Regarding TransFest:

I had originally signed up to vend at Transfest when it first was announced. I hadn’t really heard back and wasn’t sure if it was a ball I had dropped, or if it was something missing on their end.

I double checked and re-registered, paying a tabling fee and set to work preparing my stuff. As a trans community educator, coach and body worker, an event like this had incredible potential to be a way to connect to potential students and clients. This feels especially important since these social media platforms are ever increasingly non-functional. My content gets restricted and shadow banned, and I know that I can put a huge amount of work into making things that no one will see, or at least not until after it’s no longer relevant. 

I first started hearing about tensions and conflicts with the festival yesterday (August 15) morning via text messages and screenshots of comment threads. I was offline for most of the day celebrating a dear friend’s birthday and didn’t actually learn about the cancellation of the event until a neighbour came home while I was having a late night vape out on the corner and told me in person.  I hardly use Instagram anymore and got most of the details second hand or long after their original posting.

As of now (11am, August 16th), I still have not received any communication from the festival to my registered (and paid) vendor email. I see different information on the TransFest website, their apparently unofficial IG account and in the posts of other former vendors and sponsors of the event. 

What I can glean is that the organizing collective for this event imploded (potentially weeks or months ago) over the involvement of one very well known local who holds an incredible amount of power and is in bed with Zi0nism. I understand the choice of volunteers pulling their involvement, as well as other community groups and vendors wishing to take a stance in support of P@lestine. What makes less sense to me is how this individual would not pull himself out of something where his presence was leading to the collapse of something that should have been a beautiful day for a community he purports to support. Any credibility he may have had within our community should be null and void at this point. My choice to not name him publicly in this post is only a matter of attempting to protect myself from potential litigation, which I fear could be something that a person of his power could choose to enact. If rolling through the heaps and heaps of comments on the many related posts isn’t the way that you want to find more details or clarity on this, just send me a DM. 

As a parent, I see this situation unfolding in a way that reminds me of a small child behaving dangerously on a playground. When I have been responsible for children who are making choices in shared space that could endanger others on the playground, I would do what I could to remove that kid from the shared space, not tell everyone else that they need to leave because this kid is making dangerous choices. Now obviously, we aren’t children. These dangerous choices are being made by supposed grown adults. I understand the ways that organizers can be in precarious positions where allowing individuals, especially people with power or significant financial support, to carry on making their choices can feel necessary. And I understand volunteers, groups and vendors pulling their involvement as taking the actions they have available to them to take a stance in support of justice. The devastating outcome unfortunately seems to be that instead of a cute day of gathering and connection, and celebrating trans joy at a time where that feels more needed than ever- no one gets anything because the bullies wouldn’t stay home and the organizer(s) didn’t feel able or willing to make them. 

Instead, those of us who had been working towards this event are left with nothing. Opportunities presented as alternatives feel confusing and divisive at best. The transfest website is currently saying that there will still be gathering, but lists completely different hours than the event was scheduled for. A rally in support of P@lestine crosses over in timing, but occurs on the complete opposite end of town. A small anarchist book store is offering space for a counter event, but I have concerns about how attendees safety in the face of the ongoing mass disabling event that is the COVID pandemic may be not really taken into consideration. An outdoor event in a park is a very different risk profile than an indoor pizza party. I don’t know yet what I will be doing today. 

I had hoped to be connecting with folks who would be interested in my classes and other services. I had hoped to have a nice day in the park celebrating trans joy in the face of a pretty scary world. 

Please find here some of the posters and fliers that I would have been sharing at the event today.