Advocates and members of Carleton University’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community — including those who run the main gender and sexuality support hub on campus — say they’re bracing for the possibility of “more abuse” and discrimination in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent proclamation that the American government will only recognize “two sexes, male and female.”
Following Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, he swiftly rescinded 78 of former Democratic president Joe Biden’s executive orders and began issuing dozens of his own, renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” legalizing plastic straws and — perhaps most controversially — directing all federal agencies to recognize only two genders and insisting they are “not changeable.”
The Republican president’s executive order is titled: “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” It begins with the declaration: “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
“I think in the future we might see more students who need support, and that’s something we will work hard to prepare for,” said Jocelyn Deng, administrative coordinator at Carleton’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Centre. “It is our job and mission to support them the best we can through peer support, referrals to community supports, gender-affirming gear programs, and so on.”
“I fear that people like me will be used as scapegoats. I fear that in the future we will have to endure even more abuse, or we would have to hide — and that makes places like the GSRC more important than they have ever been before.”
— Brooke Anderson, Carleton student and GSRC user
The GSRC is described as a safe space for Carleton students wishing to connect with the queer and trans community.
“One of the most important things, this centre offers is just the space to be yourself,” said Val Hussain, GSRC programming coordinator. “People come here to be themselves without being fearful of scrutiny or prosecution, and that is one thing that will never change.”
Carleton student Brooke Anderson said she has experienced the welcoming aura of the GSRC.
“I started coming here because it’s a safe place,” said Anderson. “It’s a place where I felt like I belong, and I felt safe, and I could find people who are like me. It taught me to make friends, and here I am a part of a community, which is especially important in times like these.”
Those times, Anderson added, are worrisome to members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
“I fear that people like me will be used as scapegoats. I fear that in the future we will have to endure even more abuse, or we would have to hide — and that makes places like the GSRC more important than they have ever been before.”
The Canadian government has stated that 1.3 million people in this country over the age of 15 are part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Trump’s order is being viewed by some as a dark warning of what’s to come for queer people in the U.S. Toronto-based immigration lawyer Joycna Kang recently told CTV that her firm was receiving dozens of calls a day mainly from trans Americans who feel persecuted by the new U.S. administration and see no other option than to try to leave their country.
“People are scared,” said Kang, a partner with Battista Migration Law Group, a firm specializing in serving members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. “A lot of people are worried that protections that were, you know, hard-won recently, are being ripped away.”
Advocates in Canada have voiced concern that discrimination won’t just be faced by 2SLGBTQIA+ people in the United States, and federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre — who remains a strong contender to become Canada’s next prime minister — has expressed agreement with Trump’s proclamation.
“I’m not aware of any other genders than men and women,” Poilievre stated in one interview after Trump issued his executive order.
