The most recent of these counter-protests on September 20th, 2024 was met with severe police brutality. With their tear gas, pepper spray and nightsticks, the pigs demonstrated once more whose side they are on, as they did at RadPride and the F.A.G.S. disruption of corporate pride in August. This comes as part of a larger rise in state violence and repression of leftist movements in Tiohtià:ke, in which queers play an integral role.

Meanwhile, the CAQ government continues to push its Committee of “wisemen” which is set to release its recommendations for handling the “trans issue” later this year. Legault would rather listen to “parents rights” organizers and TERFs than the actual trans people affected by his decisions, subscribing to the moral panic. The state is scapegoating trans folks while ignoring the rising instability and cost of living brought on by capitalist oligarchies. The current housing crisis in particular has put countless queer and trans people in the street, and the CAQ government of landlords is putting fuel on the fire.

Trans people have also been murdered at alarming rates, especially when they are Black and racialized, while authorities systemically refuse to recognize hateful motives. As the right becomes emboldened, these numbers will continue to rise. We remember Nex Benedict. We remember Sam Nordquist. We remember all of those whose names are lost in the constant churn of mass media, murdered and then forgotten by society. We won’t forget you. We will avenge you.

We don’t want visibility, because we’ve learned that our trans siblings and us only get it when we’re six feet under. Trans Day of Vengeance means fighting back, and taking what they won’t give us. Trans Liberation and Trans Revolution are one and the same. Silence equals death.

All the while, genocides and atrocities serving the Western imperialist project continue to rage around the world, killing our siblings indiscriminately, queer and straight, trans and cis alike. All too often, Western colonial outposts including the Zionist entity instrumentalize queer identities to pinkwash their atrocities. Corporate and neoliberal pride orgs in the West (including Fierté Montréal) allow and encourage this. We stand with Palestine, with the Rohingya, with Rojava, with Sudan, with Congo and with all oppressed people.

Alberta and Saskatchewan continue to enact draconian laws against the existence of trans people in society, while other conservative provincial governments scramble to catch up. Elon Musk and his puppet Donald Trump have signed sweeping executive orders against all the most vulnerable sections of the american population under the guise of “government efficiency.” When Pierre Poilievre assumes power in so-called “canada,” he is sure to follow suit.

The mainstream media is complicit in these attacks on marginalized communities and liberation struggles. While the usual suspects of right wing media continue to spew their bullshit, ostensibly “center-left” outlets like Radio-Canada are joining the choir of hate. Liberal media and politicians always have and always will enable fascism through silence and “both sides” rhetoric. The famous “tipping point” in the early 2010s, when trans representation in mainstream media suddenly exploded, has provided reactionaries with the perfect scapegoat.