The P!nk Bloc spoke with a young trans person who was interviewed for the Trans Express show.
Following our first article responding to Enquête's TransExpress episode, a young trans person contacted us to share his experience of being interviewed by the Enquête crew. The P!nk Bloc had a discussion with him to better understand the process that lead to the production of such a show. What was revealed to us was shocking, and clearly reveals the institutional transphobia demonstrated by CBC Radio-Canada and Enquête. Enquête ont fait preuve lors de cette émission.
Now 18, the participant began his hormonal transition at 16 years old, and fell within the demographic spotlighted by the show. He was contacted by Enquête journalist Pasquale Turbide to participate in what was presented to him as a report on the use of hormones by trans youth.
The investigative angle described to the participant was to present a neutral report on all points of view on the subject. This would prove to be far from his interview experience.
Despite a positive start to the interview, the young participant quickly found himself uncomfortable in the context of a discussion marked by transphobia. Repeatedly misgendered by Pasquale, he realized more and more that the project would not be something positive for the community. The journalist asked leading questions, seeking to frame his experience in a negative light. He shared with us an example in which the journalist seemed shocked that he has a job, saying something along the lines of "wow, you're a trans person who works!" The journalist expressed strong negative prejudices against trans people. She was also surprised that the participant waited a year to get access to hormones, a reality that is the norm for our community. This is information that Pasquale or her research team could have easily found through extremely simple research. The participant also reports having had the impression that the journalist was trying to find a way to link his medical transition experience with trauma or mental illness, seeking to establish links with eating disorders, personality disorders, or experiences of rape and sexual assault.
These elements testify to Pasquale Turbide's desire to reinforce ill-informed, extremely transphobic preconceived notions that are very dangerous for our community. This doesn't come as a surprise, coming from someone who considers Lisa Littman to be a credible source. Littman's controversial Rapid-onset gender dysphoria theory was given the spotlight in the report, despite beinglargely discredited by the fields of psychology, pediatry, and trans healthcare (something which even a very quck search would have revealed to the journalist). In centring transphobic pseudo-experts and their pocket transmedicalists, the report leaves almost no space for real experts who actually work with trans youth. Pasquale would rather go to New York to find "expert" figures ready to support her point of view, perhaps because they are so few and far between that she had to travel internationally to find them.
Faced with all of this, the participant informed the journalist that he was uncomfortable participating in the report, which he considered to be harmful and approached from a questionable angle. The journalist then put pressure on him to retain his participation, without which the report may have completely excluded positive points of view on hormonal transition. Other testimonies circulating on the web, including those reported by the Instagram page @queermediumsaignant describe a similar phenomenon, wherein young trans interviewees ended up refusing to participate in the project in the face of the transphobia demonstrated by the interviewers. After attempting to withdraw their participation, multiple interviewees were pressured to remain in the project, at the risk of the report exclusively presenting negative points of view. Thus, Pasquale Turbide made the young trans people bear the weight of her own transphobia, biases, and journalistic incompetence (her lack of research, professionalism, and objectivity).
At no point did the young participant we spoke with get the impression that the show was trying to present facts or to research the truth. He was faced with a journalist who seemed solely interested in finding elements to play into discourses she wanted to put forward in the show. These discourses are disturbingly close to those of the far-right, are in opposition to the scientific consensus, and clearly push for transphobic bills like those introduced in the United States or Alberta. Bills like those passed in Oklahoma and the United Kingdom in the context of the rise of transphobia. Bills that cost the lives of Brianna Ghey and Nex Benedict.
The participant also mentionned leaving the interview thinking that that the show would never actually be released, believing that CBC Radio-Canada would never platform such poor journalism. And yet, not only did Radio-Canada greenlight this episode, they also decided to bring Pasquale on to the popular Québécois talk show Tout le monde en parleclearly seeking to generate buzz around the report.
What now?
We should no longer be surprised to see the spread of transphobia in mainstream politics and media. That being said, this type of show continues to spread fear to those of us who know all too well the terrible impact that propaganda pieces like this one can achieve.
Faced with transphobic discourses spreading like wildfire and the far-rightward shift of the powers that be, we must react in full force. March 31st, Nous ne serons pas sages is organizing a large-scale protest for Trans Day of Vengeance. We must show up in large numbers in the streets on that day to express our discontent. Outside of that, we also need to organize, declare our grievences at all hours, anywhere, and to anyone who will listen. We need to yell both our suffering and our determination from the rooftops. If, like us, you are filled with trans rage, let CBC Radio-Canada and society at large know.
To our trans siblings and allies who didn't expect these discourses to spread as much here, who thought we hadn't yet gotten to that point, we hope this situation wakes you up to the necessity and urgency of the struggle. We hope that you understand that we need to be ready to prevent the spread of these transphobic discourses wherever we see them. But also, we must continue to develop networks of solidarity, and continue to support each other, including members of other groups targeted by the rise of the far-right.