LISA SALAZAR — BLOG

  Content Note:   This reflection includes mention of past sexual violence and gender-based trauma, and death by suicide. Please take care while reading. Living Openly, Growing Weary I live openly as a trans woman. I have for nearly two decades. I am not hiding. I do not lie about who I am. And I am not ashamed. I live in Canada, but grew up in San Jose, CA. And while I am grateful for the life I’ve built, I would be lying if I said I’m not growing weary. A Gathering Storm It’s not any one thing that weighs on me — it’s the convergence of so many. The political climate. The chilling laws being passed across borders. The ease with which people talk about us as if we are problems to be solved, threats to be managed, or ideologies to be banned. All of which has led to a rising sense of vigilance — a low-grade hum of alertness I’ve carried for years, now amplified by headlines and policies that feel like erasure by design. “Who gets to decide who matters?” Even seemingly unrelated...

  I ask, with a touch of exasperation: why are Conservative politicians so focused on Trans and Non-Binary (TNB) people, who make up such a small percentage of the population? Is it to distract from a hidden agenda, where they hope to shift the focus away from their anti-socialist views on publicly-funded universal healthcare, the Canada Pension Plan, universal daycare, public education, implementing the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and anything they see as a waste of taxpayers' money? Will they also find a way to restrict women's access to abortion and birth control, continuing a pattern of targeting vulnerable groups while framing it as a defence of traditional values? I come to these questions not as an outsider looking in, but as someone who has lived through systemic and personal challenges. My journey began long before my transition, rooted in a deep sense of not belonging. In 1980, I wrote a letter to my then-wife, confessing the struggle I...