Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

KAMLOOPS PRIDE

How to be a better ally on International Trans Day of Visibility

Mar 31, 2021 | 3:31 PM

KAMLOOPS — March 31 is International Trans Day of Visibility. It’s an opportunity to celebrate transgender rights and inform folks about gender identity, as well the discrimination trans people face throughout the world.

CFJC Today spoke with two members of the Kamloops Pride board this week, about what it means to be trans or gender fluid, and how people can be good allies to the trans folx in their life.

A Stats Canada survey conducted in 2018 found that around 0.24 percent of Canadians identified as transgender. That’s around 75,000 Canadians, a significant number.

“I’m sure most Kamloopsians have interacted with a trans person, being completely unaware of the fact they interacted with a trans person,” Kamloops Pride President Katelyn Boughton explains.

Question of the Week

Do you think a minority government could be a positive for British Columbia?

Oct 21, 2024

Week in Review

Week in Review: Week of Oct. 14

Oct 20, 2024

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: The mind doesn't always listen

Oct 20, 2024

According to Boughton, visibility is important when it comes to acceptance, both from others and yourself.

“I knew I was different. I didn’t know how to express I was different,” Boughton says. “I had no visibility in the media. The only time I saw a trans person in the media, it was usually as the punchline of a joke.”

Strides have been made in that area. However, that same StatsCan survey found that transgender Canadians were more likely than their non-trans counterparts to experience “violent victimization and unwanted sexual behaviours.” That’s just one reason it’s important to be an ally to the trans people you know.

“I like to describe allyship as an action word,” Ashton O’Brien, VP of Kamloops Pride explains. “For you to be a good ally, you should be actively advocating and supporting people who are in a minority position.”

There are often questions that cisgender people have for trans people. However, it can be unfair to place the entire burden of educating those people on trans folx. That’s where organizations like Kamloops Pride can help.

“We’re a safe space to ask these questions. We want to educate,” O’Brien says. “Even as members of the community we know that it’s hard to learn, and you don’t know what you don’t know. Just have an open mind and be able to listen to people’s experiences.”

According to Boughton, a little empathy can go a long way for cisgender people who are working to be allies.

“You won’t ever actually truly understand what it is to be trans. That doesn’t mean you can’t have empathy,” Boughton says. “Every human being has an internal sense of who they are as an individual. Ours is just slightly different than yours, or an extra step than the average person.”

While Trans Day of Visibility is a great day to start that education, every day is good for us to have a little more empathy.