LBGTQ+ Activists Issue Mass Call to Organize This Weekend Ahead of Possible Federal Election

While the federal government is prorogued and most of the country focuses on the ongoing trade disputes with the USA, one group is preparing itself to make its voice heard ahead of the possible upcoming federal election. 

As anti-trans bills continue to be rolled out across the United States, the LGBTQ+ community in Canada is gearing up to make sure that something similar does not happen in Canada. 

A Queer Mass Organizing Call connected to the group Momentum Canada has been posted all over social media. 

This call, set for March 9, is meant to bring activists and allies of the LGBTQ+ community together to get involved in politics across the country. 

Fae Johnstone, the Executive Director of Momentum Canada, is a key organizer of this event.

Johnstone told PressProgress that hate targeting queer and trans people has risen at a terrifying rate and that moments like this are when the LGBTQ+ community needs to be organized.

“We need to be building a movement together and that’s actually what the organizing call is all about,” Johnstone said. 

Johnstone says people will be able to join the call on Sunday and be able to get involved in projects in their local communities. 

“That might be engaging local candidates, hosting a town hall, bringing your friends and families into the movement, and having those hard conversations with folks who might not understand these issues or see them in the same way we do,” Johnstone said.

This call to action comes at a time where the Conservative Party and its leader have repeatedly echoed anti-trans rhetoric. 

“On the federal level, we see conservative politicians leaning into some of that divisive rhetoric, throwing their support behind the same folks who want to control our bodies, limit our freedom, and tell us how to live our lives,” said Johnstone. 

“What’s at stake here is freedom, it is equality, it is human rights and it is a Canada where we come together to support one another.”

Johnstone says that this federal election is concerning because of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s track record of anti-trans rhetoric, but she added that politicians hostile to the LGBTQ community are hardly a new thing. 

“It’s only in the last two decades that we’ve had Canadian governments that are even able and willing to mention gay people, let alone introduce policies and programs that make life better for us and our families,” said Johnstone.

She added that although the Conservatives winning the election is a scary prospect, she is confident that the community is going to lean-in and make sure they look after each other.

“We’re going to come together and we’re going to make sure that if any politician comes for our queer and trans neighbours, they will pay a political price and we will expose their lies for the dishonest fear-mongering that they are,” Johnstone said. 

Johnstone said the hope for the gathering on Sunday is to build movement infrastructure and to connect with people in the real world. 

“We need folks to be organizing tangibly in their local community to get off the internet and back into their dive bars, back into their neighborhood, their community centers and churches,” Johnstone said. 

“That’s really what the campaign is all about.” 

You can register for the Mass Organizing Call at this link.