Transgender Awareness Week 2022
Image description: Digital banner with text, ‘Transgender Awareness Week’ on blue and pink background with leaves.
Transgender Awareness Week is November 13 to 19.
From GLAAD:
Transgender Awareness Week is a week when transgender people and their allies take action to bring attention to the community by educating the public about who transgender people are, sharing stories and experiences, and advancing advocacy around issues of prejudice, discrimination, and violence that affect the transgender community.
TAW in Yukon
Some important Transgender Awareness Week highlights all coming from Queer Yukon (check out QY’s website, instagram, twitter, and facebook!)
Welcome to Trans Awareness Week with Mira from Queer Yukon:
“You should be aware of us by now.”
Gender Affirming Care for Two Spirit, Trans, Non Binary, and Intersex People in the Yukon
QYS [Queer Yukon Society] has been hearing concerns from community members about delays and cancellations to gender affirming care for Trans, Two-Spirit, Non-binary and Intersex people. Earlier this week, Mona (our Executive Director) and Mira (our Health and Education Manager) met with YG's Director of Insured Health and Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services to bring up these concerns. We made it very clear to Health and Social Services that the delays and uncertainty caused by this move have huge negative impacts on people's mental health, and we asked them to communicate directly and transparently with community members who are affected.
In Dawson, to cover the gap in promised services, a fundraiser has been created. Visit it here.
Read more on Queer Yukon’s website.
Trans Day of Remembrance - November 20th
"Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence. I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people -- sometimes in the most brutal ways possible -- it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice."
- TDoR founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith
November 20th is Trans Day of Remembrance.
We remember those murdered. We fight for those who are still alive.
We work to end transphobic violence and we celebrate with joy the incredibleness, talents, and diversity of the trans community.
In Whitehorse, Queer Yukon is holding a vigil in memory and honour of our Two-Spirit, Trans, and Non-Binary kin who are no longer with us. Folks are invited to light a lantern, leave an offering, or add to QY’s Wall of Remembrance. More info on Queer Yukon’s website.
What: Trans Day of Remembrance Vigil
When: Sunday, November 20th, 1:30pm - 3:30pm
Where: Queer Yukon - #10 4230 4 Ave & Baxter St, Whitehorse
Take Action
We can prevent violence against trans people.
Bystander intervention is essential skills that we all need to learn. When your friend make a transphobic joke, interrupt them. When your co-worker gets Jasmin’s pronouns wrong, kindly correct them.
We need to create a culture where any form of transphobia is unacceptable.
Chat with DWS about booking a bystander intervention workshop for your group.
Draw the Line, a bystander intervention campaign created by Ontario sexual assault centres, created many scenarios about preventing the violence trans people experience:
HRC also has created ‘Dismantling Trans Violence’ an excellent guide to understanding the systems that hold up trans hatred and how to dismantle those harmful systems.
Take Care
Run by and for trans people, Trans Lifeline provides trans peer support trans folks as well as their friends and family.
Folks in Canada can call everyday from 3pm-10pm, Yukon time - (877) 330-6366.