How America’s Anti-LGBTQ Hate Machine Threatens Canadians

Seth Compton woke up early one morning in July to a phone ringing furiously with a new message. A distant wave of hate was beginning to surge over the LGBTQ youth center he runs in North Bay, Ontario.

Flyers for the drag show held at the center were posted by Libs of Tik Tok, a homophobic and transphobic Twitter account with nearly 1.5 million followers. reportedly It is run by a real estate agent in New York.

more than a week later, Outloud North Bay The site, one of the few spaces dedicated to LGBTQ youth in northern Ontario, has received thousands of death threats and other hateful comments since its initial posting on Twitter, the site said. said Compton.

The reaction shocked him and frightened many of the 400 young people who used the colorful space on Delaware Avenue.

“One of my kids asked me if the windows were bulletproof,” said Compton. Since then, he has installed security cameras, digital keys are required to enter the center, and staff now carry panic buttons.

“This level of public hatred discourages people from coming out. It discourages people from feeling safe in their identities.”

Libs of Tik Tok is just one part of an ecosystem of social media accounts, think tanks, politicians and celebrities. These groups brought anti-LGBTQ hate back into the mainstream from the margins of American political life.

In the wake of the recent massacre in Drag Show in Colorado Springsmany LGBTQ advocates in the United States point to this cultivated hatred to argue that the shooting was not an isolated incident.

The anti-LGBTQ movement’s most prominent figures were unfazed after the shooting that left five dead.

In fact, just a day later, Libs of Tik Tok relaunched its attempt to ridicule LGBTQ people and bring attention to drug events, including one in Colorado.

The account did not respond to a request for comment from the CBC regarding this article.

Drug exercising is routinely chosen as part of an escalating multi-pronged attack on transgender rights, even if the exercising of drugs is gender-neutral.

So far this year, the U.S. has seen several standoffs with right-wing militia groups at drug events, bomb threats aimed at hospitals providing gender care, and the state capitol trying to roll back LGBTQ rights. There were hundreds of bills submitted.

And the level of hate directed at the LGBTQ community in the United States has reached levels that threaten the safety of Canadians, said a former senior intelligence official.

“The message from the United States, its volume, the fact that it is being amplified by hostile actors… [it] It could have implications for these communities here in Canada,” said Artur Wilczynski, who until recently was deputy director of Signals Intelligence at Canada’s crypto agency, the Communications Security Agency.

“And we need to be prepared to respond to that. We need to be able to do more than just talk about it.”

LGBTQ Rights in the United States

While many American social conservatives have long insisted on limiting the freedom of Americans to identify as LGBTQ, there has recently been a marked increase in legislative attempts to limit LGBTQ rights. increase.

Republican politicians, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who often create legislation to protect parental rights, say they are concerned about the sexualization of children.

However human rights campaignIt is one of the largest LGBTQ advocacy groups in the United States.

They say more than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures so far this year. Last year he introduced more than 200 bills. In 2018 he had 41 filings.

These bills typically include proposals to ban transgender students from playing on same-sex sports teams or to deny transgender students access to gender-affirming care.

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This surge in legislation coincides with an increase in violence against the LGBTQ community in the United States.

According to data compiled by ACLED, a non-partisan organization that tracks violence globally, anti-LGBTQ activism (including demonstrations, violence, and distribution of hateful material) will drop from 64 events in the United States in 2021. , which has increased to 193 events so far this year.

according to human rights campaignA record number of transgender or gender nonconforming people were killed in the United States in 2020, with at least 44 dead and at least 57 dead in 2021.

Right-wing media are also spending more time broadcasting conspiracy theories about transgender people, according to Angelo Carusone, director of the liberal-leaning media watchdog Media Matters.

Most common is the erroneous belief that children are “groomed” to adopt different genders in public schools and libraries, rehashing old tropes once directed at gay and lesbian communities. ing.

These concerns are often combined with complaints about educational efforts to address systemic anti-black racism.

“It started with a series of extremists using right-wing echo chambers to exaggerate attacks and oversaturate the landscape with these controversial school board illustrations,” Carusone said.

Imara Jones, founder of Transrush Media, a non-profit organization focused on transgender issues, said that the outbreak of anti-LGBTQ hate in the United States “carries malice from the dark corners of the internet into the legislature.” It explains that it is the result of “pipeline”.

Popular accounts like Libs of Tik Tok play a key role in this pipeline, amplifying conspiracy theories and drawing attention to LGBTQ events, Jones said.

Parallel to that process, conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the Family Policy Alliance are cleaning up the most extreme anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and helping Republican lawmakers legislate.

“What this means is that they are complicit in political power in a campaign of marginalization, dehumanization and hate.” anti-trans hate machine.

“And when those two merge, the stage is set for violence.”

When Allies ‘Step Up’: LGBTQ Youth Workers

There is a danger for Canada’s LGBTQ community when large US political institutions, such as the Republican Party, endorse policies that dehumanize gender and sexual minorities, Wilsinski said.

“People who are manipulated by messages that are constantly being amplified are likely to do those things,” he said.

He added that the rise of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the United States may not meet existing legal definitions of a national security threat, but constitutes a broader threat. .

“It leads to a series of threats to Canada’s social, cultural and political framework that sees us as an inclusive society,” Wirzynski said.

“So if there is an attack on that framework, it undermines the fabric of our society. To me, it is a kind of national security threat.”

The tactics used against the LGBTQ community in the US are already widespread in Canada.

Earlier this year, Libraries nationwide I was targeted with harassment and intimidation for hosting a Drug Storytime event.

On Thursday, police monitored a noisy protest outside as a drag performer read to children inside a library in Hamilton, Ontario.

A high school in Oakville, Ontario, has been the target of bomb threats three times this month after conservative media circulated images of teachers appearing to wear large breast implants to classes.

According to media reports, at least one of the threats referred to school dress codes accommodating transgender students and teachers.

Compton said the instances of anti-LGBTQ hate in both Canada and the United States should serve as a reminder that communities remain vulnerable despite increasing visibility.

“It’s really important that allies step up and do their job,” he said. “As allies, you can’t just celebrate pride with us in June. We need to work 365 days a year.”