Speech for IDAHT Flag Raisings Across Durham Region

Last Flag Raising in Clarington @ 3pm

Introduction

Good morning, my name is Stacey Vetzal and I am the Vice President of PFLAG Canada Durham Region. I am so excited to see all of you here today.

This flag represents so many things to so many people. I am honoured to be standing here in front of all of you on this International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia to raise this flag, and make our communities visible.

About International Day against Homophobia

While the laws in Ontario say that we must not discriminate against our LGBTQ communities, I am sad to say that this sentiment is still not universal in our day to day lives, and won’t be until we have wiped out homophobia and transphobia.

As a step towards world-wide change, this day is known as International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, to bring to mind the struggle we face in bringing equality to all people, no matter their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

We still live in a world where many people are unable to live their authentic lives, hiding their sexual orientation and gender identities, wearing a mask and role-playing to protect themselves from family, friends, and discrimination in the workplace.

We are here, and we raise this flag, because we believe it is time for this struggle to end.

This day is not just another day to highlight the struggle this community faces, but it is also a celebration for how far we have come, especially as a community.

Today is all about hoping for an inclusive world.

Staying silent in the presence of homophobia and transphobia means being an accomplice, complicit. It should be denounced each and every time we witness it. It is our personal, social, and civic responsibility to do so.

Today we make this flag visible, and give hope for all those in our community who are unable to be visible themselves.

Conclusion

I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you for coming today and showing your support for inspiring change. We have come a long way and this wouldn’t be possible without all of you.

And on behalf of our community, I ask you all to make an active choice and make every day a day against homophobia and transphobia.

Journalism

This post came across my feed this morning:

http://www.shakesville.com/2014/01/careless-cruel-and-unaccountable.html

It calls an article "Careless Cruel and Unaccountable" in its exposure of a trans-woman, living in stealth, who invented a new and unconventional golf putter.

Naturally, I had to read the article for myself.

http://grantland.com/features/a-mysterious-physicist-golf-club-dr-v/

The original article starts off reading like an interesting piece of investigative journalism. Then, the author mechanically picks apart a trans woman's desperate attempt at keeping her privacy and dignity intact and outs her to the world, in the name of the same spirit of investigative journalism. I felt a tangible drop and sickening in my stomach when the line was crossed in the story.

When you just want to live your life, free of the animosity, bigotry, hatred, and fear that the general public can have for a trans woman, you have little choice but to go "stealth". To abandon everything you once were, everyone you loved and who loved you, your entire history, to become who you desperately need to be, because not doing so means your life is not worth living.

In fact, I'm not sure it's even been 10 years since THIS WAS THE EXPECTED COURSE OF ACTION OF A TRANSGENDER PERSON IN ORDER TO RECEIVE MEDICAL TREATMENT.

OK, the inhumanity of all that aside, let's look at this from a practical standpoint.

It is impossible to truly achieve stealth.

Every step of your life, your identity is documented. School records. Work records. Accomplishments. All of them have your name attached, some your birth sex, and few if any organizations are willing to audit their records to reflect your new corrected information.

Recently, a friend of mine experienced the epitome of this. She had completed sex reassignment surgery, and went to have her birth certificate corrected to reflect her actual gender rather than the birth defect that was visible prompting the doctor to declare her male. When she filled out the government forms for change of gender, attached her signed affidavits from the surgeon regarding her corrected body, she got back a photocopy where they had literally taken a pen and crossed out the original information and wrote in the change.

This was her birth certificate. That piece of documentation she needed to produce to obtain insignificant things like a Passport.

How difficult would it have been for them to simply fill in a new form with the corrected information, and preserve her dignity?

Thus is the life of a trans person. Dealing with disclosure every single time we deal with institutions. "Umm, yes, don't pay attention to that, just please make sure my passport says 'F'."

The problem that the trans community has with this article is with the fact that this particular "mystery" is one that ethically SHOULD NOT BE unravelled. It is one that de-humanizes a person. Turns the truth into what appears to be a fabrication.

WHEN, IN FACT, THE FABRICATION WAS THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENTATION.

Indeed Dr. V. saw this coming, and that was her original wish.

The story and tragedy of Dr. V. should remain a mystery, to preserve her dignity and humanity.