IDAHOTIB: Addressing Online Hatred at Parliament.

May 19 2019 is International Day Against Homophobia or, Biphobia, Intersex-phobia, Transphobia, IDAHOBIT. On this day, we fight anti-LGBTQ2+ antagonism by highlighting it and taking concrete measures to help reduce it.

Towards that end, I was in Ottawa on 16 May 2019 where I joined three other LGBTQ2+ and feminist advocates from Equal Voices, Egale Canada, and the Pride Center of Edmonton as we testified to Parliament at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

We spoke with Members about te real-world harm that online hatred causes. We spoke about what hatred motivated by homophobia, biphobia, intersex-phobia, transphobia, and anti-two-spirit prejudice looks like.

Here is a snippet of what I said as I spoke in the name of the Morgane Oger Foundation:

Hate propaganda acts by creating anger or disgust towards a person or group because of their identity. Hate speech incites discrimination or violence by any means available.

Canadian websites such as The Post Millennial, Feminist Current, Woman Means Something, Canadian Christian Lobby, Culture Guard, and Transanity publish incitements to discriminate through misinformation in articles aimed at turning public opinion against the transgender community.

Twitter and Facebook are awash with anti-transgender misinformation intended to justify anti-transgender discrimination.

– Morgane Oger, House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, 16 May 2019

There were three speakers scheduled to testify in opposition to new measures to address online hatred in Canada, removed by the Harper government in 2013 when they repealed section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Sadly, Jordan Peterson cancelled his appearance the day the speakers list was sent out to speakers. I would have loved to witness him answer questions from a room-full of MPs who know what the law actually is.

Click here to listen to all four witnesses, and the two witnesses opposed to addressing hatred online.

Click here to read the English version of what I said, with two case studies about the real-world consequences on transgender women of transphobia online.