February 11, 2025 • 20 mins
EPISODE FIVE – Marie-Philip Poulin and You Can Play
“If you can play, you can play.”
One of the world’s greatest hockey players, Marie-Philip Poulin, joins us in a break from practice a few weeks before the LGBTQ+ advocacy awards, to share her inspiring story on how she came to lead the top team in the PWHL. To experience her humility and team spirit is to understand the value of sport and play in the development of our youth. And in part two, we meet Mandy Cronin and David Palumbo from You Can Play – Marie-Philip’s nominated and chosen Changemaker from Canada’s LGBTQ+ advocacy event, the Pink Awards. . You Can Play is an organization that embodies the wholesome, humanitarian spirit so central to the ethos of the true athlete. David and Mandy speak with Daniel about their passionate
Queer Joy is a seven part podcast celebrating the 2024 Pink Triangle Press Pink Awards.
The PTP Pink Awards are a national pay-it-forward celebration of queer excellence where community champions choose changemaking charities from the queer community to uplift and amplify. In 2024 we celebrated champions writer/actor/producer Elliot Page, musician/composer Jeremy Dutcher, activist Latoya Nugent, athlete Marie-Philip Poulin, musician/composer Rufus Wainwright and our legacy award winner philanthropist Salah Bachir. Join host Daniel MacIvor where he shares unforgettable moments from the awards and interviews where he sits down for honest and insightful conversations with our Champions and their chosen charities. Experience Queer Joy with Daniel MacIvor, some true queer Champions and our PTP Pink Awards with host Queen Priyanka
Pink Triangle Press formed in 1971 as a collective to publish The Body Politic – a monthly newspaper that is regarded today as a game-changer in the queer media landscape. And in 1984 as an offshoot of The Body Politic PTP formed Xtra Magazine, more focused on social life and culture, lighter fare, available free in bars. And when The Body Politic closed its operation in 1987 Xtra took over as PTP’s main publication mixing arts and culture coverage with harder news stories. There were print editions published out of Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa. In 2015 Xtra moved entirely online where it continues the legacy of the original publication with award-winning journalism that strives to be – as its banner proudly states – queering the conversation. Check them out at xtramagazine.com.
#podcast #award #queer
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
This is Queer Joy, Episode 2, Celebrating the champions and changemakers
of the PTP Pink Awards 2024. I'm Daniel MacIvor and this is Elliot
Page. The first time I acknowledged I was trans in the properly conscious
sense, beyond speculation, was around my 30th birthday, almost four years
before I came out as trans publicly. "Do you think I'm trans?"
(00:29):
I'd asked a close friend. They answered hesitantly, knowing no one can come
to that conclusion for someone else. But they looked at me with a
quiet recognition and said, "I could see that.
A sturdiness shining through. A light from under the door."
That was Elliot reading from his 2023 New York Times best selling memoir,
(00:52):
Pageboy. The book was heralded by the press. The LA Times called it
"harrowing and heartbreaking." Praised by members of the queer community,
Alok Vaid Menon called it "deeply moving," and celebrated by lovers of good
writing. The New York Times Book Review wrote that it was "like listening
to a friend." I've known Elliot for many years. We're both from Nova
(01:13):
Scotia and I worked with him when he was first starting out.
We've stayed in touch and we remain friends. I really loved his book.
And I was really excited when Elliot agreed to be part of the
inaugural PTP Pink Awards in 2024, as a champion, that is a member
of the queer community who is doing good work in the community and
for the community in the mainstream. The real prize of the Pink Awards
(01:36):
is that the champion gets to choose a Changemaker, that is an organisation
who was making positive change in and for the community and that could
benefit from recognition. And Elliot chose brilliantly and of course, as
he would, from his heart. I had the opportunity to chat with Elliot
from New York before the awards. We talked about his experience in the
community, we talked about home, we talked about his Changemaker, and we
(01:59):
talked about his book. The book jacket describes Pageboy as "a winding journey
of what it means to untangle ourselves from the expectation of others,
and an ode to stepping into who we truly are with defiance,
strength and joy." I asked Elliot if that still felt accurate after his
experience of promoting the book and living with it for a year.
(02:20):
Yeah, I think it does. And in the sense that to me,
that is untangling ourselves from expectations of others is most certainly
a lifelong journey, no question. But when I think of
my experience, my experience coming out as trans, absolutely. And when I
(02:41):
came out as gay in 2014, really were, these significant moments that propelled
me forward and it a lot had to do with
letting go of shame, letting go of expectations from others and from myself,
letting go of my own internalized queer phobia and transphobia. And I think
(03:02):
in so many ways, yeah, that still feels very right about the journeys
we all go on in our different ways
to get to a place where we feel at home in ourselves.
Interestingly, home is a theme I wanted to center our conversation around
because for a number of reasons. But as I've told you,
(03:25):
I really love the book, and a lot of people from the East
Coast felt this way. I think that sense of home, because you captured Nova
Scotia very clearly. And I'm wondering, does Nova Scotia still feel like
home to you? Yeah, look, I think New York feels like home now,
but I don't think Halifax and Nova Scotia will ever not feel like
(03:45):
home. Growing up there was complicated in the sense that it was a
wonderful place to grow up. In so many ways, beautiful; the access to
nature that I definitely took for granted. And also growing up
in the '90s and early 2000s is queer and Halifax, and
(04:08):
that wasn't easy. There was very little representation
and most certainly didn't feel like a welcoming and kind environment in
that sense. I know that you wrote a lot of the book in
(04:29):
the woods in Nova Scotia. I know that nature and the land is
important to you. You went to high school at the Shambhala School,
which is Buddhist and very nature centered. You've done a lot of work
with indigenous communities and land based thinking. Does nature represent
a sense of home to you? Yeah. Well, I think too,
(04:50):
as an adult, looking back, I realise how lucky I've been in my
life in terms of the access to nature, which Nova Scotia very much
allowed for. And even in high school, I just think of going to
Shambhala and taking the bus and getting off the bus, and then hiking
through the woods and jumping in a lake, and that was just...
(05:14):
What a gift, and brought me tremendous joy and sense of connection,
particularly in periods where that was a very rare thing I could feel.
And I think nature and being with nature and the grandness of this
universe has always been important. And also, particularly... Well, I write
(05:39):
about this period in the book and then was back in the same
place, writing the book about this time. But when I left New York
during the pandemic and was up in the woods and knew I had
a lot to figure out, I wasn't doing so well.
And I think being there and being alone and being surrounded by nature
(06:02):
and not being perceived by other people, not going to play the next
part; that was... was not my gender and all of these things.
That silence and that ability to connect with myself is
huge in terms of being able to get to the place where I
(06:24):
was ready to acknowledge who I am, and start taking the steps to
have that spark in my life again and to thrive again.
And so I feel very lucky and very grateful. And then,
yeah, being back in that same environment and writing the book was...
(06:45):
Even in moments of overwhelm, when you're in nature,
you feel so insignificant, but in the best way.
"Insignificant, but in the best way" is a very Elliot thing to say.
Part of that, I guess, comes from the fact that his high school
was a Buddhist school. Halifax is a center of Shambhala Buddhism in North
America. But in my experience, Elliot has always been a person of humility,
(07:08):
a very focused person, in some ways a serious person. He's not afraid
to think deeply. For him, things really matter. And when we approached him
about the Pink Awards, he was particularly motivated by the idea of the
"pay it forward" nature of the event. And he really did the work.
He was impeccable in doing his research and finding Skipping Stone,
the charity he chose to celebrate as his Changemaker. Skipping Stone is
(07:32):
an Alberta based organisation with a very thoughtful and unique comprehensive
care model that focuses on supporting trans and gender diverse youth,
adults and families. As in their own words, "the whole healthy,
wonderful humans that they are." Skipping Stone hadn't been particularly
on our radar until Elliot brought them to us.
In learning about Skipping Stone, it just was
(07:55):
very clear, the incredible work that they do
in terms of the programs they offer, the resources they offer,
and knowing the ripple effect of how that allows for individuals to thrive,
communities to thrive, family members to thrive. Alberta's definitely in
(08:19):
a place where there has been so much antagonism towards the trans community
and particularly trans youth. I think about that passage from the book where
you talk about talking to a trusted friend for the first time about
your feelings of trans ness, and how solid and straightforward they were
with you, how they were a light under the door. And it's like
(08:44):
Skipping Stone is that friend, right? Yeah. One of the things that strikes
me about Skipping Stone is the holisticness of what they do.
They deal with the whole person. They do nature walks. Yeah,
nature walks. They do creative art therapy. They even have
animal therapy. It's programs for support groups for trans adults, for trans
(09:07):
youth, for family and friends who want to learn more about how to
be a good ally and how to support the trans person in their
life. And not only that helps people with just... A lot of fundamental
basics in terms of how to navigate the healthcare system, how to access
(09:30):
gender affirming gear, name change on documents, gender markers, etcetera.
These things that can be overwhelming. And also just like trans board game
nights, you know? And letting people come together and feel that solidarity,
which when I think of my life and truly what saved me,
(09:52):
I mean, gosh, it's been community. And there's periods of my life where
I had very little of that and wouldn't have even known how to
access it. So, to know that there's something like Skipping Stone in Alberta,
a physical space people can go to or programs that are also online
and Zoom and offer that support, that sense of connection, that sense of
(10:14):
hope is just, well, it's what we need. It's what we need.
After the break, we'll meet Skipping stone. I'm Daniel MacIvor and this
is Queer Joy, celebrating the 2024 PTP Pink Awards. The 2024 PTP Pink
(10:46):
Awards was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors,
and we are deeply grateful for the generosity of our title sponsor,
Deciem, the Abnormal Beauty Company. Thanks to Sarah Fromstein and the entire
Deciem team. For people who know me, which is not a lot of
(11:08):
people in this room because we're not... not from here, to shut me
up, takes a lot. So, to be at a loss for words,
I think kind of sums up how impactful this is. It's not an
easy time for a lot of folks in a lot of places.
But one week ago today, the most horrific anti trans policies were introduced
(11:31):
in Alberta. And because of the time delay, they're probably literally debating
our right to exist right now. And I know being here, that's what
we get out of this and are so grateful to be, as it... This
is like a beacon of hope that goes even beyond the province,
this country and beyond, that hope is priceless. So, thank you so much
(11:53):
to Elliot, to PinK Triangle, and to all of you folks.
I'm Daniel MacIvor. This is Queer Joy. And that was Amelia Newbert,
the co founder of Skipping Stone, receiving her Changemaker Award at the
inaugural PTP Pink Awards in Toronto in November 2024. And this is Amelia's
(12:16):
partner and co founder of Skipping Stone, Lindsay Peace. I have to tell
you right away, Amelia's the smart one, I'm the funny one.
Well, hey, funny is smart. I have to start with asking,
how do you feel about Elliot choosing you as his Changemaker?
Oh my goodness, ecstatic, over the moon. It's one of those "Pinch me,
(12:38):
is this real?" kind of scenarios, where it's still... The last thing I
think about before I go to bed and the first thing I think
about in the morning is, it's wild. One of the programs that Elliot
was particularly excited about that Skipping Stone offered was the nature
walks or the "wellness walks," as you call them. Yeah. I think we
get really caught up in the day to day, the medical referrals,
(13:01):
and the system navigation. And sometimes I think it's easy to forget about
why people are doing what they're doing. And it's to live
their whole lives, not just... The narratives are always so negative.
And every time we can put something positive into the world,
and that's really what we aim to do.
(13:22):
And the wellness walks are really... What we're doing here, it's not rocket
science. It's really the basic things that people are looking for and people
need. And they need connection. They want to go for a walk with
people that won't ask questions or look at them funny.
They just want to be. And that's I think quite often how simple
(13:47):
it really is and how simple the work we're doing is.
And I think it's kind of summed up in that wellness walk.
It's just about people being people. If you go to the Skipping Stone
website, you'll find a short video called "A Future for Us"
that was executive produced by Vivek Shraya and beautifully realised by
production house FOREIGNERZ in Calgary. In it, we meet a variety of very
(14:10):
articulate trans and non binary youth who speak simply and clearly about
their experience and their hopes for the future. Off the top,
we meet Sif, who says that, "When you get rid of gender,
it's really easy to get rid of all the other dualities that feel
confining in life." I asked Amelia if she could speak to that idea
as it relates to the Skipping Stone ethos. The gender binary that surround
(14:32):
us really comes from this really colonial, oppressive place. And oftentimes
when we talk about it, I think people can kind of limit that
sort of binary sense to talking about transgender folks and cisgender folks.
But I think when we actually turn it over, we see this kind
(14:52):
of binary thinking affect all of us as human beings. That binary system
is the root of transphobia, of homophobia, of sexism, of misogyny,
of racism, of colonialism. And so really, to me, it's about...
Dealing with the gender binary, I always look at it through the lens
(15:14):
of going into battle with one head, but it's one head of a
much larger beast with many heads. And so speaking of battle,
I asked Lindsay what it was like to be in Alberta right now.
Yeah. It's a pretty terrifying place to be right now, to be honest.
(15:35):
And I think one of the things that I've always heard is that
we don't go back and we don't lose rights.
And we're at a place right now where we're talking about going backwards
and we're talking about people losing rights. And I've been thinking a lot
about my son and how hard it was for him
(15:57):
just being on a wait list to get services. But he knew he
was going to get there. If there was no hope at all,
if there is no there for these kids, I just, I don't know
how these kids are going to live without hope.
And it scares me. It scares me a lot.
(16:20):
I spoke with both Lindsay and Amelia further about the challenges of living
in Alberta. I kept coming back to this idea of home,
something that Elliot had mentioned as a space he found within.
I thought about the home of Nova Scotia that he and I shared,
and how it had not been a welcoming place to him back in
the '90s as a queer person. Certainly true for me as well.
Back in 1980, it was no home for a wispy gay like me.
(16:44):
But does it still have to be that way for queer people?
Do we all have to head for the cities? I spoke with Lindsay
and Amelia about the "light under the door" that Elliot had written about.
Was there a feeling of home in that, maybe? This is what Amelia
had to say. For me, like I said, as somebody who was born
in Calgary, who's trans and queer identified, I left when I was 18,
(17:08):
and I didn't feel safe here and I didn't feel like there was
space for me here. And I and I think a lot of people found
our way back and just had this connection. And I think especially amongst
all of the political rhetoric these days, it crosses my mind quite often
that, "We should just get out of here, this isn't worth it."
(17:32):
But then I think about how meaningful this sense of home is for
me and so many. And I talked to Lindsay and she said, "No, we
have to stay here. We have to keep fighting, and we have to
be that light under the door so people know that
(17:52):
they do have a place at home, they do have a place
wherever that home is for them." This has been Queer Joy Episode 2.
I'm Daniel MacIvor. Thanks to Henry Czarnecki in New York and FOREIGNERZ
Production House in Calgary. Our next episode, the wonderful Jeremy Dutcher
and two spirited people of the First Nations. We're going to leave you
(18:15):
with Elliot's speech to Lindsay and Amelia when he presented Skipping stone
with their 2024 Pink Award in Toronto this past November. Really,
well, a great comfort to be here with all of you tonight.
Hold down the mic. Oh yeah, I am rather short. Thank you so
much for reminding me. No, it really is a great comfort to be
(18:37):
with you here all tonight. Thank you so much to Pink Triangle Press
for including me in this remarkable gathering. When I was invited to participate
in this inaugural event, it felt essential to focus on an organisation that
is doing a lot of heavy lifting on the ground for our community
(18:59):
and in Alberta, a province that continues to harm and dehumanise us. As
a young person, I didn't have anywhere to turn. I couldn't have imagined
that a place like Skipping Stone exists. But Skipping Stone has created
that place for trans, gender diverse people of all ages. A safe haven,
(19:21):
a home for community, for crucial support, education,
and joy. Amelia and Lindsay, no doubt you have succeeded in saving lives
and allowing people to thrive. The path towards liberation is not linear.
And yes, we are facing quite a backlash. It's individuals like Amelia and
(19:47):
Lindsay and organisations like Skipping Stone that give me and countless
others hope for the future. And it is my true honour to present
Skipping Stone with this PTP Pink Award. Thanks to our presenting sponsor,
Deciem, the Abnormal Beauty Company, along with category awards sponsor
(20:10):
BMO, and media sponsors iHeartRadio, the Globe and Mail, and Everything
Podcast, and to our publicists, Rocket Promotions. Queer Joy is a production
of Pink Triangle Press.
This is Queer Joy, Episode 2, Celebrating the champions and changemakers
of the PTP Pink Awards 2024. I'm Daniel MacIvor and this is Elliot
Page. The first time I acknowledged I was trans in the properly conscious
sense, beyond speculation, was around my 30th birthday, almost four years
before I came out as trans publicly. "Do you think I'm trans?"
(00:29):
I'd asked a close friend. They answered hesitantly, knowing no one can come
to that conclusion for someone else. But they looked at me with a
quiet recognition and said, "I could see that.
A sturdiness shining through. A light from under the door."
That was Elliot reading from his 2023 New York Times best selling memoir,
(00:52):
Pageboy. The book was heralded by the press. The LA Times called it
"harrowing and heartbreaking." Praised by members of the queer community,
Alok Vaid Menon called it "deeply moving," and celebrated by lovers of good
writing. The New York Times Book Review wrote that it was "like listening
to a friend." I've known Elliot for many years. We're both from Nova
(01:13):
Scotia and I worked with him when he was first starting out.
We've stayed in touch and we remain friends. I really loved his book.
And I was really excited when Elliot agreed to be part of the
inaugural PTP Pink Awards in 2024, as a champion, that is a member
of the queer community who is doing good work in the community and
for the community in the mainstream. The real prize of the Pink Awards
(01:36):
is that the champion gets to choose a Changemaker, that is an organisation
who was making positive change in and for the community and that could
benefit from recognition. And Elliot chose brilliantly and of course, as
he would, from his heart. I had the opportunity to chat with Elliot
from New York before the awards. We talked about his experience in the
community, we talked about home, we talked about his Changemaker, and we
(01:59):
talked about his book. The book jacket describes Pageboy as "a winding journey
of what it means to untangle ourselves from the expectation of others,
and an ode to stepping into who we truly are with defiance,
strength and joy." I asked Elliot if that still felt accurate after his
experience of promoting the book and living with it for a year.
(02:20):
Yeah, I think it does. And in the sense that to me,
that is untangling ourselves from expectations of others is most certainly
a lifelong journey, no question. But when I think of
my experience, my experience coming out as trans, absolutely. And when I
(02:41):
came out as gay in 2014, really were, these significant moments that propelled
me forward and it a lot had to do with
letting go of shame, letting go of expectations from others and from myself,
letting go of my own internalized queer phobia and transphobia. And I think
(03:02):
in so many ways, yeah, that still feels very right about the journeys
we all go on in our different ways
to get to a place where we feel at home in ourselves.
Interestingly, home is a theme I wanted to center our conversation around
because for a number of reasons. But as I've told you,
(03:25):
I really love the book, and a lot of people from the East
Coast felt this way. I think that sense of home, because you captured Nova
Scotia very clearly. And I'm wondering, does Nova Scotia still feel like
home to you? Yeah, look, I think New York feels like home now,
but I don't think Halifax and Nova Scotia will ever not feel like
(03:45):
home. Growing up there was complicated in the sense that it was a
wonderful place to grow up. In so many ways, beautiful; the access to
nature that I definitely took for granted. And also growing up
in the '90s and early 2000s is queer and Halifax, and
(04:08):
that wasn't easy. There was very little representation
and most certainly didn't feel like a welcoming and kind environment in
that sense. I know that you wrote a lot of the book in
(04:29):
the woods in Nova Scotia. I know that nature and the land is
important to you. You went to high school at the Shambhala School,
which is Buddhist and very nature centered. You've done a lot of work
with indigenous communities and land based thinking. Does nature represent
a sense of home to you? Yeah. Well, I think too,
(04:50):
as an adult, looking back, I realise how lucky I've been in my
life in terms of the access to nature, which Nova Scotia very much
allowed for. And even in high school, I just think of going to
Shambhala and taking the bus and getting off the bus, and then hiking
through the woods and jumping in a lake, and that was just...
(05:14):
What a gift, and brought me tremendous joy and sense of connection,
particularly in periods where that was a very rare thing I could feel.
And I think nature and being with nature and the grandness of this
universe has always been important. And also, particularly... Well, I write
(05:39):
about this period in the book and then was back in the same
place, writing the book about this time. But when I left New York
during the pandemic and was up in the woods and knew I had
a lot to figure out, I wasn't doing so well.
And I think being there and being alone and being surrounded by nature
(06:02):
and not being perceived by other people, not going to play the next
part; that was... was not my gender and all of these things.
That silence and that ability to connect with myself is
huge in terms of being able to get to the place where I
(06:24):
was ready to acknowledge who I am, and start taking the steps to
have that spark in my life again and to thrive again.
And so I feel very lucky and very grateful. And then,
yeah, being back in that same environment and writing the book was...
(06:45):
Even in moments of overwhelm, when you're in nature,
you feel so insignificant, but in the best way.
"Insignificant, but in the best way" is a very Elliot thing to say.
Part of that, I guess, comes from the fact that his high school
was a Buddhist school. Halifax is a center of Shambhala Buddhism in North
America. But in my experience, Elliot has always been a person of humility,
(07:08):
a very focused person, in some ways a serious person. He's not afraid
to think deeply. For him, things really matter. And when we approached him
about the Pink Awards, he was particularly motivated by the idea of the
"pay it forward" nature of the event. And he really did the work.
He was impeccable in doing his research and finding Skipping Stone,
the charity he chose to celebrate as his Changemaker. Skipping Stone is
(07:32):
an Alberta based organisation with a very thoughtful and unique comprehensive
care model that focuses on supporting trans and gender diverse youth,
adults and families. As in their own words, "the whole healthy,
wonderful humans that they are." Skipping Stone hadn't been particularly
on our radar until Elliot brought them to us.
In learning about Skipping Stone, it just was
(07:55):
very clear, the incredible work that they do
in terms of the programs they offer, the resources they offer,
and knowing the ripple effect of how that allows for individuals to thrive,
communities to thrive, family members to thrive. Alberta's definitely in
(08:19):
a place where there has been so much antagonism towards the trans community
and particularly trans youth. I think about that passage from the book where
you talk about talking to a trusted friend for the first time about
your feelings of trans ness, and how solid and straightforward they were
with you, how they were a light under the door. And it's like
(08:44):
Skipping Stone is that friend, right? Yeah. One of the things that strikes
me about Skipping Stone is the holisticness of what they do.
They deal with the whole person. They do nature walks. Yeah,
nature walks. They do creative art therapy. They even have
animal therapy. It's programs for support groups for trans adults, for trans
(09:07):
youth, for family and friends who want to learn more about how to
be a good ally and how to support the trans person in their
life. And not only that helps people with just... A lot of fundamental
basics in terms of how to navigate the healthcare system, how to access
(09:30):
gender affirming gear, name change on documents, gender markers, etcetera.
These things that can be overwhelming. And also just like trans board game
nights, you know? And letting people come together and feel that solidarity,
which when I think of my life and truly what saved me,
(09:52):
I mean, gosh, it's been community. And there's periods of my life where
I had very little of that and wouldn't have even known how to
access it. So, to know that there's something like Skipping Stone in Alberta,
a physical space people can go to or programs that are also online
and Zoom and offer that support, that sense of connection, that sense of
(10:14):
hope is just, well, it's what we need. It's what we need.
After the break, we'll meet Skipping stone. I'm Daniel MacIvor and this
is Queer Joy, celebrating the 2024 PTP Pink Awards. The 2024 PTP Pink
(10:46):
Awards was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors,
and we are deeply grateful for the generosity of our title sponsor,
Deciem, the Abnormal Beauty Company. Thanks to Sarah Fromstein and the entire
Deciem team. For people who know me, which is not a lot of
(11:08):
people in this room because we're not... not from here, to shut me
up, takes a lot. So, to be at a loss for words,
I think kind of sums up how impactful this is. It's not an
easy time for a lot of folks in a lot of places.
But one week ago today, the most horrific anti trans policies were introduced
(11:31):
in Alberta. And because of the time delay, they're probably literally debating
our right to exist right now. And I know being here, that's what
we get out of this and are so grateful to be, as it... This
is like a beacon of hope that goes even beyond the province,
this country and beyond, that hope is priceless. So, thank you so much
(11:53):
to Elliot, to PinK Triangle, and to all of you folks.
I'm Daniel MacIvor. This is Queer Joy. And that was Amelia Newbert,
the co founder of Skipping Stone, receiving her Changemaker Award at the
inaugural PTP Pink Awards in Toronto in November 2024. And this is Amelia's
(12:16):
partner and co founder of Skipping Stone, Lindsay Peace. I have to tell
you right away, Amelia's the smart one, I'm the funny one.
Well, hey, funny is smart. I have to start with asking,
how do you feel about Elliot choosing you as his Changemaker?
Oh my goodness, ecstatic, over the moon. It's one of those "Pinch me,
(12:38):
is this real?" kind of scenarios, where it's still... The last thing I
think about before I go to bed and the first thing I think
about in the morning is, it's wild. One of the programs that Elliot
was particularly excited about that Skipping Stone offered was the nature
walks or the "wellness walks," as you call them. Yeah. I think we
get really caught up in the day to day, the medical referrals,
(13:01):
and the system navigation. And sometimes I think it's easy to forget about
why people are doing what they're doing. And it's to live
their whole lives, not just... The narratives are always so negative.
And every time we can put something positive into the world,
and that's really what we aim to do.
(13:22):
And the wellness walks are really... What we're doing here, it's not rocket
science. It's really the basic things that people are looking for and people
need. And they need connection. They want to go for a walk with
people that won't ask questions or look at them funny.
They just want to be. And that's I think quite often how simple
(13:47):
it really is and how simple the work we're doing is.
And I think it's kind of summed up in that wellness walk.
It's just about people being people. If you go to the Skipping Stone
website, you'll find a short video called "A Future for Us"
that was executive produced by Vivek Shraya and beautifully realised by
production house FOREIGNERZ in Calgary. In it, we meet a variety of very
(14:10):
articulate trans and non binary youth who speak simply and clearly about
their experience and their hopes for the future. Off the top,
we meet Sif, who says that, "When you get rid of gender,
it's really easy to get rid of all the other dualities that feel
confining in life." I asked Amelia if she could speak to that idea
as it relates to the Skipping Stone ethos. The gender binary that surround
(14:32):
us really comes from this really colonial, oppressive place. And oftentimes
when we talk about it, I think people can kind of limit that
sort of binary sense to talking about transgender folks and cisgender folks.
But I think when we actually turn it over, we see this kind
(14:52):
of binary thinking affect all of us as human beings. That binary system
is the root of transphobia, of homophobia, of sexism, of misogyny,
of racism, of colonialism. And so really, to me, it's about...
Dealing with the gender binary, I always look at it through the lens
(15:14):
of going into battle with one head, but it's one head of a
much larger beast with many heads. And so speaking of battle,
I asked Lindsay what it was like to be in Alberta right now.
Yeah. It's a pretty terrifying place to be right now, to be honest.
(15:35):
And I think one of the things that I've always heard is that
we don't go back and we don't lose rights.
And we're at a place right now where we're talking about going backwards
and we're talking about people losing rights. And I've been thinking a lot
about my son and how hard it was for him
(15:57):
just being on a wait list to get services. But he knew he
was going to get there. If there was no hope at all,
if there is no there for these kids, I just, I don't know
how these kids are going to live without hope.
And it scares me. It scares me a lot.
(16:20):
I spoke with both Lindsay and Amelia further about the challenges of living
in Alberta. I kept coming back to this idea of home,
something that Elliot had mentioned as a space he found within.
I thought about the home of Nova Scotia that he and I shared,
and how it had not been a welcoming place to him back in
the '90s as a queer person. Certainly true for me as well.
Back in 1980, it was no home for a wispy gay like me.
(16:44):
But does it still have to be that way for queer people?
Do we all have to head for the cities? I spoke with Lindsay
and Amelia about the "light under the door" that Elliot had written about.
Was there a feeling of home in that, maybe? This is what Amelia
had to say. For me, like I said, as somebody who was born
in Calgary, who's trans and queer identified, I left when I was 18,
(17:08):
and I didn't feel safe here and I didn't feel like there was
space for me here. And I and I think a lot of people found
our way back and just had this connection. And I think especially amongst
all of the political rhetoric these days, it crosses my mind quite often
that, "We should just get out of here, this isn't worth it."
(17:32):
But then I think about how meaningful this sense of home is for
me and so many. And I talked to Lindsay and she said, "No, we
have to stay here. We have to keep fighting, and we have to
be that light under the door so people know that
(17:52):
they do have a place at home, they do have a place
wherever that home is for them." This has been Queer Joy Episode 2.
I'm Daniel MacIvor. Thanks to Henry Czarnecki in New York and FOREIGNERZ
Production House in Calgary. Our next episode, the wonderful Jeremy Dutcher
and two spirited people of the First Nations. We're going to leave you
(18:15):
with Elliot's speech to Lindsay and Amelia when he presented Skipping stone
with their 2024 Pink Award in Toronto this past November. Really,
well, a great comfort to be here with all of you tonight.
Hold down the mic. Oh yeah, I am rather short. Thank you so
much for reminding me. No, it really is a great comfort to be
(18:37):
with you here all tonight. Thank you so much to Pink Triangle Press
for including me in this remarkable gathering. When I was invited to participate
in this inaugural event, it felt essential to focus on an organisation that
is doing a lot of heavy lifting on the ground for our community
(18:59):
and in Alberta, a province that continues to harm and dehumanise us. As
a young person, I didn't have anywhere to turn. I couldn't have imagined
that a place like Skipping Stone exists. But Skipping Stone has created
that place for trans, gender diverse people of all ages. A safe haven,
(19:21):
a home for community, for crucial support, education,
and joy. Amelia and Lindsay, no doubt you have succeeded in saving lives
and allowing people to thrive. The path towards liberation is not linear.
And yes, we are facing quite a backlash. It's individuals like Amelia and
(19:47):
Lindsay and organisations like Skipping Stone that give me and countless
others hope for the future. And it is my true honour to present
Skipping Stone with this PTP Pink Award. Thanks to our presenting sponsor,
Deciem, the Abnormal Beauty Company, along with category awards sponsor
(20:10):
BMO, and media sponsors iHeartRadio, the Globe and Mail, and Everything
Podcast, and to our publicists, Rocket Promotions. Queer Joy is a production
of Pink Triangle Press.
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