Academics, 2SLGBTQ Students Highlight Potential ‘Transphobic Undertones’ in UWinnipeg Lecture
Some academics and members of the 2SLGBTQ community are opposed to a planned lecture by a University of Winnipeg professor, which they fear could spread harmful views about transgender and non-binary people.
Posters for a lecture by U of W political science professor Joanne Boucher show that her lecture for this Friday is entitled “The Commodification of the Human Body: The Case of Transgender Identities.”
The description of the event suggests it will focus on “economic interests involved in transgenderism” and says that “the role of government, corporate-funded lobby groups, the medical industry and the biotechnology sector will be highlighted.”
A poster on campus indicates that the lecture is part of the U of W Department of Political Science 2022-23 speaker series.
Boucher declined to be interviewed by CBC News.
While little else is known about what the talk will entail, professors, students and some in the 2SLGBTQ community said the description of the event hints at transphobic themes, and that it comes amid an increase in harassment and legislation aimed at the trans community and drag performers in different countries. .
“Using the term ‘transgenderism’ is an instant red flag of sorts,” said Elliott Long, 36, a third-year U of W English student. Long, who uses she and he pronouns, is also a founder of the Trans Manitoba group and a former employee of the Trans Health Clinic.
They said the term “transgenderism” is not widely used by the trans community. He also suggested that transgender people’s lives should be reduced to the medical experience of transition is wrong.
“It feels totally inappropriate… There’s a lot of trans joy and stuff that’s not being focused on,” he said.
“The university is a historic place of student activism and human rights, so it seems very bizarre to me why they are promoting this talk that specifically singles out transgender people.”
Long wants the event canceled. They said they raised their concerns with staff member Prof. Aaron Moore, chair of the U of W political science department. CBC News asked to interview Moore, but heard nothing back.
Fourth-year U of W student Emma Joyal started a petition calling on the board to stop. Wednesday afternoon there were more than 900 signatures.
Joyal is not transgender, but said that as a member of the gay community, she was motivated to start the petition because of “transphobic undertones” in the description of the event.
“Canceling the talk show is a way of showing that this kind of rhetoric towards the trans community, towards the queer community, is not acceptable and will not be tolerated,” she said.
Alyson Brickey, assistant professor in the Department of English at the U of W, and two University of Manitoba academics host a Trans Love Cupcake Hour. It will take place on the U of W campus during Boucher’s lecture as a show of support for the trans community, she said.
Brickey said the terminology in the description of the event is linked to publications and lectures “that are basically anti-trans”.
“What we’re doing is trying to center trans voices in the community, in the broader community, that tell us that this has a real potential to spread really harmful views.”
She thinks the university should check whether organizing the event is in accordance with its own inclusion policy and collective labor agreement.
Brickey said academic freedoms are important and so is exercising them responsibly.
“That means, because universities are caught up in a larger society, we need to think and act responsibly, to reject forms of oppression such as racism, transphobia, anti-Semitism and misogyny,” she said.
“As professors, we shouldn’t say and do whatever we want, and then use academic freedom in bad faith as a cover for intolerant behavior.”
Bryce Byron, information and intake coordinator at Rainbow Resource Center, said there are several “dog whistles” in the wording of the event that people unfamiliar with the ongoing cultural and political effort to undermine trans rights may not pick up on.
“It’s important to hear what the people who don’t like us are saying so we can recognize when other people are being pulled down the same rabbit hole,” says Byron, who uses the pronouns she/hir.
Byron pointed to a rise in anti-trans legislation, including in the US, that seeks to restrict access to trans health care or “deprive trans people of the ability to exist in public.”
“The mention of corporate-funded lobby groups… the reference to the medical industry, the biotech sector, those are all words used in other countries to push an agenda that is actively transphobic and actively harms,” said Byron.
CBC News relayed its concerns to a U of W spokesperson, but received no response.
Long hopes to hear more from the university administration.
“I really like your school and wish you were here with us because it doesn’t feel right,” they said.
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