Not Everyone's Cuppa

"Drag artists reach across the political spectrum. We see drag artists and trans communities under attack by cynical and power-hungry politicians, so we're responding with a positive, uplifting campaign."

"A lot of trans voters are disillusioned. It's hard to maintain hope when your rights are under attack. This is our chance to make our voices heard and to show whoever forms the government next that homophobia and transphobia is politically poisonous and we will organize and fight any regression on the rights, freedoms and equality of our communities."

"I don't need people to understand the whole trans thing. I need them to understand that putting politicians in the exam room with a family doctor is dangerous."

Fae Johnstone, executive director, Momentum 

"As queer people, we get to choose our family, and we also get to choose our elected representatives in Parliament."

"Election turnout in this country is consistently low. Did Not Vote would be the ruling party in every election if that group of folks did and was able to participate."

"Shame is not a useful tactic. Shame just shuts people down and leads to them actually doing less. We want it to be something that is fun."

"Any attack on drag is just a proxy attack on the trans community. The job of the drag artist is to be the biggest, sparkliest, gayest, queerest creature in the room. And, by doing so, make everyone else a little bit safer."

"When personal freedoms are removed from some people, it's often just a mater of who is next."

"We are hoping to reach absolutely everyone. Whether you care about us because you're part of the community, because you're an ally, or because you enjoy the art we create ... Please, protect us in the voting booth."

Drag King Cyril Cinder 

Pride Parade in Toronto, Ontario, June 25, 2017.  Getty

Peoples' intimate lives, their sexual orientation, their preferences, their lifestyles are really very private matters. And privacy protects us all. It's when we believe as individuals and as groups that our lives should be on public display for the admiration of others and the affirmation of our eccentric, non-mainstream choices that belie the mainstream social contract of civility and respect for others' sensibilities that there is pushback by greater society. No one appreciates being subtly or outwardly pushed into agreeableness with social mores they are disinterested in and which may in fact, offend them.

 

And although most reasonable people tend to agree that others should be left to their devices as long as other people are not disturbed by performances they find distasteful, outright in-your-face defiance and belittling of traditional conservative social values can be unhelpful. Most people are tolerant of differences between us all in society; we are all, after all, individuals. Our backgrounds may be dissimilar, our familial histories varied, our exposure to world events bearing little resemblance one to another. Cultural, historical values express safety in what is recognized as mainstream.

 

Why should anyone care whether others' lifestyles are gay, lesbian, or any other non-conforming biological expression on the ferris-wheel of life? Tolerance, disinterest, indifference are natural components of healthy minds accepting of differences. On the other hand, when those differences are viewed as profoundly in excess in the exuberance of their performative acts which may find disfavour by a majority in a social stream, it becomes insulting to insist that outbursts of pride in the spectrum of gender expression be shared by others.

 

 

Worse, when trans people on insisting on their right to express a gender other than that of their birth, trampling on the rights of ordinary people who have never experienced gender confusion, by demanding recognition, one can only shrug and decry poor social manners. It is no one's business other than your own and there it should be kept. Until gender diversity knocks at the door of others' rights to be respected for who and what they are. Trans women taking part in female sports is one such insulting instance of demeaning the rights of others.

 

The phenomenon of gender uncertainty is not mainstream; it represents a vanishingly small proportion of any society. Activists demanding special entitlements and recognition beyond that given to any other member of society must surely realize they do themselves harm by their reckless demands. Be yourself, be whatever it is that satisfies yourself, but keep it to yourself; no one else is particularly interested. Insisting that children uncertain of their gender identities be permitted unrestricted use of hormone blockers and therapy, including irreversible surgery is in actuality a human rights offence.

 

That the drag community plans a 'get-out-the-vote' focus to help the average voter realize the vital importance of civic engagement in casting a vote in the upcoming general election on April 28, cannot be faulted, since their view is non-partisan. They encourage voters to think of issues that affect their communities. All to the good.  They are also promoting a kinder general approach to issues closer to their hearts, in slogans such as "Drag isn't dangerous". But it should be a matter of choice; whether the drag performance speaks to people's values.

 

Heath V. Salazar, who performs as drag persona Gay Jesus, is a Latinx writer and performer living in Toronto.  Salazar

Selecting Statistics : Take Your Pick

"Red regions of the country have higher teen pregnancy rates, more shotgun marriages and lower average ages at marriage and first birth."
"Blue family values bristle at restrictions on sexuality, insistence on marriage or the stigmatization of single parents. Their secret, however, is that they encourage their children to simultaneously combine public tolerance with private discipline, and their children then overwhelmingly choose to raise their own children within two-parent families."
Naomi Cahn and June Carbone, "Red Families v.Blue Families", 2010

"Child marriage is happening at an alarming rate across the United States, but available marriage-license data show more parents, judges and clerks in red states than in blue states seem comfortable with this human-rights abuse."
Fraidy Reiss, founder, Unchained at Last nonprofit

"Individual religious conservatism is positively related to individual divorce risk."
American Journal of Sociology 50-state study

There are always statistics that can be handily selected that will advance preferred theories. It isn't that the statistics are not necessarily reliable in demonstrating the reality of issues, it's that there are often complicating issues within the subject that tend to tilt outcomes in one way or another. Which goes a long way to repeating that the devil is in the details.

Take, for example, political ideologies and how they differ, what their premises are and their values and how they're upheld and what the consequences are. Conservatives, for example can be relied upon to cite their foremost value as being one that upholds the status of the traditional, conventional family: "Family values" has sanctity status; a phrase very familiar to voters in particular, most especially during election times.

In the conventional sense, family values are fairly precise; no premarital sex, children only within the sacrament of marriage, and children raised in two-parent families for optimum outcomes. Despite which, conservative areas reflect high rates of teenage pregnancies, divorce and rates of prostitution, whereas liberal areas, while abstaining from insisting on "family values" because they pride themselves on being more "socially progressive", end up with fewer teen births, divorces and prostitution.

Mississippi, Delaware, West Virginia, Alabama and Arkansas high school students self-reported having had sex in responding to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey of 32 states. Delaware was the only state among them that voted Republican in the last presidential election. Whereas New York, California, Maryland, Nebraska and Connecticut all reported the lowest proportion of high school students who experienced sex encounters, with Nebraska among them having voted Democratic.



In 2015, nine of ten states surveyed with the highest teen birth rates had voted Republican, and nine of the ten states with the lowest teen birth rates had voted Democratic. Liberals boast they are relaxed about strict moral codes while in their personal lives they teach their children the inappropriateness of high school students engaging in sex. On the other hand evangelical students who have sex are unlikelier to use birth control and have a lower rate of abortions.

While averse to pre-marital sex, conservative positions sometimes lead to early marriages, even where the principals are considered to be children. Hundreds of thousands of child marriages take place in the United States. The dozen states ranking with the highest rates of child marriage had all voted Republican in 2015. Divorce too tends to be higher in red states as opposed to blue; Arkansas leading the pack.

A large international survey discovered that Ashley Madison's most numerous group of clients were evangelical Christians. According to a major study from 2013, men in the Houston and Kansas City metro areas were likelier to call on  sex advertisers, while men in San Francisco and Baltimore were less likely to indulge. And then there are Mormons, the ultra-conservative conservatives where Utah stands alone for low teen birthrates, low divorce and low abortion rates.

Utah also has the greatest number of teenagers living at home with their married, biological parents. Interestingly, when Mormonism was founded one of the guiding principles and beliefs was that men were ordained by god to have multiple wives. Due to Federal government pressure, the mainstream Mormon church dropped that major plank in its religion, and now it is the breakaway faction, the Church of Latter-Day Saints that pursues multiple wives in a single marriage with illegal gusto.

Statistical analysis indicates that religious conservatives more commonly divorce in response to early marriages where the partners come from disproportionately poor backgrounds and are poorly educated. It is not, therefore, conservative values themselves that inevitably lead to premarital sex or divorce.

Alfred Gescheidt/Getty Images

Politically Correct : Chiefly in Magnitudes of Utter Stupidity

A plan has been put forward to have the York Region District School Board remove this totem pole from in front of Summitview Public School in Whitchurch-Stouffville. The totem has stood there since 1974. - Mike Barrett/Metroland

"While initially constructed with positive intentions, our understanding of how cultural appropriation affects our leaning environments has developed significantly."
"The totem pole was created without consultation or involvement of members of Indigenous Nations, including members of the Indigenous Nations of the West Coast for which the totem pole is unique."
York Region District School Board

"At that time, there was less awareness to what appropriation was."
"The First Nation felt it was probably not done with any ill-intent. That's why we're not jumping up and down with our arms in the air."
"Everybody's just trying to do the right thing here."
Lauri Hoeg, Chippewas of Georgina Island, Band councillor

"Listen, I think we've engaged in some significant learning since the totem pole went up."
"The one big thing for me is around the spaces that we're creating in our schools."
"We're looking to engage in some learning, as a starting point."
Drew McNaughton, Summitview Public School Superintendent, Stouffville, Ontario

"It may not have originated as an Indigenous word, but the fact is that it [the word "chief"] is used as a slur in some cases, or in a negative way to describe Indigenous people."
"With that in mind, as it has become a slur in some cases, that's the decision the administration has made to be proactive on that [to henceforth disallow the use of the word chief in any context]."
Ryan Bird, spokesman, Toronto District School Board

"If that usage is going to genuinely hurt a group of people, then I would say yes, by all means, let's see if we can find an alternative."
"On the other hand, the word originated outside of the context of First Nations cultures ... and the First Nations associations that it has, I don't think are negative."
Mark Morton, University of Waterloo's Centre for Teaching Excellence

We are canting at a galloping pace toward the very last gap in touchy-feelly empathy and rejection of anything that might possibly be construed as cultural appropriation -- heaven forfend -- or (gasp!) perceptions of bigoted expressions aimed at Indigenous people or their culture. An elementary school in Ontario has decided in a righteous fit of sanctimony that a totem pole erected decades ago as an exercise in children understanding and respecting historical culture, was to be summarily removed from its place adjacent the school's front entrance.

In 1973 former teacher Bernadine Mumford began a project as part of a focus on Canadian history, in the process enthusing her grade 6 students and the project was begun, everyone happily contributing to the carving and erection of a distinct and complimentary facsimile of a traditional West Coast totem pole, in sympathetic recognition of the "great harm" done in the past to Indigenous peoples. "It bothered me that there was an implication it was racist", she latterly said, to a local newspaper.

However, the spectral reality of victimhood, real or perceived, raised its accusing head. She was informed that a complaint had been broached to the school board about the structure, that the York Region District School Board identified as "community-based concerns"; one individual lodging an impassioned complaint to demonstrate her/his commitment to upholding the human rights and dignity of First Nations by taking the initiative to demand the removal of a disrespectful object mocking tradition is all it would take.

People in positions of authority have raised their antennae over such complaints of purported racism and no one wants to defend themselves by pleading not guilty and in so doing proving to the skeptical ultra-sensitive that no harm was intended, rather a project was meant to convey empathy and recognition of past wrongs. The merest whiff of controversy serves to light a firecracker under the seat of anyone held to be publicly accountable, and they move with righteous indignation blazing firmly in their culpable breasts.

When the board consulted with representatives from the Chippewas of Georgina Island, a local First Nation, though the totem pole does not reflect their own traditions, the Chippewas gravely agreed: the totem pole must be removed as an affront to First Nation dignity. In the matter of removing the offensive word "chief" from usage in any context whatever to assuage the perception that it is a word recognized as an epithet-arrow aimed at aboriginal hearts, there is nothing to discuss; the deed is done.

What is most harrowing about all of this is the simple fact that these intellectual simpletons have the last word on the kind of education Canadian children are exposed to, manipulating and avoiding any measure of discomfort through controversy that might be experienced when totally absurd notions arise implicating normal interactions of language and intention for fear that something, somewhere will be certain to offend someone at some time.

This letter was sent home to parents of students at Summit View Public School in Whitchurch-Stouffville Sept. 29. - YRDSB letter