gender identity in schools, Reed says more Americans may look for refuge abroad.
Canada has long been seen, by many on the American left, as more progressive, for reasons including its earlier legalization of gay marriage. "Moving to Canada" was a common joke for some — a supposedly serious but largely unfulfilled vow for others — during the presidency of George W. Bush.
"Until this point, the anti-trans panic had seemed like it had not reached Canada," Reed said. "Now that, of course, has changed."....
People just got fed up.
“I thought I wasn’t going to encounter [transphobia] here,” Polydoros said. “I guess I was a bit naive.”
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He found out that there are normal people all over the world except for the moslem world but he and his perversion wouldn’t fare well there for sure.
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