Ok so this is almost eight pages long, so I thank anyone who'd consider reading it, but if anyone was down for it, I would appreciate some input. I assume it matters to state that I'm a cis het woman, and therefore just an ally and not part of the community, so naturally I'm not even sure whether it is even my place to post such a thing in media. I'm also in the process of writing a somewhat "terfy" "appendix" to it regarding, notably, the fact that Pride MTL has deemed it appropriate to use the word "women" when referring to trans women, but "womxn" when referring to women in general, mainly the one event centered around women and, from what I can tell, the only one hosted strictly by females. And also regarding the fact that, while there is an entire day centered around drag, there are exactly no events about lesbians. In fact, as far as I can tell, there are only three female lesbians set to hold the mike on a seven day long pride festival. Here it goes (thanks so much if anyone reads it) :

So I just took a peak (see what I did there ?) at the programming for Pride Montreal 2020. Take a guess : how many events do you think are planned to discuss gay, lesbian and bi issues, respectively?

Don’t bother coming up with a number for each. The answer is zero. For each.

Fucking zero.

There are exactly zero events planned for discussing the realities of being gay, lesbian or bisexual. At Pride. In the 21st century.

Compute this : Pride Montreal has made a six day program vowing to be super inclusive, and it features NO event at all centering gay, lesbian or bi issues.

I checked out the program because I had been hearing complaints from members of the LGB community regarding the fact that they felt Pride was focusing more and more on trans rights and gender issues and rapidly erasing the traditional LGB communities who have founded it and who still need it. So when I noticed that the big finale’s opening act was a trans woman, I thought I was gonna take a look and see if my LGB friends and connections had been complaining for nothing or not.

What I saw was beyond anything I had imagined.

At first I was very pleasantly surprised to see that Black community members were featured prominently, and also Natives. As someone who has often observed the horrible overlooking by my own community of the people we have effectively invaded and marginalized from the society we built, I just felt very happy. On that, Pride did great.

On the rest, though… what the actual fuck, Pride ?

Each day there will be an “Afropride” activity. So far so good. Seems like it will be hosted every night by a Black NB male, who also possibly identifies as a trans woman. Ok, guess that’s good... except it seems as though every night will be focusing on Q&T in relation to blackness. I’m not making this up : first night, how voodoo is inclusive of gender identities and sexualities. Second, a black trans woman comes to share her experience with racism and transphobia; third, queerness and blackness in fashion; fourth, an activity for queer, NB and trans people who identify as Black and/or Afro descendants only (nevermind the weird “identifying as Black” part, we’ll get to that later). The last of those activities is about cultural appropriation and decolonization (although one can identify as Black)… not sure what that has to do with Pride but who am I to say ?

Day 1 : Now these are the activities listed for the first day aside from Afropride : Natives speaking about 2S. Music by Rufus Wainwright and a DJ who I believe is FTM. There’s also some sort of opening show with a bunch of artists, a great part of them Native, which is good. Then a literary cabaret which describes itself as a celebration of diversity and of gender ID, hosted by one man, one male drag queen and one trans woman. Ok, I don’t wanna get into a debate about the Trans Women Are Women (TWAW) claim here, but come the fuck on ! You are holding an activity about diversity and gender expression, and you make it hosted by three biological males, therefore effectively denying females ay sort of representation. I get that one of those three persons identifies as a woman, but was it really so complicated to include a female individual in this panel of “diversity”. I don’t mean to be a party pooper, but this is roughly 51% of the population that’s not being represented here, an entire sex. But I digress. Whatever. K. Diversity. It’s just one event anyways. Right ?

So then you have a Trans Bros Circle, a discussion among trans men which also welcomes NB people, and it will be hosted by two FTM men. The event description also mentions colonial structures. There will also be a vox pop on diversity in families, hosted by a female lesbian, and finally a Q&A. About trans kids.

So for Day 1, that is five events out of nine centered about gender ID and trans reality. Another is about Natives but, to an extent, about gender identity again since it’s about 2S. The rest are entertainment.

*Day 2 : *

Afropride again, this time featuring a Black trans woman who will also be hosting that day’s Q&A about, among other things, how important Black presence is in her music. Then you got the literary cabaret, this time centering gender expression and gender identification, featuring a white man and a trans woman, but also this time they’ve added two females (phew!) and one Black man. Then an event called TBIPOC Sister’s Circle, (TBIPOC = trans Black and Indigenous people of colour), hosted by an NB male, and is, aimed at NB and trans women POC. I saw no mention of trans men, so whether they’re welcome there is anyone’s guess.

Then you have two other events. The first is a Vox Pop on “Inspiring Womxn”. If anyone’s wondering, that’s not a typo. Womxn means women, except it is a form which is intended to specifically include trans women. The second is a Trans Sisters Circle. Now the latter is quite similar to the other Circles, except this time there is no mention of trans and NB.

That day features musical performances by Melissa Etheridge and DJ Misstress.

Out of the eight activities of day 2, five are centered around trans or gender identity, two are musical performances and one is an explicitely trans inclusive panel for “womxn”.

*Then on to day 3 : there is still hope, my young Padawan ! *

Ok, Afropride again, this time about Black queer and trans people. Then a Q&A on leather/fetish, hosted by a female who I think is a lesbian woman. Then an activity about sex toys, hosted by one male, one female and a drag queen with a beard dressed as a nun (I just had to mention it). Then that female, a sexologist, will meet with members of the bear, leather and fetish communities.

Plus a performance by DJ Jack Chan, who seems like a pretty cool person, btw. And a capsule on mental health, I think panic attacks or depression.

So day three, out of six events, has three centered around fetishism, one about Q&T, one is entertainment and the last is great but seems pretty generic.

Moving on to day 4 : A New Hope ?

Afropride, this time about colonialism and cultural appropriation. A DJ set by a Haitian woman, an SAQ (alcohol society of Québec) sponsored activity about mixing drinks (…?), a Q&A with a Black man who’s a musician (no further explanation provided about him, it doesn’t say if he’s part of the Rainbow community so cool ?).

Then “literary pride” about transpoetry, hosted by the trans woman from day 1 and a gay man. TBIPOC Bros Circle (although the description only mentions trans women, I’m going to assume the site is badly edited at this point). A Vox Pop on the invisibilty of QTBIPOC in media and how it relates to systemic racism, hosted by five males, including two NBs and one trans woman.

There will also be a performance by a group of POC artists, among which queer/trans artists, mainly trans women and NB males if I’m correct, though there are a few females in the mix… I think.

Then the “New faces of Queer Literature”, an event hosted by four queer, trans and/or (and/or?) NB contributors. You also have the Violet hour, a reading by LGBTQ+ authors, featuring six contributors, out of which one woman and one NB male. The others look like men as far as I can tell.

Out of the ten events of day 4, five are revolving around trans/NB/Queer issues. Two don’t (Afropride and Violet Hour) but they both prominently feature an NB male. Two are entertainment and the remaining one offers no explanation whether or it relates to LGBTQ+ issues.

Day 5… ?

Ok Afropride. Nothing surprising here. SAQ drink mixing activity again. A mental health capsule on “taking care of ourselves”. Good.

An interview with (gay?) artist Waltpaper. Ok. But then oh God.

It’s just drag day. You got a drag DJ. You got a Q&A with a bunch of drag queens and one drag king. You got two drag shows, one that features a couple of kings, and another that seems to only feature queens. Of course you have literary pride, and of course it’s about gender expression and gender identities, hosted by a drag queen. You also got a vox pop with a drag queen.

Ok, I get that drag is a staple of the gay community, and I know this isn’t really the place to bring up how much drag offends and insults me as a woman, especially when I see a queen aggressively pulling on used tampons strings with their teeth like one does in their picture. And I can kind of get that you’d have a drag day during pride. I guess it makes sense.

But why do I keep seeing the words “gender expression” and “gender identity” everywhere but I never see the words “gay”, “lesbian”, “bi” or “homosexual” anywhere? Isn’t drag, like, THE staple of the gay community ?

*Anyways, let’s move to day 6… return of the… no, okay. *

Surely there will be something about those realities. I mean, it’s called Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, etc… so naturally the first three will come up at some point, right ?

This time apparently Afropride is about how Voodoo is inclusive of all gender expressions and identities again. Ok. Look : speaking of Black heritage and culture is especially important this year for reasons that shouldn’t need to be put down. But in this context it really feels as though Voodoo is being somewhat tokenized to provide validation to a mostly white TQNB community, as if Pride was saying : “look, Voodoo is inclusive, let’s bring it up so it validates this group of people”… but I’m not sure they’d give much of a rat’s ass about Voodoo if it couldn’t be used to validate, well, trans ideology, quite literally. I had the same feeling about 2S and Natives, especially since, while they were prominently featured during the first day, they are virtually absent from the rest of the week… As white people we often tokenize the cultures of people who we’ve historically held under our boot and pick whatever suits us to validate a point we’re trying to make. And while I do believe Voodoo and Haitian culture are pretty awesome, it really feels like Pride is attempting to use this to put some weight on a scale in an internal conflict, and that would just downright suck. But what do I know.

So yeah of course you have a DJ performance, you also have a Burlesque performance by a troupe of Latinos aiming to deconstruct social roles in their culture (nice !) though I have to say that the only GNC people in the line up are males as far as I can see. In their description they bring up their partnerships, one of them with a well-known strip club for women on a street renowned for its numerous female prostitutes. Anyways, then you obviously get your state sponsored drink mixing activity and then on to the fun stuff.

Then “a first at Fierté littéraire, an evening dedicated to the literature of the trans communities”. At this point I’m wondering if this site is not just awfully translated… but it’s quite literally saying that after a week of trans/gender identity centric activities, that night centered around trans is “a first” ?? Plus it’s hosted by the same trans woman that’s been there twice already !

Then you have a performance by a line up of people who are mostly GNC, some are trans, some NB, others I don’t know, but there’s someone named Tranna Wintour and I don’t know how I feel about that.

There is a Q&A with a plus size female NB burlesque performer and a deaf gay man. You have a mental health capsule titled “quarantine in queerphobia”, and something called “virtual community day”, which is sponsored by a bank and that’s about all the info I have.

Then you have a truly cool event : a vox pop on accessibility and being LGBTQ+ by a female lesbian with dawrfism.

Ok so you have nine events on day six. This time, only three are explicitely centered on trans/gender identity issues. Four are entertainment, out of which two prominently feature either NB or trans people. The Q&A is half NB. The last is about intersectionnality and that’s pretty cool. Still, though…

Last Day : smells like not team spirit

Afropride : an interview and recap with the NB male who hosted the week, centered mostly around “black trans lives matter” and black/dark skinned trans women.

Another mental health capsule, this time about meditation.

There is a surprise show, though I’ll admit at this point I’ll only be surprised if it’s not exclusively made out of trans and NB males and a drag queen. There is also a show by a performer named A$h Banks, though I didn’t find much info about them.

The closing event is an Adam Lambert performance, to which the opening act is a black trans woman. Because of course it is.

Ok so. I’ve made a quick calculation and, if I include both the trans centered events and the ones that prominently feature QTNB people, it turns out that roughly 47% of the events planned for Pride Montreal Festival 2020 are revolving around trans rights/gender identity. Out of the rest (I’m including the two drag shows of day 5), 26% are entertainment. That is 73% of events not centered around LGB topics. And out of the rest, well, it’s mostly about either mental health or fetishism.

Now, let me make one thing clear : I am not against trans rights. I am not against trans visibility. I am well enough versed into this subject that I just know there are a huge bunch of QTNBs along with their allies out there who are ready to throw rocks at me, calling me a terf and a bigot and an altright bitch and a Nazi. I’m not saying that trans people and gender identity should not get a place at Pride. I do, however, find it quite odd that a community that represents between 0.7 to 5% of the population would be either at the center or prominently featured in almost half of the events of Pride while the great majority hardly even get mentioned. I swear to God, I have not read the words lesbian, gay or bi once in the whole program.

I’m with you there : there is still a big deal of bigotry and hatred towards trans and queer individuals out there, and it’s important that they do get some representation, but just like the whole thing should not revolve solely around either gays, or bis, or lesbians, neither should it revolve solely around Q&T.

And this is important because, while those of us who live out of the twittersphere might not be aware of this, the Rainbow community has been profoundly divided in the past five to ten years regarding the issues of homophobia vs transphobia.

I’ll put it this way : there are basically two sides here. One is saying that sex is most important, the other is saying that gender is most important. In other words, one side is arguing that in order to be a man, you need to be male and that to be a woman you need to be a female. This side is also arguing that, for example, a gay man should be allowed to have a strict preference for males. The other side is arguing that to be a man means you identify as a man, and that to be a woman means you identify as a woman, regardless of your biological sex. Therefore if you are a gay man, this second side will usually argue that you should equally be attracted to males who identify as men and to females who identify as men, regardless of their biological sex and, obviously, their genitals.

This has lead to a number of heated debates online and at times offline, where basically the first side is arguing that they should have a right to sexual preferences, and the second is arguing that sexual preferences are transphobic bigotry. The first group feels like telling gay men that they are not true homosexuals if they’re not attracted to females who identify as men is pure homophobia. The second group is arguing that for lesbians to not acknowledge that a woman with a penis is still a woman and therefore a potential partner is transphobic.

There have been a number of reports and testimonies from what we call "gender critical" (GC) LGB people getting cancelled, sometimes violently, both online and in real life for statements made online questioning the gender identity ideology.

It seems though that Pride MTL has taken a stance on this. Why am I saying this ? Well, among other things, all the Trans Circles’ presentation end with this rather vague statement :

“No disrespect, discriminatory comments and/or any other form of violence will be tolerated. “

Well, that sounds like a pretty reasonable demand… I mean, doesn’t that go without saying ? Like, most civilized societies outside of Twitter and maybe YouTube will usually not tolerate violence and discrimination, so why does Pride MTL feel the need to emphasize this, but only on their Trans focused groups ?

I can obviously not answer in their place. But as someone who’s been down the rabbit hole for a while now, I can say it kind of sounds like a “no terfs” or “no truscum” warning. Most trans rights activists (TRAs) and allies would probably say that this is legitimate, given that they perceive so-called terfs and truscums as hostile to the trans community and that they shouldn’t be allowed in trans safe spaces, and to an extent I can understand that. Problem is that the person being called a terf is usually a woman or a gay man who questions self gender identification because it actually questions their own biological reality or sexual orientation. And also that truscum is a literal trans person who believes that being trans should be related to gender dysphoria. So called “terfs” and “truscum” are regularly getting piled on and cancelled online, sometimes with real life consequences, and a lot of them are denunciating the fact that by shutting down any sort of dissent, TRAs are in fact shutting down a healthy debate that should take place within the Rainbow and Feminist communities in order to establish their arguments as, well, "gospel" is pretty much the only word that comes to mind.

I guess that maybe I’m being a bit paranoid here, since even within the current political climate, I don’t really have a problem with trans and NB people having a space free of dissent… but dissenting opinions are often being labelled as transphobia and therefore discrimination and violence online. And therefore I can’t help but feel like Pride MTL is actually taking some subtle (or maybe not really subtle, but still not outright) stance favouring a side in a vital political debate, since this “no discrimination/no violence” rule is extremely vague, but still echoes online rules against, well, dissent.

Well, maybe this is an online thing and therefore Pride is not aware of it… However the thing is, I know for a fact that there are people working for Pride Montreal who are aware of it. Therefore it appears unlikely that the people in positions of power there are unaware of it or haven’t been made aware of it. Therefore, it seems Pride MTL has taken a political decision, and it was in favour of gender ideology.

And that’s a problem : if Pride MTL wants to come out (pun not intended) as prioritizing gender identity and expression over sex and sexuality, it is their right in accordance with Canadian laws, especially the ones about free speech and the right to congregate. But they should at least make it explicit. “Pride” is not exactly just a grouping of people anymore, it is pretty much a moral person which represents quite a huge group of people (roughly 200k people in Québec). If it’s taking a stance in favour of either side of an existential debate between parts of the people It represents, it seems it should be doing it openly.