Content warnings: sexual assault, genocide, suicide
Queer issues go beyond the question of identities and labels. Attacks on queerness are attacks on humanity as a whole. Our activism, therefore, must consider how some identities overlap between marginalized groups. In particular, queer identities are often impacted within social and political conflicts arising from prevailing attitudes toward other ethnic and racial groups. This Queer History Month, we must remember that the oppression of these other communities ultimately affects queer issues too.
When we consider the genocide in Gaza, the rise in global fascism, or the mounting housing insecurity closer to home, queer issues are never as far away as we think. On October 18, seven million people mobilized across the United States in “No Kings” protests against the loss of human rights resulting from U.S. President Donald Trump’s authoritarian policies. Amidst the signs condemning media censorship and government corruption, protesters raised manifestos against the expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. ICE has been under fire for their rampant mistreatment of queer and trans immigrants in the agency’s detention facilities. Queer detainees in the Southern Louisiana ICE processing centre have shared accounts of sexual harassment and assault, including being forced by officers to perform oral sex, being stripped naked, and mocked, and being touched inappropriately while performing labour tasks. The abuse endured by queer immigrants in ICE facilities is the result of their intersectional identities as members of both marginalized groups. The ongoing activism protesting ICE’s abuses of power does not address the whole of the issue as long as we fail to mention the systematic abuse of queer people in processing centres across the U.S. With Queer History Month and No Kings Day taking place simultaneously, it becomes evident that the fight against anti-democratic governmental backsliding and the struggle against the oppression of queer immigrants are deeply entangled.
Here in Montreal, queer individuals have raised many concerns about the need for a more nuanced approach to local activism efforts, especially as pertains to Palestine. Israel’s “pinkwashing” strategy, which seeks to “conceal the continuing violations of Palestinians’ human rights behind an image of modernity signified by Israeli gay life,” has given queer activists around the world the additional challenge of preventing their causes from being used to justify the genocide in Gaza. In May 2024, Helem Montréal, a 2SLGBTQ+ organization made of members of SWANA communities (Southwest Asia and North Africa), publicly cut ties with Montreal Pride, stating that the organization had failed to address the issue of Pride events potentially being co-opted to vehiculate the ongoing oppression of Palestinian rights.
Meanwhile, membership to the organization Queers for Palestine has been increasing across Canada, specifically in major cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. Members aim to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggles for liberation, and with the plight of queer Palestinians in particular. As the Queers for Palestine Ottawa website states: “We aim to centre and amplify the voices of Palestinians, in Palestine and in diaspora, who are and have been leading the calls to liberate their people. ” However, this stance has been ill-received by many others concerned for queer rights, with critics often raising the issue of the abysmal treatment of queer people under regimes across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA.) In a 2023 article, journalist Armin Navabi writes that support for Palestinian liberation goes hand-in-hand with support for the Islamist resistance group Hamas, positing that “the deep-seated radical Islamist ethos driving the organization…if unbridled, would jeopardize the very freedoms cherished by LGBT people across the developed world.” But this discourse fails to acknowledge that the state of Israel has never actually attempted to address the criminalization of homosexuality in the MENA region, and has instead been using such rhetoric as a smokescreen to justify the ongoing genocide.
For Canadians, rising socioeconomic concerns – including job and housing security – also disproportionately affects those in the queer communities. 2SLGBTQ+ Canadians are more than twice as likely to experience visible homelessness than their straight, cisgender counterparts, with queer women in particular being four times as likely. Trans Canadians are twice as likely as the general public to experience extreme poverty and homelessness, and more than half of the trans population has difficulty meeting the financial demands to retain housing. This issue is especially pertinent to queer youth, as approximately one out of every three homeless young Canadians identifies as 2SLGBTQ+.
Many Montrealers have been subject to the struggle of remaining housed, and the city has seen a dramatic increase in visible homelessness within the past seven years. Queer people, specifically Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) who also identify as 2SLGBTQ+, face increased struggles in finding secure housing. Those left with nowhere to go are often forced into “hidden homelessness,” leaving them to resort to unstable and often dangerous strategies for short-term habitation. As well as facing higher risks and more barriers associated with housing access, queer unhoused people have a unique set of needs. Many 2SLGBTQ+ youth specifically struggle with dramatically higher rates of mental health issues or suicide, and being unhoused makes it increasingly difficult for them to access essential mental, physical, and sexual health services. Not having a safe space solely for members of the queer community who are struggling with housing insecurity leaves an already vulnerable population susceptible to additional violence and discrimination on the streets or in shelters. Despite the many shelters and resource systems available to unhoused people in Montreal, there are currently no shelters in Quebec offering emergency services exclusively catered to the needs of 2SLGBTQ+ people. Though there are plans for such shelters being discussed, notably the Lambda House Project, there is still a long way to go in ensuring that the needs of 2SLGBTQ+ unhoused people are adequately met.
All queer issues are human issues. When we think about confronting oppression across the country and across the world, we must consider the queer people who are marginalized in other ways. Fighting oppression is our collective responsibility, and this Queer History Month it is essential to consider the intersectionality of queer identity in our activism. When we have these conversations, we need to do so with nuance in order to facilitate the wider discussion that so many queer voices are a part of.