0:00:02.017,0:00:04.367
[ Dean Spade ] So, yeah, first I wanted to say [br]thanks. It's really exciting to be here.

0:00:04.367,0:00:08.410
I'm really honoured to be part of a conversation[br]with the other folks who are gonna be in this

0:00:08.410,0:00:11.622
--who I can't see right now [br]but I trust are in front of you--

0:00:11.622,0:00:14.063
[ Dean and audience laughing ]

0:00:14.063,0:00:16.240
-who are all activists and scholars who [br]I really admire and inspired by,

0:00:16.240,0:00:17.964
so I feel really lucky.

0:00:17.964,0:00:21.536
And I also just want to say, obviously [br]I'm coming to this work from the U.S.,

0:00:21.536,0:00:24.133
so that's my frame,

0:00:24.133,0:00:29.202
and there's some overlap obviously with [br]Canadian conditions and politics and histories,

0:00:29.202,0:00:31.026
but there's also a lot of divergence,

0:00:31.026,0:00:33.370
so I hope it'll be useful,

0:00:33.370,0:00:35.707
but it's my, sort of, framework.

0:00:35.707,0:00:38.618
And I'm also gonna be reading, [br]because I'm trying to be really concise,

0:00:38.618,0:00:43.062
so that we can stick to our schedule,[br]so I apologize for reading.

0:00:43.062,0:00:47.254
So, yeah so when I was invited [br]to speak at this event,

0:00:47.254,0:00:51.956
I was asked to be part of a series that [br]I guess is about critical masculinities,

0:00:51.956,0:00:56.460
and so what I wanted to think about was

0:00:56.460,0:01:02.542
how really highly-gendered roles in our very[br]militaristic, settler, white supremacist societies

0:01:02.542,0:01:06.912
--like spouse, soldier, police officer--

0:01:06.912,0:01:10.019
have come to stand in a really complicated way

0:01:10.019,0:01:14.915
as symbols right now, of sexual [br]and gender liberation in some contexts.

0:01:14.915,0:01:19.105
And how weird that is, especially given that [br]many feminist and queer movements

0:01:19.106,0:01:21.929
have sought to eliminate [br]the existence of those roles.

0:01:21.929,0:01:25.788
So I want to try to spend these few minutes[br]just talking and thinking about that.

0:01:25.788,0:01:32.328
So, I think in particular these conversations [br]about that dynamic that I just named,

0:01:32.328,0:01:35.879
are servicing in important ways right now,

0:01:35.879,0:01:39.720
because of the role that equality [br]for gay and lesbian people,

0:01:39.720,0:01:44.265
and in some instances but not usually trans people, [br]is playing in global discourses about human rights,

0:01:44.265,0:01:48.875
increasingly the degree to which [br]countries have adopted certain high-profile

0:01:48.875,0:01:50.921
lesbian and gay law reforms,

0:01:50.921,0:01:55.956
specifically granting marriage recognition, [br]and access to military service to gays and lesbians,

0:01:55.956,0:02:01.953
is framed as central to a country's reputation [br]regarding respect for human rights.

0:02:01.953,0:02:05.005
In recent years, the U.S. and Israel [br]have put significant resources

0:02:05.005,0:02:10.711
into framing countries with certain [br]lesbian and gay rights in place as "modern",

0:02:10.711,0:02:13.664
while framing countries [br]that don't have those in place --

0:02:13.664,0:02:17.358
particularly framing Arab and African countries [br]as "backward" and "un-democratic".

0:02:17.358,0:02:23.776
And this strategy of using lesbian and gay rights, [br]particularly marriage and military participation,

0:02:23.776,0:02:26.988
as a marker of being [br]a human rights respecting country,

0:02:26.988,0:02:31.083
and particularly doing so in the face of charges [br]of ongoing significant human rights violations,

0:02:31.083,0:02:32.822
has been called "pinkwashing".

0:02:32.822,0:02:34.971
Maybe that's a term [br]that a lot of people have heard.

0:02:34.971,0:02:38.008
So, in the U.S. context,

0:02:38.008,0:02:43.868
Hilary Clinton's 2011 speech where she said[br]"gay rights are human rights",

0:02:43.868,0:02:47.574
along with the prevalence of references[br]to same-sex marriage and gay rights

0:02:47.574,0:02:52.886
at the 2012 Democratic National Convention,

0:02:52.886,0:02:55.397
are examples of American pinkwashing.

0:02:55.397,0:02:58.449
Clinton's [ inaudible ] is a relatively new logic [br]in U.S. imperialism.

0:02:58.449,0:03:03.387
That the U.S., regardless of failures [br]to protect queer and trans people

0:03:03.387,0:03:08.216
from state violence here in the U.S., [br]where I am, not you [ laughs ],

0:03:08.216,0:03:10.535
will now use gay rights as a measure to...[br]

0:03:10.535,0:03:13.189
as a measure to countries [br]it seeks to intervene on.

0:03:13.189,0:03:15.530
Basically, like, "we're going to [br]call countries homophobic

0:03:15.530,0:03:21.296
"and that'll give us a good excuse to bomb them [br]or show up there and do weird military stuff."

0:03:21.296,0:03:26.734
Clinton uses lesbian and gay rights to bolster [br]the notion that the U.S. is the world's policing arm

0:03:26.734,0:03:31.284
forcing democracy and equality globally [br]on purportedly backward and cruel governments.

0:03:31.284,0:03:34.337
Gay rights operates as [br]a new justification for this imperial role,

0:03:34.337,0:03:38.855
a justification that fits really well within[br]anti-Arab and anti-Muslim framings

0:03:38.855,0:03:42.801
that have been developed during the war on terror,[br]and portray Arab and Muslim countries

0:03:42.801,0:03:46.458
as more sexist and more homophobic [br]than the U.S., Europe and Israel.

0:03:46.458,0:03:49.636
We also see this with the framing of[br]the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan,

0:03:49.636,0:03:51.957
that it's supposed to, like, save Afghan women,

0:03:51.957,0:03:55.206
like this kind of women-saving, [br]gay-saving framework is very popular,

0:03:55.206,0:03:57.495
the saving framework has a very long history,

0:03:57.495,0:04:00.050
and in some ways the gay-saving [br]framework seen in a new way.

0:04:00.050,0:04:01.733
At the Democratic National Convention,

0:04:01.733,0:04:04.468
Obama's [U.S. President] support for [br]same-sex marriage similarly helped him

0:04:04.468,0:04:06.170
portray his administration as progressive --

0:04:06.170,0:04:08.807
and, like, the number of people [br]who buy into this is shocking --

0:04:08.807,0:04:12.452
and equality-loving in order to obscure [br]his abysmal record on key issues

0:04:12.452,0:04:15.723
such as austerity, his failure to close [br]Guantanamo, ongoing drone strikes,

0:04:15.723,0:04:19.198
harsh sanctions against Iran,[br]the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,

0:04:19.211,0:04:21.884
and his record-breaking rates [br]of deportation --

0:04:21.884,0:04:24.865
I'm sure you know he's the most deporting [br]president ever in the history of the United States--

0:04:24.865,0:04:27.334
and I think in particular you see [br]this kind of American pinkwashing,

0:04:27.334,0:04:30.085
I've seen it again more recently [br]in his inaugural address,

0:04:30.085,0:04:33.308
he talked about Stonewall, which basically, [br]like, caused me to fall over,

0:04:33.308,0:04:37.505
y'know, it's again... [br]why is this guy talking about Stonewall?

0:04:37.505,0:04:40.737
Stonewall's a moment of resistance [br]to police brutality.

0:04:40.737,0:04:44.607
He's running the country that imprisons [br]more people than anyone in the world,

0:04:44.607,0:04:46.990
where queer and trans people[br]are still suffering

0:04:46.990,0:04:49.772
police violence and extremely horrifying [br]conditions of imprisonment.

0:04:49.772,0:04:51.928
Like, how does this fit?

0:04:51.928,0:04:56.760
And also, recently he's [br]kind of made waves

0:04:56.760,0:05:02.302
because there's this really awful immigration [br]reform policy going around in the United States

0:05:02.302,0:05:06.830
that's supposed to be like the answer to [br]the unjust system of immigration enforcement,

0:05:06.830,0:05:10.138
but really it's just a way of [br]ramping up immigration enforcement.

0:05:10.138,0:05:13.779
And he said about it that he's gonna make sure [br]that gay and lesbian couples can be in on it,

0:05:13.779,0:05:20.341
and that is kind of this pinkwashing of this actually [br]really conservative set of policies and principles

0:05:20.341,0:05:22.786
around immigration that we're [br]supposed to be, like, grateful for.

0:05:22.786,0:05:26.657
And many people do articu- [ inaudible ]

0:05:26.657,0:05:29.114
The term "pinkwashing" [br]is most frequently used to describe

0:05:29.114,0:05:31.968
the explicit strategy Israel has [br]undertaken in recent years

0:05:31.968,0:05:34.329
to market itself as a human rights leader,

0:05:34.329,0:05:41.540
based on its stances on same-sex marriage,[br]and LGBT military service.

0:05:41.540,0:05:44.142
Israel has explicitly worked with [br]marketing experts to re-brand itself

0:05:44.142,0:05:47.737
trying to overcome its international reputation [br]as a brutal occupying force.

0:05:47.737,0:05:50.893
I think particularly in the face of the [br]Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement

0:05:50.893,0:05:52.940
which has really raised a lot of awareness[br]

0:05:52.940,0:05:56.578
about, even further than before, [br]about these issues.

0:05:56.578,0:06:01.071
The new image is focused on portraying Israel[br]as a modern democracy in the Middle East,

0:06:01.071,0:06:04.233
surrounded by countries with supposedly [br]less enlightened policy and culture.

0:06:04.233,0:06:08.146
A key feature of that portrayal is [br]the articulation of Israel as a country

0:06:08.146,0:06:12.597
that recognizes gay and lesbian rights,[br]specifically marriage and military service,

0:06:12.597,0:06:16.561
and that it is an ideal destination [br]for gay and lesbian tourism.

0:06:16.561,0:06:20.448
As part of its pinkwashing efforts,

0:06:20.448,0:06:22.479
Israel has funded tours of Israelis [br]to the United States

0:06:22.479,0:06:26.755
in order to discuss Israel's military and marriage [br]laws with respect to gays and lesbians.

0:06:26.755,0:06:30.722
So it's like a really aggressive kind [br]of propaganda machine.

0:06:30.722,0:06:34.351
Critics of same sex marriage and military [br]service advocacy in the United States,

0:06:34.351,0:06:36.520
and critics of pinkwashing,

0:06:36.520,0:06:40.186
have suggested that it's necessary [br]to look at what these institutions are

0:06:40.186,0:06:45.858
in order to assess whether inclusion in them [br]is a felicitous goal for queer and trans politics.

0:06:45.858,0:06:48.906
The militaries of both the United States [br]and Israel have been accused of war crimes,

0:06:48.906,0:06:53.400
and operate daily in what have been identified [br]as illegal and immoral occupations.

0:06:53.400,0:06:56.649
In the case of Israel, [br]uh Palestine in the case of Israel.

0:06:56.649,0:06:59.018
And Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii,

0:06:59.018,0:07:02.617
the part of North America currently known [br]as the continental United States,

0:07:02.617,0:07:07.323
the Northern Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, [br]and more, in the case of the United States.

0:07:07.323,0:07:11.526
Internally, the U.S. military has a culture [br]and practice of sexism, racism, and torture,

0:07:11.526,0:07:15.474
that have been consistently identified [br]by survivors and critics.

0:07:15.474,0:07:18.685
Recent publications and the exposure [br]of classified documents

0:07:18.685,0:07:22.170
have further highlighted [br]the lawless violence of the U.S. military,

0:07:22.170,0:07:25.345
and the ways that its operations, [br]such as the occupation of Iraq,

0:07:25.345,0:07:30.983
are often motivated by profit-seeking corporations [br]with high level government ties,

0:07:30.983,0:07:35.220
rather than by the democracy-spreading rationales [br]commonly employed as justification.

0:07:35.220,0:07:39.730
The Israeli military's record similarly shows

0:07:39.730,0:07:42.594
that from its initial ethnic cleansing [br]project undertaken in 1948,

0:07:42.594,0:07:44.930
when over 400 Palestinian villages were destroyed,

0:07:44.930,0:07:48.630
the Israeli government has used military power[br]to forcibly settle the land it now occupies,

0:07:48.630,0:07:52.508
and to remove, destroy, and erase [br]the prior inhabitants wherever possible.

0:07:52.508,0:07:57.289
The recent outcry against these atrocities [br]committed by Israel on the inhabitants of Gaza,

0:07:57.289,0:08:03.911
as well as the Israeli military's brutal 2010 raid of [br]the flotilla bound for Gaza to deliver aid,

0:08:03.911,0:08:06.117
have further drawn international attention.

0:08:06.117,0:08:12.357
Israel's increasing threats toward Iran are further [br]building international opposition to Israeli militarism.

0:08:12.357,0:08:15.310
Despite the long-term critique Israeli militarism...

0:08:15.310,0:08:18.475
[ inaudible ]

0:08:18.475,0:08:23.199
...the U.S. and Israeli militarism specifically,

0:08:23.199,0:08:25.504
in many movements that define the American left,

0:08:25.504,0:08:28.770
the discourse about gay and lesbian soldiers [br]serving in the U.S. and Israeli militaries

0:08:28.770,0:08:30.743
has garnered support from many people,

0:08:30.743,0:08:33.540
who otherwise oppose the wars [br]in Iraq and Afghanistan,

0:08:33.540,0:08:36.512
the Israeli attacks on Gaza [br]in 2008, 2009 and 2012,

0:08:36.512,0:08:39.912
and other highly publicized [br]Israeli and U.S. military activities.

0:08:39.912,0:08:43.263
Images of gay and lesbian service members [br]in uniform, holding hands and kissing,

0:08:43.263,0:08:45.055
in front of national flags,

0:08:45.055,0:08:48.064
have successfully stirred [br]patriotic and pro-military sentiment,

0:08:48.064,0:08:50.764
deadening critical thinking [br]about patriotism and militarism,

0:08:50.764,0:08:54.550
by asserting such sentiments as a form [br]of sympathy for gay and lesbian people.

0:08:54.550,0:08:58.469
Similarly, long term left critiques [br]of marriage have been silenced

0:08:58.469,0:09:01.865
by the combination of relentless [br]right wing family values rhetoric,

0:09:01.865,0:09:06.213
and the articulation of the desirability of [br]marriage by same sex marriage advocacy -

0:09:06.213,0:09:09.297
- messages long contested [br]by feminists and anti racists.

0:09:09.297,0:09:13.130
Such as, that children benefit [br]from being raised by married parents,

0:09:13.130,0:09:16.485
that married people are healthier,[br]and contribute more to society,

0:09:16.485,0:09:20.325
or that marriage recognizes the most [br]important relationship people can have--

0:09:20.325,0:09:23.035
are now mobilized [br]by same sex marriage advocates

0:09:23.035,0:09:28.108
and judges writing decisions that are considered [br]victories for same sex marriage advocacy.

0:09:28.108,0:09:30.625
These pro-marriage messages [br]are now articulated

0:09:30.625,0:09:34.037
as anti-homophobic statements [br]in the arguments for same sex marriage.

0:09:34.037,0:09:37.306
Feminist, anti-racist [br]and anti-colonial movements

0:09:37.306,0:09:42.504
have long worked to dismantle marriage,[br]and have identified rules about marriage

0:09:42.529,0:09:45.492
as central to organizing [br]foundational violences of the U.S.:

0:09:45.492,0:09:48.369
slavery, settler colonialism, and genocide.

0:09:48.369,0:09:50.591
From the beginning, in the United States,

0:09:50.591,0:09:54.447
marriage laws were key to organizing [br]who is property and who can hold property.

0:09:54.447,0:10:00.115
Identifying Indigenous systems of gender and family [br]formation as backward and in need of intervention,

0:10:00.115,0:10:03.327
and enforcing colonial and gender family norms [br]on Indigenous people

0:10:03.327,0:10:05.222
has been an important part of colonization.

0:10:05.222,0:10:08.953
Marriage has been an important technology [br]of land theft and ethnic cleansing,

0:10:08.953,0:10:11.664
aimed at disappearing Indigenous people[br]in many ways.

0:10:11.664,0:10:13.577
One way, one example,

0:10:13.577,0:10:17.748
is that the U.S. encouraged westward settlement [br]by promising male settlers 160 acres...

0:10:17.748,0:10:21.229
to every male settler who would move west,

0:10:21.229,0:10:26.622
plus an extra 160 acres if he brings a wife.

0:10:26.622,0:10:30.909
Putting that kind of marriage [br]as a promotion for settlement

0:10:30.909,0:10:33.658
next to what the U.S. [br]was simultaneously doing,

0:10:33.658,0:10:39.716
which was criminalizing traditional [br]Indigenous communal living styles.

0:10:39.716,0:10:43.445
And, like, where I sometimes live in Seattle,

0:10:43.445,0:10:46.652
y'know, like burning down longhouses [br]and forcing people not to live in those ways,

0:10:46.652,0:10:50.442
and eliminating communal land holding methods,

0:10:50.442,0:10:53.795
and enforcing male, individual ownership

0:10:53.795,0:10:58.173
to facilitate displacing [br]Indigenous people from their land.

0:10:58.173,0:11:02.134
So in this way, management of [br]gender and family systems

0:11:02.134,0:11:05.924
has been essential to [br]displacement and settlement processes.

0:11:05.924,0:11:13.269
It's also been essential to structuring slavery.

0:11:13.269,0:11:18.239
So, denying the family ties of slaves [br]was central to slavery,

0:11:18.239,0:11:21.481
ensuring that children would be born enslaved,

0:11:21.481,0:11:27.953
and then later coercing marriage among newly freed [br]Black people after supposed emancipation,

0:11:27.953,0:11:35.289
and criminalizing them for adultery was one pathway [br]of re-capturing them into the convict lease system,

0:11:35.289,0:11:41.119
which was the predecessor of today's [br]U.S. mass imprisonment project

0:11:41.119,0:11:45.500
that centrally targets Black and native people.

0:11:45.500,0:11:52.782
Today, marriage is still used to distribute essential [br]life chances like health care and immigration status,

0:11:52.782,0:11:57.613
in ways that produce and maintain [br]enormous racial disparities.

0:11:57.613,0:12:02.091
So, there are very few pathways [br]to immigration in the U.S.,

0:12:02.091,0:12:06.696
and those are focused on either your family,

0:12:06.696,0:12:11.250
so if you don't have any family ties to the U.S. [br]it's much much harder to immigrate;

0:12:11.250,0:12:20.000
or jobs, which of course, y'know, [br]is available to extremely few people.

0:12:20.000,0:12:28.213
And we still get our health care through our jobs [br]and usually through family ties as well.

0:12:28.213,0:12:33.760
So if you don't have a partner or spouse [br]who has healthcare, you can't get it.

0:12:33.760,0:12:38.922
And given the racialized distribution [br]of the most highly compensated jobs,

0:12:38.922,0:12:45.837
there's a really severe racial disparity in that [br]kind of family-based access to healthcare.

0:12:45.837,0:12:51.167
So obviously these are unjust ways to [br]give out the essential things people need,

0:12:51.167,0:12:58.033
and these kinds of marriage ties to basic needs [br]traps people in violent family scenarios,

0:12:58.033,0:13:04.648
and just causes most people to [br]have no path to these necessities.

0:13:04.648,0:13:11.691
So in this way marriage still structures racialized [br]social control through the family unit and family law.

0:13:11.691,0:13:19.174
And marriage has been specifically central to [br]anti-Black and anti-poor politics in the U.S.

0:13:19.174,0:13:23.813
There's a strong story [br]that's been very prevalent in the U.S.

0:13:23.813,0:13:29.642
that the reason people are poor is because they're [br]morally flawed and they need to get married more.

0:13:29.642,0:13:34.715
So like in 1996 when [br]President Clinton dismantled welfare,

0:13:34.715,0:13:42.149
that the law that was passed is called the [br]"Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act",

0:13:42.149,0:13:46.440
you can already hear the sort of racism [br]and anti-poor sentiment dripping off of that.

0:13:46.440,0:13:51.462
That law, y'know, all of its [br]findings section is all about

0:13:51.462,0:13:54.590
how the reason people are poor is [br]'cause they don't marry enough,

0:13:54.590,0:13:56.999
and how we have to get rid of this.

0:13:56.999,0:14:00.409
And this is based in, y'know, [br]really racist sociology,

0:14:00.409,0:14:03.087
where one of the most famous [br]government reports about this

0:14:03.087,0:14:05.880
is called the Moynihan Report of the 1960's.

0:14:05.880,0:14:08.257
It kind of articulates this idea

0:14:08.257,0:14:12.818
that Black families were poor because [br]they were pathologically female-headed.

0:14:12.818,0:14:16.615
So, this notion that family structure[br]is the problem with poor people,

0:14:16.615,0:14:19.078
and specifically with Black poor people,

0:14:19.078,0:14:24.879
has been this very prevalent racist notion that's [br]still very active in welfare policy in the U.S.

0:14:24.879,0:14:29.023
And both George Bush and Obama have had these... [br]spent millions of dollars on these

0:14:29.023,0:14:34.452
"healthy marriage" promotion projects [br]that force poor people to marry,

0:14:34.452,0:14:40.082
or that give you a financial incentive [br]if you're on welfare and you get married.

0:14:40.082,0:14:43.442
So all of this is about blaming poverty [br]on the failure to marry,

0:14:43.442,0:14:48.281
or the failure to have the state's idea [br]of a moral family structure.

0:14:48.281,0:14:51.979
Anti-racists and feminists [br]have sought to dismantle marriage,

0:14:51.979,0:14:54.891
identifying the family as a place of violence,

0:14:54.891,0:15:01.793
and the institution of marriage as a key form of social [br]control of sexuality, racialized population control,

0:15:01.793,0:15:07.217
and just not an OK way to distribute life chances, [br]the basic stuff people need.

0:15:07.217,0:15:10.159
And they've worked to make it easier [br]to get out of marriage.

0:15:10.159,0:15:13.910
That was a huge feminist legal project for years,[br]was trying to make it easier to get a divorce,

0:15:13.985,0:15:18.770
because people couldn't get out of marriages[br]'cause of the way American law structured divorce.

0:15:18.770,0:15:23.272
And feminists have also fought to explode [br]romance myths and family roles that trap people,

0:15:23.272,0:15:26.495
and to disconnect marriage from vital resources.

0:15:26.495,0:15:30.606
And there's also been an enormous amount [br]of legal work in the U.S.

0:15:30.606,0:15:36.803
to get rid of laws that disadvantage people if they [br]were "illegitimate", if they had un-married parents.

0:15:36.803,0:15:41.359
'Cause those laws, after it was [br]no longer explicitly permissible

0:15:41.359,0:15:45.195
to have laws that just excluded [br]Black people from certain opportunities,

0:15:45.195,0:15:47.648
those laws were the replacement.

0:15:47.648,0:15:51.903
So part of this as well is [br]a whole history of anti-illegitimacy laws,

0:15:51.903,0:15:54.541
which are really, like, pro-marriage laws [br]with a penalty,

0:15:54.541,0:15:58.978
to be used in really explicitly anti-Black ways.

0:15:58.978,0:16:03.085
Like in the U.S., in Israel marriage law [br]also plays a key role

0:16:03.085,0:16:07.841
in maintaining basic conditions of racialized [br]hierarchy necessary to settler colonialism.

0:16:07.841,0:16:15.266
This happens in a number of ways that are really [br]obvious parts of the ethnic cleansing project,

0:16:15.266,0:16:19.547
that seeks to win a demographic war [br]to ensure that Jews outnumber Arabs,

0:16:19.547,0:16:24.043
and that a particular, narrow defined [br]kind of Jewish life is cultivated.

0:16:24.043,0:16:28.681
One very obvious example is that [br]civil marriage does not exist in Israel.

0:16:28.681,0:16:31.723
So marriage between people of different religions,

0:16:31.723,0:16:35.992
or even between people who have different [br]matrilineal or patrilineal Jewish heritage

0:16:35.992,0:16:38.409
is not allowed.

0:16:38.409,0:16:41.861
And hundreds of Israeli couples [br]fly to Cyprus every month to get married.

0:16:41.861,0:16:45.724
This approach to marriage overall [br]is contested by many Israelis

0:16:45.724,0:16:51.104
who see it as a threat to freedom of religion;

0:16:51.104,0:16:54.846
but it more broadly attests to the use of marriage [br]as a tool of population control

0:16:54.846,0:16:59.100
aimed at settlement and population [br]displacement and replacement.

0:16:59.100,0:17:02.433
Another prominent example is the [br]Citizenship and Entry Into Israel Law,

0:17:02.433,0:17:08.100
the 2003 law that established that Palestinian [br]citizens of the Occupied Territories

0:17:08.100,0:17:12.317
who marry Israeli citizens [br]cannot acquire Israeli residency.

0:17:12.317,0:17:16.498
So Israeli citizens who marry people [br]from other places

0:17:16.498,0:17:19.626
win family munification through their marriages.

0:17:19.626,0:17:22.791
Their new spouses can come [br]and live with them in Israel.

0:17:22.791,0:17:26.533
Since most of the Israeli citizens who marry[br]Palestinians from the Occupied Territories

0:17:26.533,0:17:30.473
are part of the 20% of Israeli citizens [br]who are Palestinian,

0:17:30.473,0:17:35.259
this primarily means that the Palestinian families [br]are being divided by this 2003 law.

0:17:35.259,0:17:39.138
While Jewish people all over the world have [br]the right to citizenship in Israel,

0:17:39.138,0:17:43.016
and... for immigration purposes interestingly,

0:17:43.016,0:17:45.699
the definition of Jewish enough is very broad,

0:17:45.699,0:17:48.413
because the goal is to encourage settlement.

0:17:48.413,0:17:52.195
And others who marry Israeli citizens [br]can acquire residency in Israel,

0:17:52.195,0:17:54.386
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories [br]cannot access residency status

0:17:54.386,0:17:57.083
through their spouses in Israel.

0:17:57.083,0:18:01.423
And this immigration policy [br]--and immigration policy in Israel in general--

0:18:01.423,0:18:06.026
is focused on prioritizing [br]immigration of Jewish people,

0:18:06.026,0:18:08.353
there's a 3-track immigration system

0:18:08.353,0:18:12.551
which prioritizes Jewish immigration [br]with immediate and automatic citizenship,

0:18:12.551,0:18:16.003
places non-Jewish foreign immigration second,

0:18:16.003,0:18:18.798
with a multi-year process for [br]gaining residency or citizenship,

0:18:18.798,0:18:23.949
and provides a 3rd track for spouses [br]of Palestinian citizens of Israel,

0:18:23.949,0:18:26.591
as long as they are not residents [br]of the Occupied Territories

0:18:26.591,0:18:29.058
or states that Israel has declared enemy states.

0:18:29.058,0:18:33.512
Unequal marital privileges are part of the [br]ethnic cleansing project of the state of Israel,

0:18:33.512,0:18:35.930
and impact thousands of families,

0:18:35.930,0:18:37.981
maintaining forced separations,

0:18:37.981,0:18:42.549
depriving Palestinian citizens of Israel of access [br]to state resources for their families,

0:18:42.549,0:18:45.463
that are available to Jewish citizens of Israel;

0:18:45.463,0:18:48.501
and restricting movement for Palestinians.

0:18:48.501,0:18:52.454
Clearly, increased access to Israel's [br]marriage regime for same sex couples

0:18:52.454,0:18:56.921
does not change or reform [br]the fundamental role of Israeli marriage law,

0:18:56.921,0:19:01.587
in enforcing occupation and state-sponsored racism.

0:19:01.587,0:19:04.396
Lesbian and gay Palestinian citizens of Israel

0:19:04.396,0:19:08.250
whose partners are from the Occupied Territories [br]face the same restrictions as straight people do.

0:19:08.250,0:19:13.413
What does it mean to recognize... to get to [br]seek recognition in a marriage system

0:19:13.413,0:19:17.051
overtly created to forward [br]an ethnic cleansing process?

0:19:17.051,0:19:20.333
What does it mean to declare such recognition [br]as a victory for equality

0:19:20.333,0:19:22.576
or evidence of enlightened human rights policy?

0:19:22.576,0:19:27.581
[ MC interrupts to ask ] Dean, could we have [br]it wrap up in about 5 minutes or so?

0:19:27.581,0:19:30.002
[ Dean Spade ] Oh, much sooner than that!

0:19:30.002,0:19:32.274
[ MC ] Oh, sorry, carry on!

0:19:32.274,0:19:36.068
[ Dean Spade ] Thank you... I'm sorry that[br]our technical issues have made me so slow.

0:19:36.068,0:19:39.484
Just have one more paragraph. [ laughs ]

0:19:39.484,0:19:43.147
The intensifying discourse [br]of Israeli human rights leadership

0:19:43.147,0:19:49.190
buoyed by same sex marriage and LGB [br]--and in Israel T-- military service,

0:19:49.190,0:19:54.301
brings to the surface in new ways ongoing tensions [br]in queer and trans politics,

0:19:54.301,0:19:59.230
about efforts at inclusion [br]in central state institutions and systems.

0:19:59.230,0:20:02.255
The demands of marriage and military participation

0:20:02.255,0:20:06.974
are not only far from fulfilling feminist,[br]queer, trans and anti-racist imaginings

0:20:06.974,0:20:09.607
of sexual and gender liberation,

0:20:09.607,0:20:14.002
but must also be analyzed as methods [br]of justifying and sustaining and expanding

0:20:14.002,0:20:16.783
colonial and imperial violence.

0:20:16.783,0:20:19.884
it's not surprising that these demands [br]have risen to the surface,

0:20:19.884,0:20:22.543
and drowned out other images [br]of gender and sexual liberation

0:20:22.543,0:20:25.265
in corporate media owned and dominated

0:20:25.265,0:20:27.949
by those who have invented and executed [br]the war on terror,

0:20:27.949,0:20:32.137
and also the same people who don't mind [br]developing new markets for wedding day creation.

0:20:32.137,0:20:36.837
The same media that has, y'know, [br]24 hours a day on TV in the United States,

0:20:36.837,0:20:42.208
shows about buying wedding dresses,[br]and shows about how cops are great and stuff.

0:20:42.208,0:20:46.650
The context... and y'know, movies about [br]how the U.S. military is amazing...

0:20:46.650,0:20:54.554
this context in the U.S. has created ready [br]and willing audiences for Israeli pinkwashing,

0:20:54.554,0:20:59.894
which is dearly needed as more and more of the [br]world names conditions in Israel as apartheid,

0:20:59.894,0:21:06.124
and it becomes more and more essential to maintain [br]U.S. financial support for Israeli military violence.

0:21:06.124,0:21:11.569
It's become commonplace to convince straight people [br]--as well as many queer people,

0:21:11.569,0:21:13.470
amazingly, even those who would say [br]they are anti-war--

0:21:13.470,0:21:19.191
that our liberation is about becoming soldiers [br]and spouses, recuperating oppressive structures

0:21:19.191,0:21:21.918
by putting a gay flag on them[br]and saying they are good for gays.

0:21:21.918,0:21:26.829
I would argue that centuries of feminist,[br]anti-colonial, and anti-racist resistance

0:21:26.829,0:21:30.227
have proven that marriage and the military[br]are not good for anyone.

0:21:30.227,0:21:33.674
Today's anti-pinkwashing activists are encouraging

0:21:33.674,0:21:39.558
those invested in resisting sexual, gender, and family[br]formation norms, to develop discernment,

0:21:39.558,0:21:45.998
not asking just "can we be included in existing [br]structures?", but "what are those structures?"

0:21:45.998,0:21:54.161
And if it's a prison cell, a cop, a tank, a wall, [br]a border, a soldier, or a state family formation norm,

0:21:54.161,0:21:57.015
you can wrap it in a rainbow flag all you want,

0:21:57.015,0:21:59.846
and it still won't be anti-homophobic,[br]feminist or liberating.

0:21:59.846,0:22:04.448
So we have to ask: "can you have a movement [br]for sexual liberation or gender liberation

0:22:04.448,0:22:07.685
that does not contest colonization,

0:22:07.685,0:22:11.092
especially when sexual and family regulation [br]is a central tool of colonization?"

0:22:11.092,0:22:15.295
I wonder, will contemporary [br]gay rights frameworks be remembered

0:22:15.295,0:22:18.685
as pro-war, pro-military, and pro-apartheid?

0:22:18.685,0:22:21.596
That's all. [ audience claps ]

0:22:23.925,0:22:28.354
[ Isabel Krupp, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid,[br]AKA QuAIA ]

0:22:28.354,0:22:29.297
My name's Isabel Krupp,

0:22:29.297,0:22:32.639
and I'm a member of Queers Against [br]Israeli Apartheid, Vancouver,

0:22:32.639,0:22:35.831
which I'll refer to as QuAIA from now on,

0:22:35.831,0:22:39.559
just so I don't trip over my own tongue [br]while I'm speaking.

0:22:39.559,0:22:45.385
I'd like to begin by acknowledging that we're on [br]un-ceded and occupied Coast Salish Territories,

0:22:45.385,0:22:50.004
the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, [br]Stó:lō and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

0:22:50.004,0:22:55.579
And this acknowledgement of the ongoing occupation[br]and colonization of this land, of Turtle Island,

0:22:55.579,0:22:59.542
is foundational to all of the work that QuAIA does.

0:22:59.542,0:23:03.845
So, recognizing the ongoing [br]impacts of settler colonialism,

0:23:03.845,0:23:09.526
and working in solidarity with Indigenous movements[br]for sovereignty and decolonization,

0:23:09.526,0:23:12.710
is really what QuAIA is all about.

0:23:12.710,0:23:18.864
We're a Palestine solidarity organization,[br]we work in solidarity with Palestinian movements

0:23:18.864,0:23:24.298
for sovereignty and against Israeli [br]apartheid, occupation, and colonization.

0:23:24.298,0:23:26.681
So it's really important for us

0:23:26.681,0:23:32.107
to recognize how Canada and Israel [br]bolster each other’s colonial occupations,

0:23:32.107,0:23:38.401
both ideologically and materially, through [br]political, military, and economic support.

0:23:39.489,0:23:43.267
And I'd like to point out that Canada is one of the [br]key supporters of Israel in the world right now.

0:23:43.267,0:23:48.761
So if we want to effectively fight [br]against Israeli apartheid and occupation,

0:23:48.761,0:23:56.341
we need also to come out against [br]settler-colonialism here in Canada.

0:23:56.341,0:24:00.718
So for folks who would like to explore [br]these connections further,

0:24:00.718,0:24:06.180
there is a brilliant paper by Dana Olwan and Mike [br]Krebs on the topic, which I highly recommend.

0:24:06.180,0:24:11.175
So I've already used the phrase [br]“Israeli apartheid” several times.

0:24:11.175,0:24:16.923
and I know that's something that Dean has talked [br]about so I'm going to try not to overlap too much,

0:24:16.923,0:24:19.766
but I imagine that some folks in the audience

0:24:19.766,0:24:22.999
aren't as familiar with a critical perspective[br]on the Israeli state.

0:24:22.999,0:24:27.948
I won't have time to get into like [br]an Israeli Apartheid 101 today,

0:24:27.948,0:24:31.970
so I encourage those less familiar with this topic [br]to seek out critical resources,

0:24:31.970,0:24:35.177
which QuAIA would be happy to help provide.

0:24:35.177,0:24:40.116
But I will describe very briefly what I mean [br]when I say Israeli apartheid.

0:24:40.116,0:24:45.388
I'm talking about Palestinians in the West Bank [br]who live under a brutal military occupation,

0:24:45.388,0:24:49.545
which takes the form of illegal Israeli settlements,

0:24:49.545,0:24:55.614
checkpoints, and a system of walls, barriers, [br]and roads accessible solely to Israeli settlers.

0:24:55.614,0:24:59.980
I'm talking about Palestinians living in Israel [br]who face discriminatory policies.

0:24:59.980,0:25:04.346
Like Dean was talking about a little bit, [br]currently there are over 25 laws

0:25:04.346,0:25:09.160
which target them specifically as non-Jewish [br]and reduce them to second class citizens.

0:25:09.160,0:25:15.407
I'm talking about Palestinians in the diaspora [br]and in UN-administered refugee camps

0:25:15.407,0:25:20.862
who are by default denied their UN-sanctioned [br]right to return to their lands.

0:25:20.862,0:25:25.160
And I'm talking about over 1.8 million [br]Palestinians in the Gaza Strip

0:25:25.160,0:25:29.001
who are living in an open air prison [br]under an illegal siege,

0:25:29.001,0:25:32.944
described by international experts [br]as a "slow genocide".

0:25:32.944,0:25:36.903
So again, I encourage anyone surprised by what [br]I am saying or what Dean was talking about

0:25:36.903,0:25:42.541
to seek out critical resources and particularly [br]to seek out Palestinian perspectives.

0:25:42.541,0:25:46.649
So, there is a growing international movement [br]– led by Palestinians –

0:25:46.649,0:25:49.186
against Israeli apartheid and occupation.[br]

0:25:49.186,0:25:55.660
In response, Israel's launched an aggressive well [br]funded PR campaign that Dean was talking about

0:25:55.660,0:26:00.352
to market itself as an oasis of tolerance [br]in the Middle East,

0:26:00.352,0:26:03.398
as this modern liberal democratic state –

0:26:03.398,0:26:07.317
specifically, the only democracy [br]in the Middle East, right? –

0:26:07.317,0:26:09.809
in order to obscure its status [br]as an apartheid state.

0:26:09.809,0:26:12.999
And I think it's important to point out [br]that the implication here

0:26:12.999,0:26:19.849
is that Israel needs to practice apartheid,[br]colonialism, and genocide

0:26:19.849,0:26:26.427
in order to preserve these freedoms and democracy [br]and rights for gays and lesbians, right?

0:26:26.427,0:26:32.039
'Cause like Dean was describing, gay rights [br]discourse is a big piece of this PR campaign –

0:26:32.039,0:26:39.990
Israel is working really hard to brand itself [br]as the only gay-friendly country

0:26:39.990,0:26:41.755
in what they frame as an otherwise [br]hostile and homophobic region.

0:26:41.755,0:26:46.483
And we can see really clearly how this plays into [br]racist, imperialist, and orientalist ideas

0:26:46.483,0:26:51.925
around the “West” as modern and civilized [br]and the “East” as barbaric and backwards, right?

0:26:51.925,0:26:58.734
So this practice of appropriating [br]the struggle for gay rights discourse

0:26:58.734,0:27:02.640
to obscure, excuse, or justify state violence [br]is called “pinkwashing”.

0:27:02.640,0:27:05.764
And Dean made that very clear... [br]

0:27:05.764,0:27:08.893
And this practice, I'd like to point out, [br]is not unique to Israel.

0:27:08.893,0:27:12.520
In the Canadian context, we see an example of this

0:27:12.520,0:27:17.794
when we look at the re-branding of the tar sands [br]and this idea, this myth of “ethical oil”, right?

0:27:17.794,0:27:22.195
In opposition to so-called “conflict oil” that [br]comes from countries like Saudi Arabia,

0:27:22.195,0:27:27.908
which are again constructed through [br]racist narratives as exceptionally homophobic.

0:27:27.908,0:27:32.431
So one of the things that [br]this practice of pinkwashing erases

0:27:32.431,0:27:38.788
is how state violence, including colonialism [br]and apartheid, impacts all Palestinians,

0:27:38.788,0:27:42.126
queer and straight, trans and cis.

0:27:42.126,0:27:45.329
“There is no pink door in the apartheid wall” right?

0:27:45.329,0:27:49.635
We hear this phrase, this slogan [br]in anti-pinkwashing activism,

0:27:49.635,0:27:53.400
“There is no pink door in the apartheid wall”.

0:27:53.400,0:27:58.177
All of these supposed rights and freedoms [br]of “gay! friendly! Israel!”,

0:27:58.177,0:28:00.840
they don't extend to Palestinians.[br]

0:28:00.840,0:28:04.476
And as much as the Israeli state [br]decries Palestinian homophobia,

0:28:04.476,0:28:09.593
its regime of apartheid and occupation [br]creates challenges and barriers

0:28:09.593,0:28:16.571
for queer and trans Palestinians organizing [br]against homophobia and transphobia.

0:28:16.571,0:28:23.964
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna read a little quote [br]from a Palestinian queer organization,

0:28:23.964,0:28:27.387
Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment, [br]and Sanctions. And they say:

0:28:27.387,0:28:32.381
<i>“As Palestinian queers, our struggle is not only [br]against social injustice</i>

0:28:32.381,0:28:37.040
<i>and our rights as a queer minority [br]in Palestinian society,</i>

0:28:37.040,0:28:42.945
<i> but rather, our main struggle is one against [br]Israel's colonization, occupation and apartheid;</i>

0:28:42.945,0:28:47.689
<i>a system that has oppressed us [br]for the past 63 years"</i>

0:28:47.689,0:28:50.030
So that's Palestinian Queers for BDS.

0:28:50.030,0:28:52.570
And I think this statement makes a lot of sense

0:28:52.570,0:28:55.696
when we think about how social movements [br]for gender and sexual freedom

0:28:55.696,0:29:01.001
are contingent on freedom from the daily violence [br]of colonization, occupation, and apartheid.

0:29:01.001,0:29:06.600
I also want to acknowledge that these social[br]movements are alive and well in Palestine,

0:29:06.600,0:29:10.477
and several members of QuAIA Vancouver

0:29:10.477,0:29:15.200
were able to meet a number of amazing Palestinian [br]queer and trans activists at the recent

0:29:15.200,0:29:19.980
World Social Forum "Free Palestine" in Brazil, [br]which included a Queer Visions stream.

0:29:19.980,0:29:25.120
So Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is one of [br]a growing number of queer activist groups

0:29:25.120,0:29:28.271
working to resist the pinkwashing of Israeli apartheid.

0:29:28.271,0:29:34.240
And as queers and trans folks, we have the power [br]to interrupt this practice of pinkwashing.

0:29:34.240,0:29:41.189
When we come out against Israeli apartheid, [br]we interfere with the myth-making that's vital

0:29:41.189,0:29:47.215
to letting Israel get away with apartheid, colonialism, [br]and other forms state violence.

0:29:47.215,0:29:50.041
So, to give some background on QuAIA Vancouver:

0:29:50.041,0:29:55.001
There's been a QuAIA presence in the Vancouver [br]Pride Parade for the past several years,

0:29:55.001,0:29:59.882
which I attended but personally [br]wasn't involved in organizing,

0:29:59.882,0:30:02.662
and I want to recognize that work that took place;

0:30:02.662,0:30:06.995
but the current iteration of QuAIA Vancouver [br]came together just last summer

0:30:06.995,0:30:13.602
in response to 2 Israeli-funded films that were [br]being screened at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

0:30:13.602,0:30:15.612
They were called “Joe + Belle” and “Invisible Men”.

0:30:15.612,0:30:21.097
And in response to the screening of these films, [br]we came together under the banner of QuAIA

0:30:21.097,0:30:28.690
to call on the Queer Film Festival to come out in [br]solidarity with Palestinian queers and trans folks,

0:30:28.690,0:30:33.659
ultimately, to challenge pinkwashing

0:30:33.659,0:30:38.733
by honouring the cultural boycott of Israel [br]for future seasons of the Festival.

0:30:38.733,0:30:41.989
So for those of you who aren't familiar [br]with the idea of cultural boycott --

0:30:41.989,0:30:44.216
Dean mentioned BDS.[br]

0:30:44.216,0:30:48.950
So, in 2005, Palestinian civil society [br]launched a global movement

0:30:48.950,0:30:53.199
for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel, [br]which we call BDS.

0:30:53.199,0:30:56.982
So this includes economic boycotts, [br]divestment, sanctions advocacy,

0:30:56.982,0:31:00.010
but also a cultural and academic boycott,

0:31:00.010,0:31:04.810
which targets cultural institutions, [br]projects, and events

0:31:04.810,0:31:09.788
that continue to serve the purposes of [br]the Israeli colonial and apartheid regime.

0:31:09.788,0:31:15.097
So I want to be clear that cultural boycott doesn't [br]target artists or filmmakers based on nationality,

0:31:15.097,0:31:20.329
but rather targets officially sponsored voices [br]that serve the interests of apartheid.

0:31:20.329,0:31:26.166
So in this context, we felt and we feel that it [br]is very important to call on our queer institutions,

0:31:26.166,0:31:29.939
like the Vancouver Queer Film Festival

0:31:29.939,0:31:32.993
to come out against the Israeli apartheid regime,

0:31:32.993,0:31:38.753
because if this queer film festival, [br]if this is a queer film festival,

0:31:38.753,0:31:41.538
it belongs to all of us, right?

0:31:41.538,0:31:45.253
Including any Palestinian and Arab queers [br]and queers of colour

0:31:45.253,0:31:51.762
who may feel alienated from a festival that aligns [br]itself with institutional advocates for apartheid.

0:31:51.762,0:31:57.218
So as the Festival gears up again this Spring, [br]we're going to be organizing to make this happen,

0:31:57.218,0:32:00.434
to call on the Vancouver Queer Film Festival

0:32:00.434,0:32:04.000
to come out in support of [br]Palestinian queer and trans folks.

0:32:04.000,0:32:07.810
So in the coming months, [br]we'll need community support.

0:32:07.810,0:32:11.297
And we want encourage everybody here today [br]to sign up for our email list,

0:32:11.297,0:32:14.750
which, there's a signup list at the back of the room,

0:32:14.750,0:32:17.906
and to like us on Facebook if you're on there [br][ laughter ],

0:32:17.906,0:32:20.852
and most importantly to come out [br]to future events and actions.

0:32:20.852,0:32:24.285
Because if we want to [br]hold our institutions accountable,

0:32:24.285,0:32:28.632
we need to show them [br]that we care about this, right?

0:32:28.632,0:32:31.778
So, yeah, because apartheid is a queer issue

0:32:31.778,0:32:35.848
- it's not only a queer issue [br]but clearly it's a queer issue -

0:32:35.848,0:32:41.645
and as queers and trans folks [br]i think our role in this struggle is clear:

0:32:41.645,0:32:46.432
There's no pride in apartheid! [br][ audience cheers ]

0:32:46.432,0:32:49.496
[ Anna Soole, Social Justice [br]& Decolonization Facilitator ]

0:32:49.496,0:32:51.960
Thank you Isabel, that was a great ending.[br]I liked that little...

0:32:51.960,0:32:56.743
So, first I want to say thank you [br]to Dean and Isabel for what you said,

0:32:56.743,0:33:00.098
and I want to say thank you [br]to Harsha for what you're gonna say,

0:33:00.098,0:33:01.139
and SFPIRG for having us.

0:33:01.139,0:33:05.021
And I want to acknowledge that we are on [br]traditional Coast Salish territory.

0:33:05.021,0:33:09.825
And that I am... so... my name is Anna Soole,[br]and I'm Métis.

0:33:09.825,0:33:16.322
I'm Cree, Ojibwe, Apache, Algonquin and Lakota, [br]and I'm also French, Celtic, Dutch and German.

0:33:16.322,0:33:22.502
That's a lot of things to remember.[br]I'm kind of like a Heinz 57...

0:33:22.502,0:33:26.885
and so [ laughs ] I'm gonna be speaking[br]to my own personal experience,

0:33:26.885,0:33:30.477
more than... I'm not an academic,

0:33:30.477,0:33:34.748
and so my framework is much more [br]cultural and from my own perspective.

0:33:34.748,0:33:37.824
And I'm gonna share some stories,[br]and I'm gonna share a little bit about who I am

0:33:37.824,0:33:41.824
and how what we're talking about today [br]has impacted me as an Indigenous woman.

0:33:41.824,0:33:45.390
And, before I do...

0:33:45.390,0:33:49.945
one of the things in the work that I do[br]-I do decolonization work-

0:33:49.945,0:33:54.567
one of the things that's really important to me[br]is acknowledge the space that we're in.

0:33:54.567,0:33:57.978
And the space that we're in is what?

0:33:57.978,0:34:00.791
Just call it out, what do you see?

0:34:00.791,0:34:04.468
Concrete![br]What else?

0:34:05.132,0:34:07.796
Rows! Exactly!

0:34:07.796,0:34:12.239
So, we're in a space that is [br]specifically a settler space.

0:34:12.239,0:34:15.617
And so I just want to acknowledge that [br]we're talking about decolonization,

0:34:15.617,0:34:19.934
we're talking about colonialism, settler colonialism,[br]inside a settler space.

0:34:19.934,0:34:25.964
And in my culture, does anybody know [br]how we would be set up?

0:34:25.964,0:34:27.998
In a circle.

0:34:27.998,0:34:31.084
And so a circle keeps us accountable to each other,

0:34:31.084,0:34:34.638
so I often have a lot of conflict [br]about sitting on a panel,

0:34:34.638,0:34:37.607
because I feel uncomfortable [br]with a table between me and a group.

0:34:37.607,0:34:44.385
I feel uncomfortable being the voice, [br]when there's so much knowledge in a room.

0:34:44.385,0:34:47.963
And so I just want to acknowledge that,[br]and my own conflict with it.

0:34:47.963,0:34:55.129
And acknowledge ways... maybe in the future... [br]maybe how can we look at that as a group,

0:34:55.129,0:34:58.142
the people that are here,

0:34:58.142,0:35:01.967
how can we look at that and changing these systems [br]that we're inside of even in this moment?

0:35:01.967,0:35:04.645
Um...

0:35:05.569,0:35:09.335
So, just about me, I wanna acknowledge...

0:35:09.335,0:35:12.641
I'm from a working class, Métis family,

0:35:12.641,0:35:15.293
and I'm personally, financially, somewhat precarious,

0:35:15.293,0:35:18.452
queer, and I have no high school diploma.

0:35:18.452,0:35:24.272
But I present as a white, straight, middle class,[br]educated and employable person,

0:35:24.272,0:35:29.435
so I carry a level of privilege that my contemporaries [br]who wear their station more visibly

0:35:29.435,0:35:32.205
don't necessarily have access to.

0:35:32.205,0:35:36.967
But that is specifically related to [br]my experience as an Indigenous woman,

0:35:36.967,0:35:40.672
because when Dean was talking about marriage,

0:35:40.672,0:35:45.858
that was the topic that struck me the most, [br]that I wanted to speak to the most.

0:35:45.858,0:35:49.390
Talking about marriage and colonialism[br]in my family,

0:35:49.390,0:35:52.539
both of my grandmothers are Indigenous,

0:35:52.539,0:35:56.315
and they both went to day school,[br]which is a lot like residential school,

0:35:56.315,0:36:00.337
and one of my grandmothers ran away when she [br]was 12 years old from Quebec to Vancouver;

0:36:00.337,0:36:04.022
and my other grandmother, [br]her whole family left Edmonton,

0:36:04.022,0:36:09.728
where we were well-established, well-known,[br]activist family that had everything stolen from us,

0:36:09.728,0:36:13.470
and the University of Alberta [br]is now built on our homestead.

0:36:13.470,0:36:19.789
So everybody came here, and both of my [br]grandmothers out of survival married white men.

0:36:19.789,0:36:23.544
And so I, every single day of my life,

0:36:23.544,0:36:27.152
walk through the world carrying [br]the legacy of colonization on my skin.

0:36:27.152,0:36:33.022
Because I carry a privilege that was designed,

0:36:33.022,0:36:36.513
and the design was for me to not identify [br]as an Indigenous person.

0:36:36.513,0:36:40.244
And so it's a radical act [br]for me to never identify as white.

0:36:40.244,0:36:45.535
Although I recognize my white privilege, [br]I identify as genocide white.

0:36:45.535,0:36:50.175
So my friend D. Williams, she was talking about [br]this concept of genocide white --

0:36:50.175,0:36:53.651
or genocide brown depending on the experience-

0:36:53.651,0:36:57.816
and for me that makes sense, because the reason [br]my skin is white is because of genocide.

0:36:57.816,0:37:03.391
And so it's a complicated experience for me[br][ laughs ] to say the least.

0:37:03.391,0:37:10.266
When Indigenous women married white men,[br]they lost any status they might have.

0:37:10.266,0:37:14.105
Métis women actually didn't have any [br]status until the 80's --

0:37:14.105,0:37:22.138
actually we didn't have any status until this month [br][ laughs ] We have status now.

0:37:22.138,0:37:25.758
What we had was citizenship in the 80's,

0:37:25.758,0:37:33.715
and so my grandmothers, they made their choices [br]according to that history. And it impacted my life.

0:37:33.715,0:37:40.587
It impacted abuse that was in my family and in my, [br]and in my own... on my own personal body.

0:37:40.587,0:37:44.472
And so, uh, I carry that with me every day.

0:37:44.472,0:37:48.986
So I wanna... I just wanna read my notes because...

0:37:48.986,0:37:52.905
it's nerve-wracking to [br]talk in front of a bunch of people

0:37:52.905,0:37:56.147
especially when you're not in a circle![br][ laughs ] It's really nerve-wracking!

0:37:56.147,0:37:59.504
So I'm just gonna look at my notes...[br]OK so the next thing I wanted to touch on

0:37:59.504,0:38:04.467
is that I was raised by a single mother,[br]she never got married,

0:38:04.467,0:38:08.041
and I never thought about marriage growing up.

0:38:08.041,0:38:12.925
It wasn't something that like a lot of girls [br]in particular, people who are raised as girls,

0:38:12.925,0:38:16.355
are expected to think about their wedding day.

0:38:16.355,0:38:19.792
There's a lot of pressure, socialization [br]to think about your wedding day,

0:38:19.792,0:38:22.933
think about what it's gonna be like to get married,[br]plan on getting married... I never had that.

0:38:22.933,0:38:26.287
And my experience was actually [br]that my mother was... was really...

0:38:26.287,0:38:30.968
she really didn't want me to get married.

0:38:30.968,0:38:36.535
And... but I also saw the other side of it,[br]which was that my mother was a single mother,

0:38:36.535,0:38:42.548
and she didn't have access to a lot of the things [br]that my friends had access to, my friends parents.

0:38:42.548,0:38:45.281
My mom couldn't get a loan [br]without a man in the 80's, and so

0:38:45.281,0:38:46.717
we were very poor for a long period of time until [br]my mother joined the system, worked for the city,

0:38:46.717,0:38:56.100
and literally broke her back working for [br]her whole life so that we could survive.

0:38:56.100,0:38:59.491
So it's a complicated system.

0:38:59.491,0:39:03.442
The reason we get... a lot of people feel [br]the pressure to get married,

0:39:03.442,0:39:06.987
is because the structure that we live inside [br]doesn't support not being married.

0:39:06.987,0:39:12.048
And so, what I wanted to sorta think about [br]or get people thinking about is

0:39:12.048,0:39:17.617
if you only have 1 concept of what is possible,

0:39:17.617,0:39:20.871
of course you're gonna want to [br]live inside that concept.

0:39:20.871,0:39:26.177
So the paradox of human agency, speaks to the [br]idea that people's choices are never straightforward.

0:39:26.177,0:39:31.572
The context of our present particular times [br]and places, constraints and possibility,

0:39:31.572,0:39:37.673
shape not only our choices,[br]but even what we can imagine for ourselves.

0:39:37.673,0:39:42.796
So right now the queer community, especially in [br]the U.S., because in Canada we have marriage rights,

0:39:42.796,0:39:47.129
but in the U.S. the queer community[br]is trying to fit inside a structure

0:39:47.129,0:39:51.184
that is the only structure [br]that people can comprehend.

0:39:51.184,0:39:57.714
And if there's only one structure, [br]people are not going to be able to...

0:39:57.714,0:40:03.459
if there's only one possibility, [br]if it seems like there's only one possibility,

0:40:03.459,0:40:07.639
people aren't necessarily going to be able to create [br]the world that they would want for themselves

0:40:07.639,0:40:11.054
in a different system.

0:40:11.054,0:40:14.594
So, uh, this is not just a... this is also about [br]the politics of identity.

0:40:14.594,0:40:17.264
It's about the politics of union, [br]and it's about the politics of family,

0:40:17.264,0:40:21.906
because if I'm gonna grow up [br]and become an old woman,

0:40:21.906,0:40:27.816
and not have a family to take care of me,[br]I'm basically going to be living in poverty.

0:40:27.816,0:40:33.325
And so, there's a lot of pressure on me[br]as a woman, to have children.

0:40:33.325,0:40:38.301
And there's a lot of pressure on me as a woman, [br]to have children, and be in a couple,

0:40:38.301,0:40:44.381
a specific kind of couple, with a romantic partner, [br]preferably a male, a cisgendered male.

0:40:44.381,0:40:47.633
So there's all of these pressures [br]that I'm expected to live inside of,

0:40:47.633,0:40:53.144
and, yes I want to have children, but I don't want [br]to have that pressure or that expectation,

0:40:53.144,0:40:56.515
I don't want it to be coming [br]from the fear of ending up alone.

0:40:56.515,0:40:58.589
So...

0:41:03.726,0:41:10.162
I have an excerpt from an article that I wrote [br]about whether or not I wanted to be a mother...

0:41:10.162,0:41:13.408
thank you! It's perfect, it's how I wanted to end...

0:41:13.408,0:41:19.539
So... the dominant culture has come to view [br]family as a small scale, intensely private unit.

0:41:19.539,0:41:24.893
In a healthy, traditional aboriginal community,[br]a child doesn't have just one mother.

0:41:24.893,0:41:29.199
She has aunties, cousins, sisters, [br]grandmas, and family friends.

0:41:29.199,0:41:33.486
Often, a biological mother is not [br]the most significant female in the child's life,

0:41:33.486,0:41:38.932
and this is not viewed as neglectful, as child psych-[br]ologist Dr. John Bowlby would have had us believe

0:41:38.932,0:41:46.215
when he said mid 20th century, when he mid [br]20th century coined the term "maternal deprivation".

0:41:46.215,0:41:49.633
In fact, it would be quite the opposite.

0:41:49.633,0:41:53.048
The child has so many caregivers [br]in an aboriginal community --

0:41:53.048,0:41:56.576
or a traditional prior to colonization [br]aboriginal community--

0:41:56.576,0:41:59.834
that she is able to connect with and bond [br]to the women, men, or Two-Spirited people,

0:41:59.834,0:42:02.436
that are right for her at that time in her growth.

0:42:02.436,0:42:07.897
Previous bonds with other women aren't lost or bro-[br]ken but maintained and evolved as the child evolves.

0:42:07.897,0:42:12.668
This works because the well-being of the family [br]community is valued above the individual,

0:42:12.668,0:42:18.859
whereas in contemporary settler colonial culture,[br]the individual is valued above the whole.

0:42:18.859,0:42:22.943
Bowlby's legacy has clearly entered [br]the dominant ideology of motherhood.

0:42:22.943,0:42:28.557
The requirement is that the individual mother should [br]have total responsibility for her own children at all times.

0:42:28.557,0:42:33.017
This has informed the decisions of colonizers [br]to remove children

0:42:33.017,0:42:37.755
from these traditional Indigenous family situations,[br]which we saw in the 60's Scoop,

0:42:37.755,0:42:42.358
which was taking Indigenous children out of their [br]homes and putting them into foster homes,

0:42:42.358,0:42:45.316
and it's still happening to this day.

0:42:45.316,0:42:48.664
Indigenous children are taken [br]out of their homes and put in foster homes

0:42:48.664,0:42:51.885
more than any other children in Canada.

0:42:51.885,0:42:56.110
... lost my place...

0:42:56.110,0:43:00.671
...because the ethic of domination [br]has been used to corrupt, violate,

0:43:00.671,0:43:03.969
and attempt to destroy these traditions [br]through privatization of the family,

0:43:03.969,0:43:08.474
it's often challenging for the individualistic culture [br]of the colonized and colonizers

0:43:08.474,0:43:12.017
to understand or see the merits [br]in multi-shared child rearing.

0:43:12.017,0:43:19.801
In my ideal world, an interdependent community [br]of peaceful, practical, creative, spiritual people,

0:43:19.801,0:43:23.443
working together to respect and tend to the earth,[br]and each other,

0:43:23.443,0:43:28.574
sharing responsibility for each other's well-being, [br]and the well-being of the children,

0:43:28.574,0:43:32.403
whether a mother is single or attached[br]is irrelevant,

0:43:32.403,0:43:35.495
as the child has many dedicated, [br]loving role models of every gender,

0:43:35.495,0:43:38.861
who are positively engaged [br]in every aspect of the child's life.

0:43:38.861,0:43:42.438
Prospective parents make informed decisions [br]about when and whether to have children,

0:43:42.438,0:43:45.154
and access to birth control is unquestioned.

0:43:45.154,0:43:49.307
The elderly are cared for by the whole community,[br]regardless of their blood ties,

0:43:49.307,0:43:52.713
and all community members basic needs are met.

0:43:52.713,0:43:57.329
Some might label these values as anti-racist,[br]eco-feminist, with socialist leanings...

0:43:57.329,0:44:00.737
but I prefer the title Indigenous Feminist,[br]and I wear that with pride.

0:44:00.737,0:44:08.989
And I have one final thing, because I only have prob-[br]ably one minute left. I found this on Facebook today.

0:44:08.989,0:44:11.320
[ whispers to a fellow panelist ] Would you be willing [br]to hold this up? Thank you.

0:44:11.320,0:44:17.750
And I'll describe it for people who...[br]who can't see it.

0:44:17.750,0:44:21.526
So, it's a series of three circles at the bottom.

0:44:21.526,0:44:28.604
The 1st circle has a series of multiple blue circles [br]in it, and outside is multicoloured circles.

0:44:28.604,0:44:32.183
And this is labeled as "Exclusion".

0:44:32.183,0:44:36.160
So all around the border of the circle [br]has the multicoloured circles.

0:44:36.160,0:44:41.379
The 2nd circle has the blue circles in the centre, [br]and a smaller circle on the outside.

0:44:41.379,0:44:47.320
And it's got all the multicoloured circles in it.[br]Labeled as "Segregation".

0:44:47.320,0:44:53.561
The 3rd circle has blue circles inside of it, and [br]another circle inside of it with multicoloured circles.

0:44:53.561,0:44:56.625
And that's called "Integration".

0:44:56.625,0:45:01.571
The final circle has all the circles, [br]blue and multicoloured, inside of it,

0:45:01.571,0:45:05.374
which changes the entire [br]formation of what it looks like.

0:45:05.374,0:45:07.333
And that's called "Inclusion".

0:45:07.333,0:45:13.291
And I've worked in many non-Indigenous [br]organizations as an Indigenous person,

0:45:13.291,0:45:18.200
and it's... of course I'm the Indigenous person [br]who looks white, right?

0:45:18.200,0:45:21.946
So I get hired because I look like everybody else, [br]and I can easily fit into white culture.

0:45:21.946,0:45:24.624
Or so people think until they know me.[br][ laughs ]

0:45:24.624,0:45:31.199
And so, what we're talking about here is [br]literally changing the structure of society.

0:45:31.199,0:45:38.029
So, not changing, not getting queer people to [br]be able to get married and join the military,

0:45:38.029,0:45:40.867
but what we're talking about [br]is getting rid of the military.

0:45:40.867,0:45:47.308
Changing the ideas of marriage. Changing our [br]ideas of what partnership and family looks like.

0:45:47.308,0:45:48.569
Thank you.[br][ applause ]

0:45:50.440,0:45:55.428
[ Harsha Walia, No One Is Illegal ]

0:45:55.428,0:46:01.103
That was it! [ audience laughter ][br]That visual's incredible.

0:46:01.103,0:46:05.433
Thank you to the organizers [br]and thank everyone for being here,

0:46:05.433,0:46:09.356
thank you Dean and Isabel and Anna[br]for really amazing presentations.

0:46:09.356,0:46:14.078
I want to start by acknowledging that we're on [br]un-ceded, occupied, Coast Salish territories,

0:46:14.078,0:46:17.679
lands of the Musqueam, Tsleil Waututh, [br]Squamish and Stó:lō people.

0:46:17.679,0:46:21.462
And also too, as other speakers mentioned, [br]to really understand in a deep way what it means

0:46:21.462,0:46:24.486
to root our work[br]within an anti-colonial framework,

0:46:24.486,0:46:30.689
and what it means to really truly be in alliance with [br]Indigenous struggles against settler colonialism.

0:46:30.689,0:46:34.790
And everything that that means, right?[br]It means multiple things.

0:46:34.790,0:46:38.384
It means fighting in defense of the land,[br]it means fighting violence against women,

0:46:38.384,0:46:41.684
it means fighting against prisons and police,[br]and the military,

0:46:41.684,0:46:45.894
and all of the aspects of settler colonialism[br]that seep into our lives and our societies,

0:46:45.894,0:46:50.125
and the ways in which we live here on Turtle Island.

0:46:50.125,0:46:55.857
I wanna pick up where folks were kinda left off,[br]and what people were talking about...

0:46:55.857,0:46:59.857
and particularly some of the stuff [br]that Dean was talking about

0:46:59.857,0:47:03.387
in terms of the co-optation of [br]queer and trans liberation movements

0:47:03.387,0:47:06.050
as well as women of colour movements,

0:47:06.050,0:47:10.522
particularly for imperial, capitalist, [br]and colonial ambitions.

0:47:10.522,0:47:14.816
And particularly to talk about that in the intersection [br]of immigration, both historically and currently.

0:47:14.816,0:47:18.848
Y'know, first I do want to say [br]that it's not new, right?

0:47:18.848,0:47:21.829
There's this kind of new framework [br]that's been developing,

0:47:21.829,0:47:26.613
particularly with homonationalism when we talk [br]about it, or pinkwashing when we talk about it,

0:47:26.613,0:47:30.470
but I really think it's important to understand [br]that this recent branding has a long legacy

0:47:30.470,0:47:33.940
and has a long history in terms of colonial politics.

0:47:33.940,0:47:39.169
And y'know in particular colonialism has [br]always cast people of colour communities

0:47:39.169,0:47:43.250
as barbaric, and savage, and backwards,[br]as you were mentioning Isabel.

0:47:43.250,0:47:45.954
And this is not new, right?

0:47:45.954,0:47:49.357
The kind of gay-saving rhetoric [br]and the ideology of it is also not new.

0:47:49.357,0:47:52.559
I'm gonna give some historic examples of that.

0:47:52.559,0:47:56.901
Most people think that that is a recent kind of...

0:47:56.901,0:48:02.508
a recent evolution of y'know "save the women!"[br][ laughs ] but they've both always worked together.

0:48:02.508,0:48:07.425
And so the kind of "save 3rd world women", "save [br]women of colour" and y'know, "save 3rd world gays",

0:48:07.425,0:48:12.967
have always been attendant processes of colo-[br]nialism, and have always been part of that project.

0:48:12.967,0:48:17.274
And the thing that is most deeply [br]offensive and ironic about that of course

0:48:17.274,0:48:21.367
is that colonialism itself has imposed [br]the most hetero-normative, patriarchal system

0:48:21.367,0:48:25.419
on communities of colour, right?[br]Particularly through the Victorian era.

0:48:25.419,0:48:28.483
So you have this simultaneous [br]kind of rhetoric and discourse

0:48:28.483,0:48:34.446
of saving communities of colour, while at the [br]same time imposing the most rigid and oppressive

0:48:34.446,0:48:37.952
family and community and societal structures[br]on our communities, right?

0:48:37.952,0:48:41.424
So, there's nothing kind of new about this.

0:48:41.424,0:48:45.624
So I want to look at some examples, [br]particularly through a lens of immigration.

0:48:45.624,0:48:49.829
There's of course y'know a lot [br]of conversation that we've had,

0:48:49.829,0:48:53.931
Isabel laid out a lot of amazing history [br]in terms of pinkwashing,

0:48:53.931,0:48:56.685
Dean also talked about it [br]in the context of pinkwashing,

0:48:56.685,0:48:59.350
also the examples as we know of course [br]of the occupation of Afghanistan,

0:48:59.350,0:49:03.966
where, y'know, the entire rhetoric of occupation [br]and colonialism both locally and globally

0:49:03.966,0:49:08.093
has been rooted in this white saviour [br]industrial complex if you will,

0:49:08.093,0:49:13.345
but I also want to look at it through the lens [br]of immigration, which isn't often talked about,

0:49:13.345,0:49:19.095
and the ways in which state controls and border [br]controls are operating through these ways as well.

0:49:19.095,0:49:22.496
So, y'know, a lot of people here probably know [br]about the Komagata Maru, right?

0:49:22.496,0:49:27.908
So, the Komagata Maru was the ship in 1914 [br]that turned, that was turned away

0:49:27.908,0:49:31.392
-376 predominantly Punjabi immigrants-

0:49:31.392,0:49:36.296
was turned away from the shores of [br]British Columbia, here on the west coast.

0:49:36.296,0:49:42.609
And y'know, that's known as a very obvious [br]example of anti-migrant history in Canada.

0:49:42.609,0:49:48.692
Y'know, the Tory government recently made [br]an apology -or a kind of half-apology-

0:49:48.692,0:49:53.750
for the Komagata Maru, in the same vein as [br]the apology for the residential schools,

0:49:53.750,0:49:57.134
in the same vein as the apology [br]of the Chinese Head Tax,

0:49:57.134,0:50:02.522
y'know, totally token, offensive, symbolic gestures,[br]but y'know, people know about the Komagata Maru.

0:50:02.522,0:50:05.225
The thing that most people don't know about

0:50:05.225,0:50:09.994
is the sodomy cases that were happening at the [br]same time as the Komagata Maru was happening.

0:50:09.994,0:50:14.477
So during 1909 and 1925, there was [br]a number of sodomy cases

0:50:14.477,0:50:18.168
that were being tried particularly [br]in the west coast of Canada.

0:50:18.168,0:50:23.690
And the largest proportion of men being tried [br]under sodomy laws at the time were Sikh men.

0:50:23.690,0:50:29.418
And in particular there was a really high profile case [br]in 1915... has anyone seen Rex Vs. Singh?

0:50:29.418,0:50:33.749
If not... check out the movie, [br]it's a really important movie, y'know,

0:50:33.749,0:50:39.871
that links and ties the connection between anti-[br]migrant sentiment and homophobia and transphobia,

0:50:39.871,0:50:43.667
and in particular with [br]the criminalization of communities

0:50:43.667,0:50:47.514
and the assertion of state power [br]in the act of criminalization.

0:50:47.514,0:50:51.452
And so in 1915, there was [br]a relatively high-profile "case",

0:50:51.452,0:50:55.712
where there were two Sikh men, [br]they were two Sikh millworkers,

0:50:55.712,0:51:00.910
and their names were Dalip Singh and [Naina] Singh,

0:51:01.094,0:51:04.480
and they were two men [br]who were tried for sodomy in 1915.

0:51:04.480,0:51:09.944
And this was a time of... right.. one year after [br]the Komagata Maru was turned back, right?

0:51:09.944,0:51:13.654
So, this is again happening in a period [br]when there's heightened

0:51:13.654,0:51:18.467
-particularly anti-Sikh anti-Punjabi, [br]anti-south Asian- sentiment in BC,

0:51:18.467,0:51:24.221
where newspapers are filled with y'know, "Turn back [br]the Hindus!", "Hindus are invading our shores!",

0:51:24.221,0:51:29.450
while at the same time there's also a simultaneous [br]crackdown on working class gay men,

0:51:29.450,0:51:32.682
in particular, working in the mills.

0:51:32.682,0:51:36.561
And so, the sodomy cases really are a confluence [br]of the ways in which the state

0:51:36.561,0:51:39.963
is simultaneously criminalizing under sodomy laws,

0:51:39.963,0:51:43.041
and simultaneously criminalizing [br]under anti-migrant laws.

0:51:43.041,0:51:48.692
And again, the largest proportion of men tried [br]under these cases during 1909 to 1929

0:51:48.692,0:51:52.011
were Sikh men, Sikh migrant men.

0:51:52.011,0:51:57.440
And so again I say that to show[br]kind of an historic trajectory,

0:51:57.440,0:52:03.389
of the ways in which the state has been [br]actively criminalizing communities of colour,

0:52:03.389,0:52:06.936
particularly queer and trans communities of colour[br]through state processes.

0:52:06.936,0:52:10.347
And so I wanna move quickly to the current context,

0:52:10.347,0:52:14.103
because again there's often a sense [br]that all of this is new.

0:52:14.103,0:52:18.436
And again in the current context we see [br]the same kind of thing, where on the one hand

0:52:18.436,0:52:22.281
the Canadian state is actively excluding [br]queer and trans communities of colour,

0:52:22.281,0:52:26.128
while at the same time it's upholding the myth

0:52:26.128,0:52:29.973
of being welcoming for persecuted [br]queer and trans folks from the global south.

0:52:29.973,0:52:32.853
And so we see that these [br]parallel discourses are necessary.

0:52:32.853,0:52:38.183
So one of them is the kind of homonationalist dis-[br]course; y'know, similar to the Israeli pinkwashing:

0:52:38.183,0:52:43.320
"We're so welcoming", "We're this bastion [br]of queer and gay rights",

0:52:43.320,0:52:47.237
"Western civilization frees everybody", y'know, [br]"Western civilization is where equality rests";

0:52:47.237,0:52:53.401
while at the same time, the reality on the ground[br]is one that is actively of persecution.

0:52:53.401,0:52:57.290
We see, particularly through immigration laws,[br]the ways in which heteronormativity

0:52:57.290,0:53:01.742
-and particularly an assimilation politic-[br]at various levels is being reinforced.

0:53:01.742,0:53:08.809
So one really kind of obvious on the face example,[br]is that until 2002 same-sex relationships

0:53:08.809,0:53:12.009
-so this is just same sex relationships,

0:53:12.009,0:53:16.239
we're not even talking about diverse [br]queer familial relationships-

0:53:16.239,0:53:19.954
same sex relationships were not even recognized [br]until 2002 under the Canadian immigration Act

0:53:19.954,0:53:24.943
as being able to be qualified [br]under the Family Class, right?

0:53:24.943,0:53:29.411
So this is 10 years ago, or how many years ago?[br]10 years ago, right?

0:53:29.411,0:53:33.738
This is very recent, in terms of [br]Canadian immigration policy.

0:53:33.738,0:53:38.058
But just to move to kind of more recent examples,

0:53:38.058,0:53:41.765
and then to talk about the ways in which homo-[br]nationalism has been an active part of Jason Kenney

0:53:41.765,0:53:47.988
-who is the current Minister of Deportation, [br]as some of us like to call him-

0:53:47.988,0:53:52.070
there's a number of ways in which we see... [br]I wanna talk about 3 of many examples,

0:53:52.070,0:53:57.240
I'll only give 3 examples ... of the ways [br]in which that active exclusion is happening,

0:53:57.240,0:54:01.115
and persecution is happening, [br]of queers and trans folks

0:54:01.115,0:54:05.729
who are trying to immigrate and particularly [br]claim asylum within Canada,

0:54:05.729,0:54:10.205
and then the final thing is kind of fortification of [br]homonationalism through the immigration system.

0:54:10.205,0:54:13.298
So the first is, y'know, the citizenship guide.

0:54:13.298,0:54:18.691
So the citizenship guide was a brand new citizenship [br]guide for Canada, espouses Canadian values...

0:54:18.691,0:54:23.062
and we find out through the citizenship guide [br]that Canadian values means

0:54:23.062,0:54:26.936
-absolutely no reference to [br]queer and trans liberation struggles,

0:54:26.936,0:54:29.731
it doesn't even mention same sex marriage.

0:54:29.731,0:54:34.287
But what it does have is a number [br]of recruitment ads into the military.

0:54:34.287,0:54:39.514
And this is the example of y'know [br]what Canada is presenting itself as,

0:54:39.514,0:54:43.086
in terms of for newcomers [br]and for people becoming citizens.

0:54:43.086,0:54:47.087
The Immigration and Refugee Board[br]has a number of new judges

0:54:47.087,0:54:51.267
that Jason Kenney and the [br]Conservatives recently appointed,

0:54:51.267,0:54:55.269
who are openly anti-queer judges. [br]Openly anti-queer.

0:54:55.269,0:55:00.615
One of them actually spoke at a fundraiser [br]that was an openly anti-queer fundraiser.

0:55:00.615,0:55:04.787
And he gets appointed by Jason Kenney, [br]to do what?

0:55:04.787,0:55:12.259
What kinds of claims is this person supposed [br]to be hearing? Anyone take a guess? ...

0:55:12.259,0:55:18.929
Yeah, basically, he is looking at claims [br]based on gender and sexual persecution.

0:55:18.929,0:55:22.995
And so this is the kind of system [br]that we have in place, right?

0:55:22.995,0:55:29.204
And the other thing that we have that y'know [br]completely continues to re-entrench

0:55:29.204,0:55:33.983
heteronormativity as well as [br]capitalist values and assimilative values,

0:55:33.983,0:55:37.094
is the Humanitarian and Compassionate [br]Claim in Canada right?

0:55:37.094,0:55:40.524
So this is like the claim that, [br]if you are trying to stay in Canada,

0:55:40.524,0:55:42.932
and your sponsorship has been refused,

0:55:42.932,0:55:47.584
or you're one of the many refugees who are[br]increasingly being deported by Jason Kenney,

0:55:47.584,0:55:52.989
or you're thrown into prison, as women and kids [br]are increasingly being thrown into prisons,

0:55:52.989,0:55:56.177
the Humanitarian and Compassionate Claim [br]is something you can apply for,

0:55:56.177,0:55:57.679
and you have to have an income,

0:55:57.679,0:56:01.419
if you have a spouse and children, [br]then that looks good,

0:56:01.419,0:56:04.025
if you're taxpaying, that looks good,

0:56:04.025,0:56:07.903
y'know so it's basically the system [br]where immigration is increasingly becoming

0:56:07.903,0:56:11.641
a tool of capitalism and colonialism [br]and oppression and heteronormativity,

0:56:11.641,0:56:14.466
in terms of the kinds of immigrants...

0:56:14.466,0:56:17.916
And y'know it's similar to [br]the examples that Dean was giving,

0:56:17.916,0:56:21.129
in terms of an immigration system that is [br]not based on justice, at all, right?

0:56:21.129,0:56:26.316
It's based on people who are gonna fulfill the needs [br]of the Canadian state and the Canadian economy.

0:56:26.316,0:56:31.223
But at the same time, so while we have this, y'know, [br]this level of persecution, oppression happening,

0:56:31.223,0:56:33.709
what do we have Jason Kenney do?

0:56:33.709,0:56:37.042
Jason Kenney sends an email to everyone [br]who ever signed a petition for Alvaro [Orozco],

0:56:37.042,0:56:40.990
who is a young, queer, Latino man in Toronto [br]who was facing deportation,

0:56:40.990,0:56:45.010
and he, he spams that email list...

0:56:45.010,0:56:49.380
-because when you sign those email petitions, [br]you give your email to Jason Kenney-

0:56:49.380,0:56:51.849
he sends every one of those people an email about

0:56:51.849,0:56:58.386
how Jason Kenney is helping queers in Iran to come [br]to Canada. So this is what Jason Kenney does.

0:56:58.386,0:57:04.277
So there's a number of policies that are [br]actively anti-queer, anti-refugee, anti-migrant,

0:57:04.277,0:57:09.830
but everyone who's advocating for queer liberation, [br]for queer rights, for migrant rights, for migrant justice

0:57:09.830,0:57:13.673
gets emails about how the Conservative government[br]is saving queers in Iran.

0:57:13.673,0:57:18.441
Which is, y'know, part of the pinkwashing, [br]the imperialist agenda of the Tory government,

0:57:18.441,0:57:22.464
but really of the Canadian state, right?[br]This is just its current formation.

0:57:22.464,0:57:28.622
So I just want to echo in ending, what everyone [br]has already said, right? Which is:

0:57:28.622,0:57:33.833
How do we imagine -and how do we particularly [br]because I'm talking about a lens for migrant justice-

0:57:33.833,0:57:36.385
how do we imagine a lens for migrant justice

0:57:36.385,0:57:40.232
that isn't dependent on people as labour, [br]or people as commodities?

0:57:40.232,0:57:45.217
That really truly respects and values [br]the diverse ways in which people are communing,

0:57:45.217,0:57:47.473
the diverse ways people are forming relationships,

0:57:47.473,0:57:51.297
the diverse ways in which [br]people imagine family, right?

0:57:51.297,0:57:54.431
Because one of the other things [br]that Jason Kenney has done

0:57:54.431,0:57:57.924
is to say that people can't bring [br]their parents and grandparents any more,

0:57:57.924,0:58:01.684
because grandparents are using our tax... [br]are using our healthcare, right?

0:58:01.684,0:58:04.579
So Jason Kenney is active in this immigration system,

0:58:04.579,0:58:07.938
is actually devaluing the various ways [br]in which people have families,

0:58:07.938,0:58:11.966
which include extended families [br]and doesn't just include your spouse, right?

0:58:11.966,0:58:14.777
It includes the ways particularly [br]for communities of colour,

0:58:14.777,0:58:17.528
in which family includes [br]many many people in our lives.

0:58:17.528,0:58:20.922
Listening to Anna talk it was making me weepy,

0:58:20.922,0:58:24.488
because I grew up not calling my mother [br]but two other women, my moms,

0:58:24.488,0:58:27.459
and when I tell people that here, [br]people think it's really bizarre,

0:58:27.459,0:58:30.256
and assume that my mother was not part of my life.

0:58:30.256,0:58:34.537
But... so how do we imagine [br]a kind of immigration system

0:58:34.537,0:58:39.239
where people are valued based on basic principles [br]of justice and dignity, right?

0:58:39.239,0:58:44.389
And also, an immigration system and a welcoming [br]of migrants that is fundamentally anti-colonial,

0:58:44.389,0:58:47.075
that respects that this land is not terra nullius,

0:58:47.075,0:58:53.757
this land has been in the stewardship, taken care [br]of by Indigenous peoples for a very long time.

0:58:53.757,0:58:59.015
There's Indigenous laws on these territories. How do [br]we respect and honour and live under <i>these</i> laws?

0:58:59.015,0:59:03.978
How do we pledge allegiance to Indigenous [br]sovereign law, sovereign Indigenous laws, right?

0:59:03.978,0:59:07.888
Rather than pledging allegiance to a [br]totally fucked up colonial capitalist system

0:59:07.888,0:59:11.010
that makes us believe that people are expendable,

0:59:11.010,0:59:15.756
that make us believe that the only way [br]to get ahead is to assimilate, right?

0:59:15.756,0:59:20.738
That the only way that we're gonna get ahead is by [br]buying into capitalism, by buying into colonialism,

0:59:20.738,0:59:24.192
by buying into cops and prisons [br]and sweatshops and apartheid,

0:59:24.192,0:59:27.865
rather than y'know, believing that we can actually [br]pledge allegiance to our communities,

0:59:27.865,0:59:31.301
and pledge allegiance to all our diverse families.

0:59:31.301,0:59:34.602
And pledge allegiance to the sovereign Indigenous [br]laws of these lands. Thank you.