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Transgender Day of Visibility event held in Red Deer

Apr 7, 2018 | 5:46 PM

Roughly two dozen people gathered at Red Deer City Hall Park on Saturday to show support for the local transgender community.

The event featured a few informal speeches, including one from Red Deer North MLA Kim Schreiner and a march around City Hall Park.

Bobbi-Jo L’Hirondelle, President of the Trans and Non-binary Aid Society (TANAS), describes the event as an opportunity to celebrate the visibility of people that are ‘out’ openly in the community.

“It’s also a day to bring awareness around the discrimination that we face every single day,” adds L’Hirondelle. “It’s kind of like hitting two birds with one stone type-thing.”

According to L’Hirondelle, educating the public about the transgender community is a big part of what they do.

“That’s one of our main objectives is to educate,” she says. “With education, we hope that people can better understand our community. We’re no different than the average ‘Joe’ walking down the street. We’re all here to do the same thing and that’s work, make a life for ourselves and be happy.”

Discrimination however remains the biggest challenge still facing the transgender community according to Lucas Gagnon, outgoing media spokesperson for TANAS.

“Discrimination when it comes to housing, access to facilities,” he explains. “There are great strides that have come with legislation that really has helped give us equality but there’s still a long way to go and we’re proud to be a part of that.”

Gagnon also expressed appreciation for the support shown by the community at the event.

“It doesn’t matter if one person shows up or 50 people show up,” exclaims Gagnon. “It’s the fact that people took the time out of their day to come and support us.”

L’Hirondelle concludes by saying, “It’s better to teach love and not hate. Love conquers all.”