Okay, thank you.
My name is Zipp Neufeld. I am a transgender, non-binary, pansexual 12-year-old from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I use he and they pronouns.
To the chair and to the committee, I am here to speak to you today about the rise of violence towards the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities across Canada.
It is draining, because politicians are using queer youth as pawns, resulting in a rise of hate and violence. It's draining because this makes every day more stressful in looking towards my future. It's not a thought I wanted to think about. It's draining because we are constantly forced to rise up. Why is our leadership allowing this to happen?
Here's the thing. Yes, the issues of the queer community, in particular transgender rights, are under attack by several provincial governments, and it's creating a larger problem of discrimination. This makes school environments more unsafe, and it allows for ignorant bullying and ignorant mindsets to thrive within the general public. Even a 12-year-old like me can understand that when hateful thoughts and words are able to escalate, then violence soon follows. The way we are building our society does not give me, and trans youth like me, a future.
However, this is only half the picture, because I know that causing these movements against the 2SLGBTQIA+ community is not really these politicians' true concerns. It is a distraction. They are using the debate on my human rights as a way to move the conversation away from what they are doing—or, more accurately, what they are not doing—on things like the housing crisis, inflation and the lack of social supports, to name a few. Knowing that your existence is being debated only as a way to not talk about big-picture things is infuriating, especially when you yourselves care about these big issues. Come on—let's focus, adults.
To those in power who support queer youth, please keep fighting. Please step up to stop the rise of these harmful bills. Do what you need to do so that we can refocus on what matters. Please use your voices so mine doesn't need to feel so drained.
To those in power who are against trans and queer youth like me, yes, we are drained by your constant attacks, but know this: We will never back down. We will always speak up. We do have communities who love us and support us. We will never stop until the violence against us does.
Thank you for your time.