Maëlys McArdle

Category: Life

Every other post.

  • Is it genuine support?

    Work hosted a lovely workshop on pronouns and trans 101. It was well attended, everyone was doing their best, the presenter was qualified, yet I couldn’t shake my internal skepticism. That I felt this way really bothered me; why couldn’t I just appreciate this?

    I think my apprehension wasn’t to do with the presentation at all, but a larger question that has kept coming up as acceptance has made unprecedented inroads: are people nice now because they’re questioned the foundational beliefs that led them to mistreat others in the first place? Or have they not done this work, and this newfound kindness because they personally benefit by tapping into this trendy thing?

    Because with the latter, they’re not going to stand up to adversity when there’s repercussions; which would be precisely when their support actually matters. I also don’t consider rhetoric around inclusion laudable if the speakers are going to be just as exclusive to other groups that don’t enjoy the social capital that being trans-inclusive confers in some circles. Substituting tranny jokes for mocking people based off of looks isn’t progress.

    I keep seeing this shallow acceptance play out. So as I watch colleagues navigate this topic, I just can’t help but wonder how authentic of a change will be for them, especially those drawn to spotlights.

  • Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation & What You Can Do

    Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation & What You Can Do

    This is the transcript of a session I led at my company, a San Fransisco start-up in the solar energy space where I work as senior software engineer, and where I also volunteer on its rainbow ERG. The slides are available here.

    Who Am I

    My name is Maëlys (she/her), and here I’m a backend dev, but for most of my adult life I’ve also been actively involved in advocacy work on queer & trans issues. This is me in Parliament during Bill C-16, which added gender identity and gender expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act:

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  • More troll than threat

    More troll than threat

    In the past five years, I’ve documented two new forms of transphobic organizing in Canada:

    This is in addition to the organizing by various Conservative parties and Christian entities who have long tried to eradicate gender and sexual diversity. In recent years the nationalist groups have not been able to physically intimidate queer people in their own spaces as a result of the pandemic and the cessation of in-person events, with some exceptions. So I want to focus instead on this new wave of activism that has co-opted the language of women’s and gay rights for prejudicial ends.

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  • Ottawa’s Covid Party

    Ottawa’s Covid Party

    Lead Up

    FOX News, Tea Party & Trumpism

    A dozen years ago, I went to Washington, D.C. for a Tea Party mass event with my friend Jon and partner Jay. The movement at the centre of this this “Restoring Honor Rally” arose in the wake of Obama’s election; its makeup almost exclusively white people, aggrieved at the social and economic shifts that took place over their lifetime and culminating with the election of this first Black President. They wanted their America back; or at least a pseudo-1950’s straight white protestant vision of it.

    The rally was the brain-child of then-FOX News personality Glenn Beck. Christian persecution myths shared space with military worship and conspiracy theories. At the time that I figured that this movement was going to fizzle out and I wanted to witness this historical curiosity. I was wrong; the Tea Party would metamorphose into Trumpism and its “Make America Great Again” slogan, and lead a dark chapter in American history.

    Despite the dark perceptions the people in attendance at the rally held, as individuals they were pleasant and the vibe festive. That’s been common to the right-wing fringe events I’ve observed over the years: people in isolation are almost always nice to strangers. Even to strangers like me stroking my boyfriend’s leg at a time where homophobia was rampant. It’s what they do when humanity is lost; though communal action or when you’re seen as part of an out group, that things take a dangerous turn.

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  • “The first trans person in Canada”

    While researching the archives of The Ottawa Journal, I found this article from the March 22, 1954 edition of the paper, on Page 30. It denotes “Canada’s first sex change” of Frances Marie Jefferson, age 24.

    I always find any assertion of “first” with the media deeply dubious; first known to the author no doubt. Another article from two days previous refers to her as Josephine Jefferson age 21; I suspect this is erroneous. It might be tempting to apply contemporaneous labels of intersex or trans to her, but you’d really need her own voice to do that and that’s missing.

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