Some 2SLGBTQ+ people in N.S. on edge as hateful rhetoric rises at home and abroad
U.S. president Donald Trump's actions having 'big' impact in Canada, advocate says
Kai Skinner sometimes takes off her Pride pin and intentionally hides her queerness to avoid hate.
It's something the vice-chair of Lunenburg County Pride said no one should have to do. But a series of incidents in the past year affecting the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Nova Scotia has made Skinner feel uneasy about who she is safe with as a queer woman and where she is welcome.
"It's really hard knowing that I've done so much work to be an openly queer woman for myself, that I'm now having to go back to … pretending that I'm not part of the 2SLGBTQI [two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex] community in specific community spaces," Skinner said.
Last spring, a staircase painted in rainbow Pride colours at Bridgewater Town Hall was defaced with a spray-painted symbol of Diagolon — a network that's been called an ideologically motivated and violent extremist organization by a 2022 House of Commons report.
Since then, graffiti of the symbol has continued to appear in the area, according to Lunenburg County Pride, including at least 11 times on a rock face along the highway.
In 2024, CBC News reported on a document drafted by Canada's Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre which said that "anti-2SLGBTQl+ narratives remain a common theme in violent rhetoric espoused by white nationalists, neo-Nazis … and networks such as Diagolon and QAnon."
The founder of Diagolon, Jeremy MacKenzie, has denied the group is extremist.
To Skinner, hate toward 2SLGBTQ+ people is becoming more emboldened under the current political climate.
The interview with Skinner took place next to the Bridgewater Pride staircase and was interrupted when a person from a nearby building began shouting comments out their window about drag performers, directed at the CBC News crew and Skinner.
"Are you here with the drag queens? Bridgewater loves the drag queens," the person said in a derisive tone.
In recent years, drag performers in North America have increasingly become the target of hate and, in many cases, threats of violence.
"That's the exact rhetoric that has emboldened the hate," Skinner said in response to the shouting. "That is why we have to do safety planning."
She said Lunenburg County Pride has had to alert authorities when it holds events and create security plans.
Since the Pride staircase was defaced, there has been a spate of vandalism targeting 2SLGBTQ+ businesses and people in Nova Scotia.
On March 31, the RCMP's Halifax detachment said in a news release it was investigating vandalism of a Pride flag and an Every Child Matters flag in Lower Ship Harbour, N.S., as a hate-motivated crime.
And earlier in March, queer and trans-owned sex and bookstore Venus Envy in Halifax said the store was vandalized with anti-queer and anti-trans messaging three times in the span of about a month.
In the most recent incident on March 3, a handwritten letter was left in the store's doorway that "contained explicit Nazi symbols" and referenced "the 'extermination' of queer people," according to the store's online statement.
The Glitter Bean Cafe in Halifax also experienced vandalism with similar messaging at around the same time.
After hearing about what happened at Venus Envy, the trans owner of an HRM comic book store said he was heartbroken and exhausted.
"It's not the first time we've seen it, unfortunately," said Jay Aaron Roy.
Roy, 41, came out in his late 20s and said Venus Envy was one of his first introductions to the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
"I've since really embraced myself and really blossomed into who I was meant to be," said Roy. "That might … not have happened if it wasn't for Venus Envy."
Roy said it's scary knowing about the incidents in Bridgewater and Halifax. However, he tries not to dwell on the fear, adding that there's been an outpouring of support when these things happen.
"The community has stood up very quickly and said, 'No, we don't allow that here,'" he said. "We're not going anywhere. We've always been here."
Hate on the rise across Canada, advocate says
Across Canada, hate toward and rhetoric targeting the 2SLGBTQ+ community has been on the rise, said the executive director of Egale, a Canadian 2SLGBTQ+ advocacy organization.
"A lot of the rhetoric that we're currently hearing in the U.S. is permeating across the border into Canada," said Helen Kennedy. "It's having a very big impact."
Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, he has signed a barrage of executive orders targeting 2SLGBTQ+ people.
There were orders that terminated policies protecting queer and trans people and stated that the United States will only recognize two sexes that can't be changed — views that are not supported by history or science, according to mainstream medical groups like the American Medical Association.
Other orders cut support for what experts consider life-saving gender-affirming care for people under 19 years old and barred transgender athletes — of which there are likely very few — from girls' and women's sports.
Many of these orders have been challenged in court.
"It's basically giving people permission to engage in these types of negative discriminatory activities towards members of the 2SLGBTI community — in particular trans and gender-diverse people," Kennedy said.
According to Statistics Canada, police-reported hate crimes in Canada targeting sexual orientation increased 69 per cent from 2022 to 2023.
At the same time, Kennedy said people with hateful views are present in Canada irrespective of what's happening in the United States.
"We can't just focus on the U.S. and say it's because of what's happening in the U.S. that we're facing the same situation here," she said.
"We have to take responsibility for what's happening here in our own country."
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With files from the Associated Press
