The president of Timmins Fierte Pride is asking people to speak up.
In Matthieu Villeneuve’s speech to honour Transgender Day of Remembrance in Timmins, he asked all allies to call out discrimination and prejudice toward their trans sisters and brothers.
“We are asking you to use your privilege as a megaphone for those who are too often silenced. Don’t let transphobia slide when you hear it, confront it,” he said.
About 40 people holding signs and flags braved the cold to stand out front of city hall for the brief ceremony.
In his last official duty as mayor, Steve Black proclaimed Transgender Day of Remembrance in the city and helped raise an awareness flag at city hall.
“Today is basically to honour the fact that a lot of transgender people are bullied, a lot of them due to the stigma in the society. They often go towards self-harm and towards suicide, so it’s a day to just honour the fact that those who are still here are still standing and we stand to be able to hopefully move the issues a little bit further,” said Villeneuve after the flag-raising.
Villeneuve was ecstatic to have members of the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) groups from Timmins High and Roland Michener at the event.
“Every year they seem to get bigger and bigger, which is absolutely phenomenal, because I know there’s a lot of schools that don’t have GSAs and to have two that are quite strong and work together is just absolutely phenomenal,” he said.
Over the weekend, the Progressive Conservatives put forward a resolution to debate recognizing gender identity in the upcoming revamped sex-ed curriculum.
Since then, Premier Doug Ford has said that he would not move forward with that resolution.
Villeneuve said it’s “absolutely disgusting” that it’s on the table.
“We often have to just keep trucking even though everything is working against us and the fact of somebody being transgendered or not is really not anybody’s business other than that person’s. I don’t see how this is even an issue, to be perfectly honest. I don’t see why we need to fight so hard for people to just be themselves, it’s insane,” he said.
- With files from Canadian Press
