A few weeks ago I got wind of an anti-trans rally occurring in Ottawa. It was the same old actors peddling conspiracy theories about trans people. The new one by its keynote speaker, who was flown in from the US, is that estrogen turns trans women into mass shooters.
They started off the day with a press conference at 10:30 am in Room 135-B of the West Block of Parliament Hill. CPAC described it as “a group of activists opposed to what they see as “gender ideology” in public policy”.
They might have directly reached out to the Parliamentary Press Gallery to get booked, which doesn’t require the backing of an MP or senator. That might explain the absence of a politician in the presser or mention of one in their social media posts.
Then at 1 PM, they had a rally on the hill. About 30 people were in attendance. It was a pittance compared to the two unrelated demonstrations on the Hill happening at the same time, one of which had an entire marching band. The transphobes were relegated to a small corner of the lawn.
This rally was by all accounts a failure: there were more organizers and influencer wannabes than attendees. It appeared to be fairly disorganized; people remained clustered in small groups taking videos for their livestreams or whatnot – I didn’t observe any speech.
Signs included “WE’RE HERE! WE’RE QUEER! WE’RE COMING FOR YOUR CHILDREN!” -PRIDE PARADE CHANT NYC, 2023” and “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TRANS CHILD“. I also saw one with a crossed out pride flag that I recognized from an earlier anti-trans rally.
Finally at 6PM they gathered at the Biker Church in Vanier for what they termed a town hall. Given the ample ties both the church and this event’s organizer have to the Covid conspiracy convoy that occupied Ottawa, the location isn’t surprising.
The rally’s dismal attendance was the best possible outcome, short of it not happening altogether.
It was a show-and-tell for a handful of miserable people to each other. No one will remember it.