TORONTO — The Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention (Black CAP) and the City of Toronto have launched a public awareness campaign to encourage Torontonians to challenge their perceptions of transgender and non-binary people – specifically trans youth of color.
The campaign was created in consultation with Black CAP’s Community Advisory Committee (CAC) which is comprised entirely of racialized transgender youth. The creative concept starts the public conversation with the most basic fact required to begin to understand trans and non-binary Torontonians – the difference between gender and sex.
“Toronto continually strives to be a place that provides opportunities and supports the well-being of all its residents,” said Mayor John Tory. “This campaign, which emphasizes that members of the transgender community are part of Toronto, is very timely. The City is committed to developing gender-inclusive services and policies to ensure we serve all of our residents.”
“In order to understand the needs of trans youth of colour, we must take into consideration various aspects of these youth identities,” said Tatiana Ferguson, Project Lead for Black CAP. “Understanding how race, gender, sex and class interplay and create barriers for trans youth of colour is a fundamental component required to identify and address the needs of trans youth in Toronto.”
“We’re confident that this campaign will lead to important conversations about gender and sex and how we can reduce the significant barriers that trans youth of colour in our city experience in their homes, schools, workplaces and beyond,” said Shannon Ryan, Executive Director of Black CAP.
The campaign, which features real Torontonian racialized trans youth and uses transit ads and social media, was created by the social impact agency PUBLIC Inc. The goal of the campaign is to educate and encourage respectful and meaningful dialogue about transgender and non-binary individuals. The campaign also seeks to empower and motivate trans people to get involved in educating others about trans-specific issues.
The campaign Web site torontoforall.ca provides information and resources to educate Torontonians about non-binary people and encourage residents to recognize the systemic biases that trans people, specifically trans youth of colour, face in their daily life in order to foster more understanding and advocacy amongst the cis gender community. (Cis gender individuals are those whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth.)
This is the fourth phase of the City’s Toronto for All campaign which has an overall goal of creating a Toronto that says “no” to all forms of discrimination and racism. Phase 1 ran in the summer of 2016 and focused on Islamophobia. Phase 2 was launched in the fall of 2016 and addressed anti-Black racism. Phase 3 ran in the spring and addressed the discrimination of homeless men. All campaign phases have successfully encouraged conversations among Toronto residents and media regarding the relevant issues.
