“I am a Trans-issue”

I’m sitting in front of my closest friend Thomas, shaking my head with a small smile on my face in response to one of his corny jokes. We’re at a small coffee shop in Kensington Market on a rainy Friday afternoon. We have been friends for about 3 years. He is the type of person one immediately feels comfortable with.

Thomas lives in Toronto but grew up a few hours away from the city. We both explored the city together during the summer time. It was our ‘thing’. We found new places to eat, hike, or grab coffee, and go to as many concerts we could. (Fun fact: the three pictures are from one different summer adventure). We mostly bond over our similar music libraries that ranged from the work of Childish Gambino to Florence + The Machine to Depeche Mode.

I asked Thomas about his first act of social justice:

“Wait, I don’t know if I ever told you this, but Rosie O’Donnell was on some late-night show and she was saying things like, “little people scare me…I don’t know how they function or have sex.”. It was super gross and invasive, so, I made a twitter account and tweeted at her and said, ‘F*ck you Rosie O’Donnell!!!!’…”

In this excerpt, we see that Thomas is not one to sit around while others poke fun at marginalized identities. While the act of starting a Twitter account seems small in comparison, the act of speaking against someone with relative power is indicative of his character.

For me, this was also telling of a person I could trust as I explored a fuller version of myself. When the moment came, Thomas and I openly discuss our queer identities to one another. He was the first person that understood what it meant to be non-binary.

Before our meet-up at Kensington, I haven’t seen Thomas in months. But it provided an opportunity to discuss the series of events that turned his life upside down.

A year ago, there was a string of protests held by UofT students to speak against Peterson, and to hold the university accountable for refusing to do anything (substantial) about the issue. Among these string of protests, there was also, however, one held by Peterson’s followers that was backed up by Rebel Media, a right-winged platform. Rebel Media is known for their invasive interviews with transgender people that is aimed at painting trans folks as “whiny or delusional.” For many, however, Rebel Media’s tactics come off as ignorant and indifferent to the plight of marginalized identities.

This media outlet plays an important role in what happened to Thomas because they were the ones on our campus, receiving protection from our own campus police when it was our marginalized students being harassed and assaulted by the free-speech advocates.

Thomas got into an altercation with a protestor wearing Nazi regalia. This alternation was taken out of contexts by Rebel Media to tell their version of events. As such, Thomas alteration with a Nazi supporter was conflated with his interaction with the police, and quickly became a horrible online sensation. The publishing of this video gained traction quickly, and overnight, his fellow classmates exposed his identity on Reddit forums which opened the troll-floodgates. He received death threats along with the rest of his family. Thomas’ life became so volatile that he was forced to move out of his dorm on campus and into witness-protection housing.

I asked Thomas the following question, but I had a feeling of what his response would be: “So, this next question focuses on issues surrounding transgender people: are you following trans issues?”

He snickers, “I don’t really have a choice,” He pauses, moving closer to the recording device, “I am a trans issue… But yeah, definitely. Like are my rights going to be taken away today? Or maybe tomorrow…”

We erupted in laughter. While this was certainly not something to joke about, this was our way of coping with the dangers of living as a trans person.

So here we are: a year or so after the protest that started it all – that put Thomas’ life in danger. Throughout the interview, knuckles became tense and glossy eyes replaced the silly grins and carefree laughter. Where the topic was once tender, it shifted to a source of anger and indignation.

Loki is in their final year of undergraduate at the University of Toronto. They have studied courses in Criminology, Sociology, and Women and Gender studies, and intend on using their degree to continue with activism surrounding the LGBTQ+ community in Toronto.