THUNDER BAY – After an unknown assailant emailed in a bomb threat during a drag story time event, Northwestern Ontario Pride organizations are calling to spread solidarity for those affected.
"Hate targeting 2SLGBTQIA+ community members and events is on the rise. These threats are meant to eradicate us from public life and to make queer and trans people fearful of their safety if they live openly,” said Douglas Judson, co-chair of Borderland Pride.
The objective of drag story time events is to promote inclusion and literacy for children; however, as Judson points out, those individuals who target these events with hateful and violent intentions are often targeting the children in attendance.
Judson explained “the 'tell' here is that people who would target an inclusion event on the false premise of protecting children from drag artists actually made a threat of violence against children. That is a vile and reckless form of bigotry.”
A growing concern among pride organizations is the escalation of violent attacks on the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in the wake of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's announcement of new policies affecting transgender people in the province.
Smith’s policy would ban hormone therapy for those aged 15 and younger while also requiring parental consent for students under 15 to change their name or pronoun in school.
Around the same time, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) released a report warning the public that a growing number of anti-gender extremist groups pose a serious threat of violence to the community.
In an interview with Dougall Media, Rainbow Alliance Dryden's (RAD) Caitlin Hartlen spoke about the growing threat from anti-gender extremists stating that the CSIS report was nothing new.
“They're saying what most of us in the community already know, but I feel like everybody else needs to wake up as well. This will continue to escalate if there isn't significant change happening now. I feel like it's a lot more in the city nowadays than it was in previous iterations of the queer community.
"We're not necessarily being sent to jail for our identities, but that doesn't mean that we have achieved equality, not by a long shot,” said Hartlen, RAD chair.
The spread of homophobic and transphobic zealot conspiracy theories regarding drag performers “grooming” children has escalated hate-motivated occurrences.
Back in 2022, an unknown individual called the police with an accusation that the Dryden’s library’s drag story time event was an attempt at “grooming children.”
During the incident, an on-duty OPP officer interrogated the former chair of the RAD at their workplace. This accusation was later proven false as drag story time events are simply drag performers reading children's stories to youth in attendance.
However, in the aftermath of the event, social media posts about the incident incited hate-fuelled comments which indicated that extreme violence be taken against RAD.
In Fort Frances, Judson explained that these types of criminal occurrences happen regularly during drag events.
"Our recent drag event in Fort Frances resulted in some of the most vile online hatred we have ever seen locally. I regularly see this same type of misconduct in my law practice, at Judson Howie LLP, where we are inundated with defamation and harassment cases from across the country against members of the drag community and 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations.
“This is happening with the tacit support of federal politicians who claim to be allies, including right here in Northwestern Ontario, while their movement weaponizes homophobic and transphobic lies and conspiracy theories for political gain," Judson said.
