The makeup of trans and non-binary people is rapidly changing.
In 2019, the median income of trans and non-binary Ontarians was approximately $30,000. While that’s still significantly short of the $50,000 that the median over 16 made in the province, it is double the 2009 figure of $15,000.
We are living in a special moment; the trans analogue of Pride’s inflection point where it went from amplifying the vilified in the 1970s to throwing change-makers under the bus as to comfort small politicians and large corporate donors. Turning away from those with the least security to centre those with the most is easy when it’s just the latter in the room, but nothing kills imagination more than doing just that.
So, do you dare to dream?
It’s a tall order. In this climate, security is accorded to those who are deemed most respectable, the ones who are closest to fit into existing social norms. It values the software developer over the sex worker; the cis-passing trans man over the trans woman with a beard. Those let into the club are further predisposed towards assimilation as the more one has, the more there is to lose by ruffling feathers. So the very security that is had by liberating ourselves from puritanical values also incentivizes us to pretend like they’re perfectly fine.
It doesn’t have to be like that.
Dare to dream.