Egale Canada Trans Information
and Web Resource

“MEET CALVIN”: A STORY OF LOVE, HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND OTHER HOKEY STUFF

“MEET CALVIN”: A STORY OF LOVE, HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND OTHER HOKEY STUFF

Perth, Ontario. Suicide prevention, self-acceptance, self-confidence, love and happiness are top of mind for Calvin Neufeld, and he wants to share what he has learned.

“Meet Calvin” at a free public presentation and film screening on Oct. 29 at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s United Church in Perth, and hear the story of his journey as a female-to-male transsexual. Calvin is the subject of the 2011 short documentary On the male side of middle, directed by Paul Neudorf, which demonstrates how strong a family can be when they love, care and listen to each other.

“Suffering is epidemic,” Calvin says. “It’s a nasty bug, contagious too, with symptoms ranging from fear to cruelty, cowering to bullying, self-destruction to apathy. I’m tired of watching it destroy lives as it nearly did mine. Life is good, and it can be better.”

Calvin notes young people seem particularly vulnerable to suffering, from bullying to suicide. “They’re on the front lines of violence and despair – but they’re also intelligent and adaptive and rebellious by nature; the change should start there, and with urgency. Why? Because kids are killing themselves when a better life is possible.”

At the heart of Calvin’s work as a speaker is the conviction that life is good. The focus of his presentation is on suicide prevention, self-acceptance, self-confidence, loving your neighbour, loving yourself, being happy and making quality of life a priority.

“Like all people, children and adolescents struggle with self-acceptance and self-esteem,” he says. “The epidemic is nothing new, but that doesn’t make it incurable. Accept yourself and make the most of what you’ve got. What else can anyone do? What else can I do? What could be better? These are the things I like to talk about.”

He says every topic, from queer issues to bullying to veganism, lends itself to this fundamental conclusion. “It’s a simple message and a powerful weapon. Words, humour, and honesty have the power to transform lives for the better.”

This event marks the launch of Calvin’s new career as a self-described “speaker, writer, and thinker” and is intended to model the service that he is offering to schools, churches, businesses and community groups alike.  To RSVP for this free event or to find out more about Calvin Neufeld, visit www.calvinneufeld.com.

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Media Contact:

Calvin Neufeld
calvinneufeld.com
Box 2012, Perth, Ontario, K7H 1R9
877-312-1718
info@calvinneufeld.com

Egale Canada Observes Trans Day of Remembrance

November 20th, Trans Day of Remembrance commemorates those who have died as a result of violent attacks caused by fear and hatred of transgender and transsexual persons (“transphobia”). Today, across Canada and in more than 120 cities worldwide, people are mobilizing and paying their respects to the growing number of transgender and transsexual people who have been murdered.

This year alone, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, (Transgender Europe) there are more than 160 cases of reported murders of trans people. Countless others go unreported around the world. In addition to this violence, trans people face discrimination every day in education, health care, housing and employment. In Egale’s National School survey, 95% of trans students felt unsafe at school and nine out of ten are verbally harassed because of their gender expression.
Governments must introduce measures to protect and end discrimination against trans people.

Egale supports trans people in their struggle for equality and justice. In the past Egale supported court challenges to the de-listing of sex reassignment surgery in Ontario; Kimberly Nixon in her human rights challenge to being excluded from consideration as a volunteer in a women’s shelter; and the inclusion of “gender identity” and “gender expression” as prohibited grounds of discrimination in human rights legislation.

The Day of Remembrance is to remember those who are gone from our lives, and in honoring their memories, we pledge to keep fighting for the rights, protection, and social understanding of trans persons everywhere.

Egale Canada is Canada’s LGBT human rights organization: advancing equality, diversity, education, and justice.

For More Information:
Helen Kennedy, 416-642-5027

Trans(gender) Day of Remembrance 2009 Events

NOVA SCOTIA

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Friday November 20, 2009
7.30-9.30 pm.
Safe Harbour Metropolitan Community Church
For info. contact Regina at tdor.hlfx@gmail.com

ONTARIO

London, Ontario, Canada
Friday, November 20
10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
UCC Atrium University of Western Ontario

Remembrance.Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Friday, November 20, 2009
7:00 PM
The 519 Church Street Community Centre
Toronto, Ontario. M4Y 2C9
Contact: Kyle at mealtran@the519.org

Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Friday, November 20, 2009
12 noon – 1:00 PM
George Brown College
200 King St. E.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Fifth Floor

MANITOBA

Winnipeg, Manitoba. Canada
Friday November 20, 2009
6:00pm – 830pm
The Rainbow Resource Centre
170 Scott St (at Wardlaw)
Contact: info@rainbowresourcecentre.org or 204.474.0212

SASKATCHEWAN

Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Friday November 20th, 2009
11am – 1pm or 7 – 10pm
Language Institute Theatre LI 215
-and-
Saturday, November 21, 2009
3pm – 11pm
For location RSVP by email to
onesongtss@yahoo.ca

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Thursday November 25th
7:00pm-9:00pm
Francis Morrison Library
call (306)966-6615 for details–

ALBERTA

Calgary, Alberta Canada
Friday, November 20, 2009
Doors open at 6:30 PM
Old YWCA Centre 223-12 Ave. SW
Contact: Mercedes Allen at dentedbluemercedes@gmail.com

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Saturday, November 21st.
Enterprise Square Atrium (10230 – Jasper Ave.)
2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Contact: Josephine Cross hyperspacegrrl@hotmail.com

Lethbridge, Alberta Canada
Saturday November 21, 2009
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Dieppe Hall at the Army/Navy &
Airforce Veterans Club
517- 5 Ave South
Contact: Mickey Wilson president@galalethbridge.ca

Red Deer, Alberta Canada
6:30 PM November 20
4811-48th Ave (rear door down the stairs)
Contact: Mercedes Allen at dentedbluemercedes@gmail.com

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Vancouver, Canada
Friday, November 20, 2009
7:15 – 10:00 PM
Marching from Carnegie Centre, Main and Hastings
to Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Friday, November 20th 2009
5:00 to 6:30 p.m.
Fernwood Square, Victoria, BC, Coast Salish Territories
(Fernwood Rd at Gladstone Ave)
Website: http://transactionvic.com/
Contact: transactionvictoria@gmail.com

TDOR: Some Personal Thoughts

The Lantern

The newsletter of the Gender Alliance of the South Sound

TDOR: Some Personal Thoughts
Filed by: Donna Rose for the Bilerico Project

Another Transgender Day of Remembrance is upon us. It occurs each year in commemoration of the murder of trans-woman Rita Hester and is our opportunity to celebrate the lives and mourn the deaths of our
brothers and sisters who have been murdered during the previous year. This year observances in hundreds of locations around the country and around the world mark the 13th anniversary of this solemn event. It is more than tragic that we continue to have no lack of victims to honor – this year more than 30 brothers and sisters have been murdered over the past 12 months.

These things are deeply personal for many of us. Being transgender is not an easy life even under the best of circumstances but to see our brothers and sisters slaughtered simply for being themselves is something each of us can imagine happening to our friends or ourselves. The entire spiral of not being able to get or keep a job,
being forced into situations that are inherently dangerous, and ultimately being murdered viciously and brutally is far too common in our community.

I sometimes don’t know which emotion I feel more: sadness or anger. I’ve personally attended 2 vigils of people honored at TDOR and have seen the anguish of a family who has just had a loving young life brutally taken from them. I’ve watched as police have turned a blind eye to these brutal murders that all too often go unsolved. I’ve
listened to cold-blooded killers refer to their victim as an “it” as they describe how they took a tender young life by bashing her head in with a fire extinguisher. It infuriates me that people in this world can treat one another like that, where someone’s life is somehow less
valuable or less important.

In an other horrible incident a trans-woman and her gay brother in Syracuse, NY were lured to a party and ambushed. Someone began yelling obscenities at them in their car before going into the house, getting a rifle, and shooting through the driver’s side window. Latiesha was struck in the chest and died in a pool of her own blood. Poof. Another young life gone. And for what?

Attending one of these vigils, like attending a TDOR event, can be life-changing. If you ever have an opportunity to hug a mother who has just lost a son or daughter to violent murder simply because they were
being themselves – it will become personal to you, too. If you truly listen to the stories of the victims as they’re read each year and you realize that each was a life, each had hopes and dreams that were brutally taken from them, it will change you. If you think about how
that name being read next year could be you, or a friend, or a family member – it will change you. It makes you realize why ordinary people simply trying to live their lives become passionate activists because someone needs to speak out for these victims. Someone needs to keep
their memories alive. Someone needs to make sure future generations of us don’t face these same horrifying realities.

There was a time when I felt it was more than sad that the one event where the trans community comes together each year is about death. I have changed that opinion and I’ll share why. Because on the outside TDOR is certainly a time to mourn. However, it is also a time to celebrate.

It is an opportunity to recognize the resiliency of the human spirit; a flame that refuses to be dimmed by those who seek to extinguish it through violence, hate, and ignorance. It is a celebration of community as a global family that these victims never knew in life comes together, bound not by genetics or by the fact that we may be transgender too, but by our humanity. It is a celebration of courage, and of authenticity, and of love. It is in that spirit that the solemn reason that we come together – to share our grief – often provides a strangely uplifting experience.

Each of us experiences the Day of Remembrance in our own way. I encourage anyone and everyone to find an event near where you live and make the effort to be there. Whether G, L, B, T, Q, ally, or simply sympathetic supporter please attend. Just know that if you do – it
will change you.

The need for Federal Hate Crimes Legislation has never been apparent, or more urgent. However, punishments won’t bring these victims back. The difficult work to change our culture so that people whose sense of their gender may be different are not targeted for violence or death needs to be something each of us commits ourselves
to achieve. There is no room in this world for Hate, so speaking up and speaking out does more than simply honor the memory of those who have been killed simply for being true to themselves. It saves lives.

2009 Transgender Day of Remembrance Memorial