2SLGBTQ+ advocates fear 'dangerous time' in both U.S. and Canada as Trump rolls back protections

Advocates for the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Manitoba say they're saddened and fearful after U.S. President Donald Trump took aim at transgender people in one of his first moves in office.

Hours after his inauguration on Monday, he signed an executive order terminating a range of policies aimed at protecting 2SLGBTQ+ rights, fulfilling a campaign promise he described as "restoring biological truth."

He said the U.S. will recognize only two sexes — male and female — and that they are unchangeable.

That has the executive director of Trans Manitoba worried about the safety of their community.

"As a parent to a non-binary child, I'm terrified to talk to them about the social climate of the United States and increasingly in Canada," Charlie Eau told  host Marcy Markusa in a Tuesday interview with CBC Manitoba's Information Radio.

"It's heartbreaking and terrifying to think that if they want to know the current state of politics, that I have to tell them that the United States is trying to legislate them out of existence. It's a horrific thing to try to explain to a child, that level of hatred and ignorance."

On Monday, Trump repealed 78 executive orders made by former president Joe Biden, including those combating discrimination against gay and transgender people. Trump accused the previous administration of "trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life."

His executive order requires the government to use the term "sex" rather than "gender" and mandates government-issued identification documents, including passports and visas, be based on "an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female."

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says between 0.05 per cent and 1.7 per cent of the global population is born with intersex traits — sexual anatomy, reproductive glands, genitals, hormonal patterns and/or chromosomal patterns that don't fit the typical binary notions of male or female bodies.

"It's awful to listen to. The word that comes to mind is 'dehumanizing,'" said Eau, who has family in the U.S.

"I don't think that my gender presentation or my identity documents will provide me any sort of safety in crossing the border. It's a really scary and dangerous time."

Canadian citizens who do not identify as either female or male have been able since 2019 to list their gender as "X" on identification documents.

Canada 'not immune': Pride organization

Pauline Emerson-Froebe, who moved to the southern Manitoba town of Carman with her wife after Trump was elected for his first term, said it's scary to see her peers being "pushed back into the closet and back into the shadows."

"Canada is not immune to this type of hate-based politics," the Pembina Valley Pride president said in a Tuesday afternoon interview with CBC Manitoba's Up to Speed.

"We've already seen it in Alberta with their anti-trans legislation, and we're fearful that it's going to creep over the border like a lot of ideologies seem to."

Pembina Valley Pride advocates for 2SLGBTQ+ rights in several southern Manitoba communities.

On Monday, the organization took to social media to reassure its queer and trans members, saying in a post on Instagram that recognition from people from people who don't understand them has never been, nor will ever be, a requirement for their existence.

"It's important to know that you're not alone," Emerson-Froebe said.

"We're in this together, and there are people out there in the queer community who are reaching out and are available to be there for you."

'Saying that we don't exist doesn't make it true'

Emerson-Froebe said that trans people are a small part of the broader community, and that the U.S. president is only using them as a "distraction" from issues like the cost of living and health care.

"Gender non-conforming people, trans and non-binary people are just regular people in your community," Eau said.

"We are teachers, we're at your grocery store, we work at your local non-profit. We're just regular people trying to live our lives with a modicum of human rights, and you can't legislate us out of existence.

"Saying that we don't exist doesn't make it true. We're still here."

Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, who is non-binary, posted a video message on Instagram on Tuesday, addressed to those who might be "reeling" from the news down south.

"It's so important that we focus on what we can control right now. And what we can control is how we treat one another here in Manitoba," they said.

"In our province we have a chance to continue doing what we've decided to do, which is embrace one another."