I vow to fight for and shine a light on 2SLGBTQ+ issues. I promise to defend our communities against the far-right. I commit to holding other public officials, including police, to account for their action and lack of action. I will champion 2SLGBTQ+ justice.
My mother, June, joins me during the Pride March every year now. I love it when she does. She reminds me that people are hard to change, but they are not immutable. When I came out, it was a few years before we could openly talk about it. I know my mom had many of the same fears as so many other mothers, especially those of racialized kids. The need to protect and shield is so strong.
Years ago, she told me the story of an older family acquaintance that lived in their town of Mandeville, in the hills of Jamaica. She was young at the time. All the friends and family knew he was gay and he didn’t always try to hide it. But others made him try to hide it. He was frequently beaten. And then one day, he disappeared. She would find out later from her Poa-Poa (Grandma) that he had been killed and that he had been killed because he was gay.
This violence was how my mother came to internalize homophobia. This violence terrified her of happening to me one day.
Toronto is a different place than small-town Jamaica. But it isn’t always safer. There are so many stories amongst our 2SLGBTQ+ friends about being ignored by police, harassed in their neighbourhoods, ostracized in their families, fired from their jobs, beaten for who they love, feeling afraid and isolated, and so much more…
I vow to fight for and shine a light on 2SLGBTQ+ issues. I promise to defend our communities against the far-right. I commit to holding other public officials, including police, to account for their action and lack of action. I will champion 2SLGBTQ+ justice.
It’s not just talk. Here’s how I’ll work to change the discourse on 2SLGBTQ+ policy in Ottawa:
- Build my constituency staff to be advocates for workers who suffer from 2SLGBTQ+ discrimination in work.
- Establish a yearly “Policing with Community Townhall” as a listening exercise for Toronto Police, RCMP, TTC Special Constables, and Commissionaires facilitated by elected officials in our riding.
- Work with federal agencies to support and enhance non-profit community agency and local school board provision of language, newcomer, and settlement programs for the public that must include Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ education.
- Continue to strengthen training and uphold guidelines that break down discrimination for newcomers and refugees in federal departments and agencies as they request to come or stay in Canada.
- End the discriminatory blood and organ donation ban preventing the 2SLGBTQ+ community from saving lives.
- Build upon existing federal partnerships with agencies like the Rainbow Refugee Society to always advocate for 2SLGBTQ+ people in need and our responsibilities under international law.
- Work to make 2SLGBTQ+ Youth Shelters a reality in communities that need them.
- Work to make the federal government a partner in establishing 2SLGBTQ+ specialized foster programs and foster agencies across the country.
- Embrace the aging 2SLGBTQ+ community by ensuring long-term care homes and homecare programs are 2SLGBTQ+ inclusive.
- Push for the prohibition of carding everywhere in Canada.
- Champion the implementation of the recommendations in NDP MP Randall Garrison's White Paper on the Status of Trans and Gender Diverse People.