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[ Dean Spade ] So, yeah, first I wanted to say 
thanks. It's really exciting to be here.

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I'm really honoured to be part of a conversation
with the other folks who are gonna be in this

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--who I can't see right now 
but I trust are in front of you--

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[ Dean and audience laughing ]

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-who are all activists and scholars who 
I really admire and inspired by,

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so I feel really lucky.

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And I also just want to say, obviously 
I'm coming to this work from the U.S.,

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so that's my frame,

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and there's some overlap obviously with 
Canadian conditions and politics and histories,

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but there's also a lot of divergence,

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so I hope it'll be useful,

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but it's my, sort of, framework.

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And I'm also gonna be reading, 
because I'm trying to be really concise,

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so that we can stick to our schedule,
so I apologize for reading.

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So, yeah so when I was invited 
to speak at this event,

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I was asked to be part of a series that 
I guess is about critical masculinities,

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and so what I wanted to think about was

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how really highly-gendered roles in our very
militaristic, settler, white supremacist societies

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--like spouse, soldier, police officer--

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have come to stand in a really complicated way

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as symbols right now, of sexual 
and gender liberation in some contexts.

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And how weird that is, especially given that 
many feminist and queer movements

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have sought to eliminate 
the existence of those roles.

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So I want to try to spend these few minutes
just talking and thinking about that.

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So, I think in particular these conversations 
about that dynamic that I just named,

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are servicing in important ways right now,

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because of the role that equality 
for gay and lesbian people,

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and in some instances but not usually trans people, 
is playing in global discourses about human rights,

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increasingly the degree to which 
countries have adopted certain high-profile

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lesbian and gay law reforms,

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specifically granting marriage recognition, 
and access to military service to gays and lesbians,

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is framed as central to a country's reputation 
regarding respect for human rights.

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In recent years, the U.S. and Israel 
have put significant resources

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into framing countries with certain 
lesbian and gay rights in place as "modern",

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while framing countries 
that don't have those in place --

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particularly framing Arab and African countries 
as "backward" and "un-democratic".

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And this strategy of using lesbian and gay rights, 
particularly marriage and military participation,

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as a marker of being 
a human rights respecting country,

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and particularly doing so in the face of charges 
of ongoing significant human rights violations,

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has been called "pinkwashing".

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Maybe that's a term 
that a lot of people have heard.

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So, in the U.S. context,

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Hilary Clinton's 2011 speech where she said
"gay rights are human rights",

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along with the prevalence of references
to same-sex marriage and gay rights

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at the 2012 Democratic National Convention,

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are examples of American pinkwashing.

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Clinton's [ inaudible ] is a relatively new logic 
in U.S. imperialism.

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That the U.S., regardless of failures 
to protect queer and trans people

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from state violence here in the U.S., 
where I am, not you [ laughs ],

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will now use gay rights as a measure to...


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as a measure to countries 
it seeks to intervene on.

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Basically, like, "we're going to 
call countries homophobic

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"and that'll give us a good excuse to bomb them 
or show up there and do weird military stuff."

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Clinton uses lesbian and gay rights to bolster 
the notion that the U.S. is the world's policing arm

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forcing democracy and equality globally 
on purportedly backward and cruel governments.

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Gay rights operates as 
a new justification for this imperial role,

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a justification that fits really well within
anti-Arab and anti-Muslim framings

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that have been developed during the war on terror,
and portray Arab and Muslim countries

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as more sexist and more homophobic 
than the U.S., Europe and Israel.

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We also see this with the framing of
the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan,

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that it's supposed to, like, save Afghan women,

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like this kind of women-saving, 
gay-saving framework is very popular,

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the saving framework has a very long history,

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and in some ways the gay-saving 
framework seen in a new way.

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At the Democratic National Convention,

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Obama's [U.S. President] support for 
same-sex marriage similarly helped him

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portray his administration as progressive --

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and, like, the number of people 
who buy into this is shocking --

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and equality-loving in order to obscure 
his abysmal record on key issues

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such as austerity, his failure to close 
Guantanamo, ongoing drone strikes,

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harsh sanctions against Iran,
the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,

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and his record-breaking rates 
of deportation --

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I'm sure you know he's the most deporting 
president ever in the history of the United States--

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and I think in particular you see 
this kind of American pinkwashing,

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I've seen it again more recently 
in his inaugural address,

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he talked about Stonewall, which basically, 
like, caused me to fall over,

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y'know, it's again... 
why is this guy talking about Stonewall?

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Stonewall's a moment of resistance 
to police brutality.

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He's running the country that imprisons 
more people than anyone in the world,

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where queer and trans people
are still suffering

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police violence and extremely horrifying 
conditions of imprisonment.

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Like, how does this fit?

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And also, recently he's 
kind of made waves

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because there's this really awful immigration 
reform policy going around in the United States

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that's supposed to be like the answer to 
the unjust system of immigration enforcement,

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but really it's just a way of 
ramping up immigration enforcement.

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And he said about it that he's gonna make sure 
that gay and lesbian couples can be in on it,

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and that is kind of this pinkwashing of this actually 
really conservative set of policies and principles

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around immigration that we're 
supposed to be, like, grateful for.

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And many people do articu- [ inaudible ]

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The term "pinkwashing" 
is most frequently used to describe

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the explicit strategy Israel has 
undertaken in recent years

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to market itself as a human rights leader,

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based on its stances on same-sex marriage,
and LGBT military service.

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Israel has explicitly worked with 
marketing experts to re-brand itself

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trying to overcome its international reputation 
as a brutal occupying force.

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I think particularly in the face of the 
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement

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which has really raised a lot of awareness


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about, even further than before, 
about these issues.

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The new image is focused on portraying Israel
as a modern democracy in the Middle East,

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surrounded by countries with supposedly 
less enlightened policy and culture.

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A key feature of that portrayal is 
the articulation of Israel as a country

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that recognizes gay and lesbian rights,
specifically marriage and military service,

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and that it is an ideal destination 
for gay and lesbian tourism.

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As part of its pinkwashing efforts,

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Israel has funded tours of Israelis 
to the United States

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in order to discuss Israel's military and marriage 
laws with respect to gays and lesbians.

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So it's like a really aggressive kind 
of propaganda machine.

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Critics of same sex marriage and military 
service advocacy in the United States,

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and critics of pinkwashing,

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have suggested that it's necessary 
to look at what these institutions are

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in order to assess whether inclusion in them 
is a felicitous goal for queer and trans politics.

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The militaries of both the United States 
and Israel have been accused of war crimes,

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and operate daily in what have been identified 
as illegal and immoral occupations.

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In the case of Israel, 
uh Palestine in the case of Israel.

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And Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii,

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the part of North America currently known 
as the continental United States,

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the Northern Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, 
and more, in the case of the United States.

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Internally, the U.S. military has a culture 
and practice of sexism, racism, and torture,

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that have been consistently identified 
by survivors and critics.

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Recent publications and the exposure 
of classified documents

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have further highlighted 
the lawless violence of the U.S. military,

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and the ways that its operations, 
such as the occupation of Iraq,

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are often motivated by profit-seeking corporations 
with high level government ties,

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rather than by the democracy-spreading rationales 
commonly employed as justification.

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The Israeli military's record similarly shows

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that from its initial ethnic cleansing 
project undertaken in 1948,

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when over 400 Palestinian villages were destroyed,

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the Israeli government has used military power
to forcibly settle the land it now occupies,

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and to remove, destroy, and erase 
the prior inhabitants wherever possible.

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The recent outcry against these atrocities 
committed by Israel on the inhabitants of Gaza,

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as well as the Israeli military's brutal 2010 raid of 
the flotilla bound for Gaza to deliver aid,

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have further drawn international attention.

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Israel's increasing threats toward Iran are further 
building international opposition to Israeli militarism.

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Despite the long-term critique Israeli militarism...

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[ inaudible ]

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...the U.S. and Israeli militarism specifically,

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in many movements that define the American left,

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the discourse about gay and lesbian soldiers 
serving in the U.S. and Israeli militaries

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has garnered support from many people,

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who otherwise oppose the wars 
in Iraq and Afghanistan,

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the Israeli attacks on Gaza 
in 2008, 2009 and 2012,

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and other highly publicized 
Israeli and U.S. military activities.

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Images of gay and lesbian service members 
in uniform, holding hands and kissing,

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in front of national flags,

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have successfully stirred 
patriotic and pro-military sentiment,

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deadening critical thinking 
about patriotism and militarism,

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by asserting such sentiments as a form 
of sympathy for gay and lesbian people.

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Similarly, long term left critiques 
of marriage have been silenced

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by the combination of relentless 
right wing family values rhetoric,

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and the articulation of the desirability of 
marriage by same sex marriage advocacy -

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- messages long contested 
by feminists and anti racists.

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Such as, that children benefit 
from being raised by married parents,

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that married people are healthier,
and contribute more to society,

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or that marriage recognizes the most 
important relationship people can have--

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are now mobilized 
by same sex marriage advocates

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and judges writing decisions that are considered 
victories for same sex marriage advocacy.

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These pro-marriage messages 
are now articulated

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as anti-homophobic statements 
in the arguments for same sex marriage.

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Feminist, anti-racist 
and anti-colonial movements

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have long worked to dismantle marriage,
and have identified rules about marriage

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as central to organizing 
foundational violences of the U.S.:

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slavery, settler colonialism, and genocide.

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From the beginning, in the United States,

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marriage laws were key to organizing 
who is property and who can hold property.

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Identifying Indigenous systems of gender and family 
formation as backward and in need of intervention,

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and enforcing colonial and gender family norms 
on Indigenous people

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has been an important part of colonization.

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Marriage has been an important technology 
of land theft and ethnic cleansing,

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aimed at disappearing Indigenous people
in many ways.

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One way, one example,

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is that the U.S. encouraged westward settlement 
by promising male settlers 160 acres...

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to every male settler who would move west,

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plus an extra 160 acres if he brings a wife.

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Putting that kind of marriage 
as a promotion for settlement

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next to what the U.S. 
was simultaneously doing,

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which was criminalizing traditional 
Indigenous communal living styles.

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And, like, where I sometimes live in Seattle,

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y'know, like burning down longhouses 
and forcing people not to live in those ways,

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and eliminating communal land holding methods,

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and enforcing male, individual ownership

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to facilitate displacing 
Indigenous people from their land.

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So in this way, management of 
gender and family systems

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has been essential to 
displacement and settlement processes.

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It's also been essential to structuring slavery.

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So, denying the family ties of slaves 
was central to slavery,

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ensuring that children would be born enslaved,

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and then later coercing marriage among newly freed 
Black people after supposed emancipation,

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and criminalizing them for adultery was one pathway 
of re-capturing them into the convict lease system,

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which was the predecessor of today's 
U.S. mass imprisonment project

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that centrally targets Black and native people.

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Today, marriage is still used to distribute essential 
life chances like health care and immigration status,

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in ways that produce and maintain 
enormous racial disparities.

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So, there are very few pathways 
to immigration in the U.S.,

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and those are focused on either your family,

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so if you don't have any family ties to the U.S. 
it's much much harder to immigrate;

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or jobs, which of course, y'know, 
is available to extremely few people.

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And we still get our health care through our jobs 
and usually through family ties as well.

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So if you don't have a partner or spouse 
who has healthcare, you can't get it.

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And given the racialized distribution 
of the most highly compensated jobs,

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there's a really severe racial disparity in that 
kind of family-based access to healthcare.

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So obviously these are unjust ways to 
give out the essential things people need,

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and these kinds of marriage ties to basic needs 
traps people in violent family scenarios,

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and just causes most people to 
have no path to these necessities.

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So in this way marriage still structures racialized 
social control through the family unit and family law.

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And marriage has been specifically central to 
anti-Black and anti-poor politics in the U.S.

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There's a strong story 
that's been very prevalent in the U.S.

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that the reason people are poor is because they're 
morally flawed and they need to get married more.

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So like in 1996 when 
President Clinton dismantled welfare,

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that the law that was passed is called the 
"Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act",

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you can already hear the sort of racism 
and anti-poor sentiment dripping off of that.

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That law, y'know, all of its 
findings section is all about

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how the reason people are poor is 
'cause they don't marry enough,

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and how we have to get rid of this.

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And this is based in, y'know, 
really racist sociology,

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00:14:00,409 --> 00:14:03,087
where one of the most famous 
government reports about this

217
00:14:03,087 --> 00:14:05,880
is called the Moynihan Report of the 1960's.

218
00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:08,257
It kind of articulates this idea

219
00:14:08,257 --> 00:14:12,818
that Black families were poor because 
they were pathologically female-headed.

220
00:14:12,818 --> 00:14:16,615
So, this notion that family structure
is the problem with poor people,

221
00:14:16,615 --> 00:14:19,078
and specifically with Black poor people,

222
00:14:19,078 --> 00:14:24,879
has been this very prevalent racist notion that's 
still very active in welfare policy in the U.S.

223
00:14:24,879 --> 00:14:29,023
And both George Bush and Obama have had these... 
spent millions of dollars on these

224
00:14:29,023 --> 00:14:34,452
"healthy marriage" promotion projects 
that force poor people to marry,

225
00:14:34,452 --> 00:14:40,082
or that give you a financial incentive 
if you're on welfare and you get married.

226
00:14:40,082 --> 00:14:43,442
So all of this is about blaming poverty 
on the failure to marry,

227
00:14:43,442 --> 00:14:48,281
or the failure to have the state's idea 
of a moral family structure.

228
00:14:48,281 --> 00:14:51,979
Anti-racists and feminists 
have sought to dismantle marriage,

229
00:14:51,979 --> 00:14:54,891
identifying the family as a place of violence,

230
00:14:54,891 --> 00:15:01,793
and the institution of marriage as a key form of social 
control of sexuality, racialized population control,

231
00:15:01,793 --> 00:15:07,217
and just not an OK way to distribute life chances, 
the basic stuff people need.

232
00:15:07,217 --> 00:15:10,159
And they've worked to make it easier 
to get out of marriage.

233
00:15:10,159 --> 00:15:13,910
That was a huge feminist legal project for years,
was trying to make it easier to get a divorce,

234
00:15:13,985 --> 00:15:18,770
because people couldn't get out of marriages
'cause of the way American law structured divorce.

235
00:15:18,770 --> 00:15:23,272
And feminists have also fought to explode 
romance myths and family roles that trap people,

236
00:15:23,272 --> 00:15:26,495
and to disconnect marriage from vital resources.

237
00:15:26,495 --> 00:15:30,606
And there's also been an enormous amount 
of legal work in the U.S.

238
00:15:30,606 --> 00:15:36,803
to get rid of laws that disadvantage people if they 
were "illegitimate", if they had un-married parents.

239
00:15:36,803 --> 00:15:41,359
'Cause those laws, after it was 
no longer explicitly permissible

240
00:15:41,359 --> 00:15:45,195
to have laws that just excluded 
Black people from certain opportunities,

241
00:15:45,195 --> 00:15:47,648
those laws were the replacement.

242
00:15:47,648 --> 00:15:51,903
So part of this as well is 
a whole history of anti-illegitimacy laws,

243
00:15:51,903 --> 00:15:54,541
which are really, like, pro-marriage laws 
with a penalty,

244
00:15:54,541 --> 00:15:58,978
to be used in really explicitly anti-Black ways.

245
00:15:58,978 --> 00:16:03,085
Like in the U.S., in Israel marriage law 
also plays a key role

246
00:16:03,085 --> 00:16:07,841
in maintaining basic conditions of racialized 
hierarchy necessary to settler colonialism.

247
00:16:07,841 --> 00:16:15,266
This happens in a number of ways that are really 
obvious parts of the ethnic cleansing project,

248
00:16:15,266 --> 00:16:19,547
that seeks to win a demographic war 
to ensure that Jews outnumber Arabs,

249
00:16:19,547 --> 00:16:24,043
and that a particular, narrow defined 
kind of Jewish life is cultivated.

250
00:16:24,043 --> 00:16:28,681
One very obvious example is that 
civil marriage does not exist in Israel.

251
00:16:28,681 --> 00:16:31,723
So marriage between people of different religions,

252
00:16:31,723 --> 00:16:35,992
or even between people who have different 
matrilineal or patrilineal Jewish heritage

253
00:16:35,992 --> 00:16:38,409
is not allowed.

254
00:16:38,409 --> 00:16:41,861
And hundreds of Israeli couples 
fly to Cyprus every month to get married.

255
00:16:41,861 --> 00:16:45,724
This approach to marriage overall 
is contested by many Israelis

256
00:16:45,724 --> 00:16:51,104
who see it as a threat to freedom of religion;

257
00:16:51,104 --> 00:16:54,846
but it more broadly attests to the use of marriage 
as a tool of population control

258
00:16:54,846 --> 00:16:59,100
aimed at settlement and population 
displacement and replacement.

259
00:16:59,100 --> 00:17:02,433
Another prominent example is the 
Citizenship and Entry Into Israel Law,

260
00:17:02,433 --> 00:17:08,100
the 2003 law that established that Palestinian 
citizens of the Occupied Territories

261
00:17:08,100 --> 00:17:12,317
who marry Israeli citizens 
cannot acquire Israeli residency.

262
00:17:12,317 --> 00:17:16,498
So Israeli citizens who marry people 
from other places

263
00:17:16,498 --> 00:17:19,626
win family munification through their marriages.

264
00:17:19,626 --> 00:17:22,791
Their new spouses can come 
and live with them in Israel.

265
00:17:22,791 --> 00:17:26,533
Since most of the Israeli citizens who marry
Palestinians from the Occupied Territories

266
00:17:26,533 --> 00:17:30,473
are part of the 20% of Israeli citizens 
who are Palestinian,

267
00:17:30,473 --> 00:17:35,259
this primarily means that the Palestinian families 
are being divided by this 2003 law.

268
00:17:35,259 --> 00:17:39,138
While Jewish people all over the world have 
the right to citizenship in Israel,

269
00:17:39,138 --> 00:17:43,016
and... for immigration purposes interestingly,

270
00:17:43,016 --> 00:17:45,699
the definition of Jewish enough is very broad,

271
00:17:45,699 --> 00:17:48,413
because the goal is to encourage settlement.

272
00:17:48,413 --> 00:17:52,195
And others who marry Israeli citizens 
can acquire residency in Israel,

273
00:17:52,195 --> 00:17:54,386
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories 
cannot access residency status

274
00:17:54,386 --> 00:17:57,083
through their spouses in Israel.

275
00:17:57,083 --> 00:18:01,423
And this immigration policy 
--and immigration policy in Israel in general--

276
00:18:01,423 --> 00:18:06,026
is focused on prioritizing 
immigration of Jewish people,

277
00:18:06,026 --> 00:18:08,353
there's a 3-track immigration system

278
00:18:08,353 --> 00:18:12,551
which prioritizes Jewish immigration 
with immediate and automatic citizenship,

279
00:18:12,551 --> 00:18:16,003
places non-Jewish foreign immigration second,

280
00:18:16,003 --> 00:18:18,798
with a multi-year process for 
gaining residency or citizenship,

281
00:18:18,798 --> 00:18:23,949
and provides a 3rd track for spouses 
of Palestinian citizens of Israel,

282
00:18:23,949 --> 00:18:26,591
as long as they are not residents 
of the Occupied Territories

283
00:18:26,591 --> 00:18:29,058
or states that Israel has declared enemy states.

284
00:18:29,058 --> 00:18:33,512
Unequal marital privileges are part of the 
ethnic cleansing project of the state of Israel,

285
00:18:33,512 --> 00:18:35,930
and impact thousands of families,

286
00:18:35,930 --> 00:18:37,981
maintaining forced separations,

287
00:18:37,981 --> 00:18:42,549
depriving Palestinian citizens of Israel of access 
to state resources for their families,

288
00:18:42,549 --> 00:18:45,463
that are available to Jewish citizens of Israel;

289
00:18:45,463 --> 00:18:48,501
and restricting movement for Palestinians.

290
00:18:48,501 --> 00:18:52,454
Clearly, increased access to Israel's 
marriage regime for same sex couples

291
00:18:52,454 --> 00:18:56,921
does not change or reform 
the fundamental role of Israeli marriage law,

292
00:18:56,921 --> 00:19:01,587
in enforcing occupation and state-sponsored racism.

293
00:19:01,587 --> 00:19:04,396
Lesbian and gay Palestinian citizens of Israel

294
00:19:04,396 --> 00:19:08,250
whose partners are from the Occupied Territories 
face the same restrictions as straight people do.

295
00:19:08,250 --> 00:19:13,413
What does it mean to recognize... to get to 
seek recognition in a marriage system

296
00:19:13,413 --> 00:19:17,051
overtly created to forward 
an ethnic cleansing process?

297
00:19:17,051 --> 00:19:20,333
What does it mean to declare such recognition 
as a victory for equality

298
00:19:20,333 --> 00:19:22,576
or evidence of enlightened human rights policy?

299
00:19:22,576 --> 00:19:27,581
[ MC interrupts to ask ] Dean, could we have 
it wrap up in about 5 minutes or so?

300
00:19:27,581 --> 00:19:30,002
[ Dean Spade ] Oh, much sooner than that!

301
00:19:30,002 --> 00:19:32,274
[ MC ] Oh, sorry, carry on!

302
00:19:32,274 --> 00:19:36,068
[ Dean Spade ] Thank you... I'm sorry that
our technical issues have made me so slow.

303
00:19:36,068 --> 00:19:39,484
Just have one more paragraph. [ laughs ]

304
00:19:39,484 --> 00:19:43,147
The intensifying discourse 
of Israeli human rights leadership

305
00:19:43,147 --> 00:19:49,190
buoyed by same sex marriage and LGB 
--and in Israel T-- military service,

306
00:19:49,190 --> 00:19:54,301
brings to the surface in new ways ongoing tensions 
in queer and trans politics,

307
00:19:54,301 --> 00:19:59,230
about efforts at inclusion 
in central state institutions and systems.

308
00:19:59,230 --> 00:20:02,255
The demands of marriage and military participation

309
00:20:02,255 --> 00:20:06,974
are not only far from fulfilling feminist,
queer, trans and anti-racist imaginings

310
00:20:06,974 --> 00:20:09,607
of sexual and gender liberation,

311
00:20:09,607 --> 00:20:14,002
but must also be analyzed as methods 
of justifying and sustaining and expanding

312
00:20:14,002 --> 00:20:16,783
colonial and imperial violence.

313
00:20:16,783 --> 00:20:19,884
it's not surprising that these demands 
have risen to the surface,

314
00:20:19,884 --> 00:20:22,543
and drowned out other images 
of gender and sexual liberation

315
00:20:22,543 --> 00:20:25,265
in corporate media owned and dominated

316
00:20:25,265 --> 00:20:27,949
by those who have invented and executed 
the war on terror,

317
00:20:27,949 --> 00:20:32,137
and also the same people who don't mind 
developing new markets for wedding day creation.

318
00:20:32,137 --> 00:20:36,837
The same media that has, y'know, 
24 hours a day on TV in the United States,

319
00:20:36,837 --> 00:20:42,208
shows about buying wedding dresses,
and shows about how cops are great and stuff.

320
00:20:42,208 --> 00:20:46,650
The context... and y'know, movies about 
how the U.S. military is amazing...

321
00:20:46,650 --> 00:20:54,554
this context in the U.S. has created ready 
and willing audiences for Israeli pinkwashing,

322
00:20:54,554 --> 00:20:59,894
which is dearly needed as more and more of the 
world names conditions in Israel as apartheid,

323
00:20:59,894 --> 00:21:06,124
and it becomes more and more essential to maintain 
U.S. financial support for Israeli military violence.

324
00:21:06,124 --> 00:21:11,569
It's become commonplace to convince straight people 
--as well as many queer people,

325
00:21:11,569 --> 00:21:13,470
amazingly, even those who would say 
they are anti-war--

326
00:21:13,470 --> 00:21:19,191
that our liberation is about becoming soldiers 
and spouses, recuperating oppressive structures

327
00:21:19,191 --> 00:21:21,918
by putting a gay flag on them
and saying they are good for gays.

328
00:21:21,918 --> 00:21:26,829
I would argue that centuries of feminist,
anti-colonial, and anti-racist resistance

329
00:21:26,829 --> 00:21:30,227
have proven that marriage and the military
are not good for anyone.

330
00:21:30,227 --> 00:21:33,674
Today's anti-pinkwashing activists are encouraging

331
00:21:33,674 --> 00:21:39,558
those invested in resisting sexual, gender, and family
formation norms, to develop discernment,

332
00:21:39,558 --> 00:21:45,998
not asking just "can we be included in existing 
structures?", but "what are those structures?"

333
00:21:45,998 --> 00:21:54,161
And if it's a prison cell, a cop, a tank, a wall, 
a border, a soldier, or a state family formation norm,

334
00:21:54,161 --> 00:21:57,015
you can wrap it in a rainbow flag all you want,

335
00:21:57,015 --> 00:21:59,846
and it still won't be anti-homophobic,
feminist or liberating.

336
00:21:59,846 --> 00:22:04,448
So we have to ask: "can you have a movement 
for sexual liberation or gender liberation

337
00:22:04,448 --> 00:22:07,685
that does not contest colonization,

338
00:22:07,685 --> 00:22:11,092
especially when sexual and family regulation 
is a central tool of colonization?"

339
00:22:11,092 --> 00:22:15,295
I wonder, will contemporary 
gay rights frameworks be remembered

340
00:22:15,295 --> 00:22:18,685
as pro-war, pro-military, and pro-apartheid?

341
00:22:18,685 --> 00:22:21,596
That's all. [ audience claps ]

342
00:22:23,925 --> 00:22:28,354
[ Isabel Krupp, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid,
AKA QuAIA ]

343
00:22:28,354 --> 00:22:29,297
My name's Isabel Krupp,

344
00:22:29,297 --> 00:22:32,639
and I'm a member of Queers Against 
Israeli Apartheid, Vancouver,

345
00:22:32,639 --> 00:22:35,831
which I'll refer to as QuAIA from now on,

346
00:22:35,831 --> 00:22:39,559
just so I don't trip over my own tongue 
while I'm speaking.

347
00:22:39,559 --> 00:22:45,385
I'd like to begin by acknowledging that we're on 
un-ceded and occupied Coast Salish Territories,

348
00:22:45,385 --> 00:22:50,004
the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, 
Stó:lō and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

349
00:22:50,004 --> 00:22:55,579
And this acknowledgement of the ongoing occupation
and colonization of this land, of Turtle Island,

350
00:22:55,579 --> 00:22:59,542
is foundational to all of the work that QuAIA does.

351
00:22:59,542 --> 00:23:03,845
So, recognizing the ongoing 
impacts of settler colonialism,

352
00:23:03,845 --> 00:23:09,526
and working in solidarity with Indigenous movements
for sovereignty and decolonization,

353
00:23:09,526 --> 00:23:12,710
is really what QuAIA is all about.

354
00:23:12,710 --> 00:23:18,864
We're a Palestine solidarity organization,
we work in solidarity with Palestinian movements

355
00:23:18,864 --> 00:23:24,298
for sovereignty and against Israeli 
apartheid, occupation, and colonization.

356
00:23:24,298 --> 00:23:26,681
So it's really important for us

357
00:23:26,681 --> 00:23:32,107
to recognize how Canada and Israel 
bolster each other’s colonial occupations,

358
00:23:32,107 --> 00:23:38,401
both ideologically and materially, through 
political, military, and economic support.

359
00:23:39,489 --> 00:23:43,267
And I'd like to point out that Canada is one of the 
key supporters of Israel in the world right now.

360
00:23:43,267 --> 00:23:48,761
So if we want to effectively fight 
against Israeli apartheid and occupation,

361
00:23:48,761 --> 00:23:56,341
we need also to come out against 
settler-colonialism here in Canada.

362
00:23:56,341 --> 00:24:00,718
So for folks who would like to explore 
these connections further,

363
00:24:00,718 --> 00:24:06,180
there is a brilliant paper by Dana Olwan and Mike 
Krebs on the topic, which I highly recommend.

364
00:24:06,180 --> 00:24:11,175
So I've already used the phrase 
“Israeli apartheid” several times.

365
00:24:11,175 --> 00:24:16,923
and I know that's something that Dean has talked 
about so I'm going to try not to overlap too much,

366
00:24:16,923 --> 00:24:19,766
but I imagine that some folks in the audience

367
00:24:19,766 --> 00:24:22,999
aren't as familiar with a critical perspective
on the Israeli state.

368
00:24:22,999 --> 00:24:27,948
I won't have time to get into like 
an Israeli Apartheid 101 today,

369
00:24:27,948 --> 00:24:31,970
so I encourage those less familiar with this topic 
to seek out critical resources,

370
00:24:31,970 --> 00:24:35,177
which QuAIA would be happy to help provide.

371
00:24:35,177 --> 00:24:40,116
But I will describe very briefly what I mean 
when I say Israeli apartheid.

372
00:24:40,116 --> 00:24:45,388
I'm talking about Palestinians in the West Bank 
who live under a brutal military occupation,

373
00:24:45,388 --> 00:24:49,545
which takes the form of illegal Israeli settlements,

374
00:24:49,545 --> 00:24:55,614
checkpoints, and a system of walls, barriers, 
and roads accessible solely to Israeli settlers.

375
00:24:55,614 --> 00:24:59,980
I'm talking about Palestinians living in Israel 
who face discriminatory policies.

376
00:24:59,980 --> 00:25:04,346
Like Dean was talking about a little bit, 
currently there are over 25 laws

377
00:25:04,346 --> 00:25:09,160
which target them specifically as non-Jewish 
and reduce them to second class citizens.

378
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:15,407
I'm talking about Palestinians in the diaspora 
and in UN-administered refugee camps

379
00:25:15,407 --> 00:25:20,862
who are by default denied their UN-sanctioned 
right to return to their lands.

380
00:25:20,862 --> 00:25:25,160
And I'm talking about over 1.8 million 
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip

381
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:29,001
who are living in an open air prison 
under an illegal siege,

382
00:25:29,001 --> 00:25:32,944
described by international experts 
as a "slow genocide".

383
00:25:32,944 --> 00:25:36,903
So again, I encourage anyone surprised by what 
I am saying or what Dean was talking about

384
00:25:36,903 --> 00:25:42,541
to seek out critical resources and particularly 
to seek out Palestinian perspectives.

385
00:25:42,541 --> 00:25:46,649
So, there is a growing international movement 
– led by Palestinians –

386
00:25:46,649 --> 00:25:49,186
against Israeli apartheid and occupation.


387
00:25:49,186 --> 00:25:55,660
In response, Israel's launched an aggressive well 
funded PR campaign that Dean was talking about

388
00:25:55,660 --> 00:26:00,352
to market itself as an oasis of tolerance 
in the Middle East,

389
00:26:00,352 --> 00:26:03,398
as this modern liberal democratic state –

390
00:26:03,398 --> 00:26:07,317
specifically, the only democracy 
in the Middle East, right? –

391
00:26:07,317 --> 00:26:09,809
in order to obscure its status 
as an apartheid state.

392
00:26:09,809 --> 00:26:12,999
And I think it's important to point out 
that the implication here

393
00:26:12,999 --> 00:26:19,849
is that Israel needs to practice apartheid,
colonialism, and genocide

394
00:26:19,849 --> 00:26:26,427
in order to preserve these freedoms and democracy 
and rights for gays and lesbians, right?

395
00:26:26,427 --> 00:26:32,039
'Cause like Dean was describing, gay rights 
discourse is a big piece of this PR campaign –

396
00:26:32,039 --> 00:26:39,990
Israel is working really hard to brand itself 
as the only gay-friendly country

397
00:26:39,990 --> 00:26:41,755
in what they frame as an otherwise 
hostile and homophobic region.

398
00:26:41,755 --> 00:26:46,483
And we can see really clearly how this plays into 
racist, imperialist, and orientalist ideas

399
00:26:46,483 --> 00:26:51,925
around the “West” as modern and civilized 
and the “East” as barbaric and backwards, right?

400
00:26:51,925 --> 00:26:58,734
So this practice of appropriating 
the struggle for gay rights discourse

401
00:26:58,734 --> 00:27:02,640
to obscure, excuse, or justify state violence 
is called “pinkwashing”.

402
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:05,764
And Dean made that very clear... 


403
00:27:05,764 --> 00:27:08,893
And this practice, I'd like to point out, 
is not unique to Israel.

404
00:27:08,893 --> 00:27:12,520
In the Canadian context, we see an example of this

405
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:17,794
when we look at the re-branding of the tar sands 
and this idea, this myth of “ethical oil”, right?

406
00:27:17,794 --> 00:27:22,195
In opposition to so-called “conflict oil” that 
comes from countries like Saudi Arabia,

407
00:27:22,195 --> 00:27:27,908
which are again constructed through 
racist narratives as exceptionally homophobic.

408
00:27:27,908 --> 00:27:32,431
So one of the things that 
this practice of pinkwashing erases

409
00:27:32,431 --> 00:27:38,788
is how state violence, including colonialism 
and apartheid, impacts all Palestinians,

410
00:27:38,788 --> 00:27:42,126
queer and straight, trans and cis.

411
00:27:42,126 --> 00:27:45,329
“There is no pink door in the apartheid wall” right?

412
00:27:45,329 --> 00:27:49,635
We hear this phrase, this slogan 
in anti-pinkwashing activism,

413
00:27:49,635 --> 00:27:53,400
“There is no pink door in the apartheid wall”.

414
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:58,177
All of these supposed rights and freedoms 
of “gay! friendly! Israel!”,

415
00:27:58,177 --> 00:28:00,840
they don't extend to Palestinians.


416
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:04,476
And as much as the Israeli state 
decries Palestinian homophobia,

417
00:28:04,476 --> 00:28:09,593
its regime of apartheid and occupation 
creates challenges and barriers

418
00:28:09,593 --> 00:28:16,571
for queer and trans Palestinians organizing 
against homophobia and transphobia.

419
00:28:16,571 --> 00:28:23,964
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna read a little quote 
from a Palestinian queer organization,

420
00:28:23,964 --> 00:28:27,387
Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment, 
and Sanctions. And they say:

421
00:28:27,387 --> 00:28:32,381
<i>“As Palestinian queers, our struggle is not only 
against social injustice</i>

422
00:28:32,381 --> 00:28:37,040
<i>and our rights as a queer minority 
in Palestinian society,</i>

423
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:42,945
<i> but rather, our main struggle is one against 
Israel's colonization, occupation and apartheid;</i>

424
00:28:42,945 --> 00:28:47,689
<i>a system that has oppressed us 
for the past 63 years"</i>

425
00:28:47,689 --> 00:28:50,030
So that's Palestinian Queers for BDS.

426
00:28:50,030 --> 00:28:52,570
And I think this statement makes a lot of sense

427
00:28:52,570 --> 00:28:55,696
when we think about how social movements 
for gender and sexual freedom

428
00:28:55,696 --> 00:29:01,001
are contingent on freedom from the daily violence 
of colonization, occupation, and apartheid.

429
00:29:01,001 --> 00:29:06,600
I also want to acknowledge that these social
movements are alive and well in Palestine,

430
00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:10,477
and several members of QuAIA Vancouver

431
00:29:10,477 --> 00:29:15,200
were able to meet a number of amazing Palestinian 
queer and trans activists at the recent

432
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:19,980
World Social Forum "Free Palestine" in Brazil, 
which included a Queer Visions stream.

433
00:29:19,980 --> 00:29:25,120
So Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is one of 
a growing number of queer activist groups

434
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:28,271
working to resist the pinkwashing of Israeli apartheid.

435
00:29:28,271 --> 00:29:34,240
And as queers and trans folks, we have the power 
to interrupt this practice of pinkwashing.

436
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:41,189
When we come out against Israeli apartheid, 
we interfere with the myth-making that's vital

437
00:29:41,189 --> 00:29:47,215
to letting Israel get away with apartheid, colonialism, 
and other forms state violence.

438
00:29:47,215 --> 00:29:50,041
So, to give some background on QuAIA Vancouver:

439
00:29:50,041 --> 00:29:55,001
There's been a QuAIA presence in the Vancouver 
Pride Parade for the past several years,

440
00:29:55,001 --> 00:29:59,882
which I attended but personally 
wasn't involved in organizing,

441
00:29:59,882 --> 00:30:02,662
and I want to recognize that work that took place;

442
00:30:02,662 --> 00:30:06,995
but the current iteration of QuAIA Vancouver 
came together just last summer

443
00:30:06,995 --> 00:30:13,602
in response to 2 Israeli-funded films that were 
being screened at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

444
00:30:13,602 --> 00:30:15,612
They were called “Joe + Belle” and “Invisible Men”.

445
00:30:15,612 --> 00:30:21,097
And in response to the screening of these films, 
we came together under the banner of QuAIA

446
00:30:21,097 --> 00:30:28,690
to call on the Queer Film Festival to come out in 
solidarity with Palestinian queers and trans folks,

447
00:30:28,690 --> 00:30:33,659
ultimately, to challenge pinkwashing

448
00:30:33,659 --> 00:30:38,733
by honouring the cultural boycott of Israel 
for future seasons of the Festival.

449
00:30:38,733 --> 00:30:41,989
So for those of you who aren't familiar 
with the idea of cultural boycott --

450
00:30:41,989 --> 00:30:44,216
Dean mentioned BDS.


451
00:30:44,216 --> 00:30:48,950
So, in 2005, Palestinian civil society 
launched a global movement

452
00:30:48,950 --> 00:30:53,199
for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel, 
which we call BDS.

453
00:30:53,199 --> 00:30:56,982
So this includes economic boycotts, 
divestment, sanctions advocacy,

454
00:30:56,982 --> 00:31:00,010
but also a cultural and academic boycott,

455
00:31:00,010 --> 00:31:04,810
which targets cultural institutions, 
projects, and events

456
00:31:04,810 --> 00:31:09,788
that continue to serve the purposes of 
the Israeli colonial and apartheid regime.

457
00:31:09,788 --> 00:31:15,097
So I want to be clear that cultural boycott doesn't 
target artists or filmmakers based on nationality,

458
00:31:15,097 --> 00:31:20,329
but rather targets officially sponsored voices 
that serve the interests of apartheid.

459
00:31:20,329 --> 00:31:26,166
So in this context, we felt and we feel that it 
is very important to call on our queer institutions,

460
00:31:26,166 --> 00:31:29,939
like the Vancouver Queer Film Festival

461
00:31:29,939 --> 00:31:32,993
to come out against the Israeli apartheid regime,

462
00:31:32,993 --> 00:31:38,753
because if this queer film festival, 
if this is a queer film festival,

463
00:31:38,753 --> 00:31:41,538
it belongs to all of us, right?

464
00:31:41,538 --> 00:31:45,253
Including any Palestinian and Arab queers 
and queers of colour

465
00:31:45,253 --> 00:31:51,762
who may feel alienated from a festival that aligns 
itself with institutional advocates for apartheid.

466
00:31:51,762 --> 00:31:57,218
So as the Festival gears up again this Spring, 
we're going to be organizing to make this happen,

467
00:31:57,218 --> 00:32:00,434
to call on the Vancouver Queer Film Festival

468
00:32:00,434 --> 00:32:04,000
to come out in support of 
Palestinian queer and trans folks.

469
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,810
So in the coming months, 
we'll need community support.

470
00:32:07,810 --> 00:32:11,297
And we want encourage everybody here today 
to sign up for our email list,

471
00:32:11,297 --> 00:32:14,750
which, there's a signup list at the back of the room,

472
00:32:14,750 --> 00:32:17,906
and to like us on Facebook if you're on there 
[ laughter ],

473
00:32:17,906 --> 00:32:20,852
and most importantly to come out 
to future events and actions.

474
00:32:20,852 --> 00:32:24,285
Because if we want to 
hold our institutions accountable,

475
00:32:24,285 --> 00:32:28,632
we need to show them 
that we care about this, right?

476
00:32:28,632 --> 00:32:31,778
So, yeah, because apartheid is a queer issue

477
00:32:31,778 --> 00:32:35,848
- it's not only a queer issue 
but clearly it's a queer issue -

478
00:32:35,848 --> 00:32:41,645
and as queers and trans folks 
i think our role in this struggle is clear:

479
00:32:41,645 --> 00:32:46,432
There's no pride in apartheid! 
[ audience cheers ]

480
00:32:46,432 --> 00:32:49,496
[ Anna Soole, Social Justice 
& Decolonization Facilitator ]

481
00:32:49,496 --> 00:32:51,960
Thank you Isabel, that was a great ending.
I liked that little...

482
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:56,743
So, first I want to say thank you 
to Dean and Isabel for what you said,

483
00:32:56,743 --> 00:33:00,098
and I want to say thank you 
to Harsha for what you're gonna say,

484
00:33:00,098 --> 00:33:01,139
and SFPIRG for having us.

485
00:33:01,139 --> 00:33:05,021
And I want to acknowledge that we are on 
traditional Coast Salish territory.

486
00:33:05,021 --> 00:33:09,825
And that I am... so... my name is Anna Soole,
and I'm Métis.

487
00:33:09,825 --> 00:33:16,322
I'm Cree, Ojibwe, Apache, Algonquin and Lakota, 
and I'm also French, Celtic, Dutch and German.

488
00:33:16,322 --> 00:33:22,502
That's a lot of things to remember.
I'm kind of like a Heinz 57...

489
00:33:22,502 --> 00:33:26,885
and so [ laughs ] I'm gonna be speaking
to my own personal experience,

490
00:33:26,885 --> 00:33:30,477
more than... I'm not an academic,

491
00:33:30,477 --> 00:33:34,748
and so my framework is much more 
cultural and from my own perspective.

492
00:33:34,748 --> 00:33:37,824
And I'm gonna share some stories,
and I'm gonna share a little bit about who I am

493
00:33:37,824 --> 00:33:41,824
and how what we're talking about today 
has impacted me as an Indigenous woman.

494
00:33:41,824 --> 00:33:45,390
And, before I do...

495
00:33:45,390 --> 00:33:49,945
one of the things in the work that I do
-I do decolonization work-

496
00:33:49,945 --> 00:33:54,567
one of the things that's really important to me
is acknowledge the space that we're in.

497
00:33:54,567 --> 00:33:57,978
And the space that we're in is what?

498
00:33:57,978 --> 00:34:00,791
Just call it out, what do you see?

499
00:34:00,791 --> 00:34:04,468
Concrete!
What else?

500
00:34:05,132 --> 00:34:07,796
Rows! Exactly!

501
00:34:07,796 --> 00:34:12,239
So, we're in a space that is 
specifically a settler space.

502
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:15,617
And so I just want to acknowledge that 
we're talking about decolonization,

503
00:34:15,617 --> 00:34:19,934
we're talking about colonialism, settler colonialism,
inside a settler space.

504
00:34:19,934 --> 00:34:25,964
And in my culture, does anybody know 
how we would be set up?

505
00:34:25,964 --> 00:34:27,998
In a circle.

506
00:34:27,998 --> 00:34:31,084
And so a circle keeps us accountable to each other,

507
00:34:31,084 --> 00:34:34,638
so I often have a lot of conflict 
about sitting on a panel,

508
00:34:34,638 --> 00:34:37,607
because I feel uncomfortable 
with a table between me and a group.

509
00:34:37,607 --> 00:34:44,385
I feel uncomfortable being the voice, 
when there's so much knowledge in a room.

510
00:34:44,385 --> 00:34:47,963
And so I just want to acknowledge that,
and my own conflict with it.

511
00:34:47,963 --> 00:34:55,129
And acknowledge ways... maybe in the future... 
maybe how can we look at that as a group,

512
00:34:55,129 --> 00:34:58,142
the people that are here,

513
00:34:58,142 --> 00:35:01,967
how can we look at that and changing these systems 
that we're inside of even in this moment?

514
00:35:01,967 --> 00:35:04,645
Um...

515
00:35:05,569 --> 00:35:09,335
So, just about me, I wanna acknowledge...

516
00:35:09,335 --> 00:35:12,641
I'm from a working class, Métis family,

517
00:35:12,641 --> 00:35:15,293
and I'm personally, financially, somewhat precarious,

518
00:35:15,293 --> 00:35:18,452
queer, and I have no high school diploma.

519
00:35:18,452 --> 00:35:24,272
But I present as a white, straight, middle class,
educated and employable person,

520
00:35:24,272 --> 00:35:29,435
so I carry a level of privilege that my contemporaries 
who wear their station more visibly

521
00:35:29,435 --> 00:35:32,205
don't necessarily have access to.

522
00:35:32,205 --> 00:35:36,967
But that is specifically related to 
my experience as an Indigenous woman,

523
00:35:36,967 --> 00:35:40,672
because when Dean was talking about marriage,

524
00:35:40,672 --> 00:35:45,858
that was the topic that struck me the most, 
that I wanted to speak to the most.

525
00:35:45,858 --> 00:35:49,390
Talking about marriage and colonialism
in my family,

526
00:35:49,390 --> 00:35:52,539
both of my grandmothers are Indigenous,

527
00:35:52,539 --> 00:35:56,315
and they both went to day school,
which is a lot like residential school,

528
00:35:56,315 --> 00:36:00,337
and one of my grandmothers ran away when she 
was 12 years old from Quebec to Vancouver;

529
00:36:00,337 --> 00:36:04,022
and my other grandmother, 
her whole family left Edmonton,

530
00:36:04,022 --> 00:36:09,728
where we were well-established, well-known,
activist family that had everything stolen from us,

531
00:36:09,728 --> 00:36:13,470
and the University of Alberta 
is now built on our homestead.

532
00:36:13,470 --> 00:36:19,789
So everybody came here, and both of my 
grandmothers out of survival married white men.

533
00:36:19,789 --> 00:36:23,544
And so I, every single day of my life,

534
00:36:23,544 --> 00:36:27,152
walk through the world carrying 
the legacy of colonization on my skin.

535
00:36:27,152 --> 00:36:33,022
Because I carry a privilege that was designed,

536
00:36:33,022 --> 00:36:36,513
and the design was for me to not identify 
as an Indigenous person.

537
00:36:36,513 --> 00:36:40,244
And so it's a radical act 
for me to never identify as white.

538
00:36:40,244 --> 00:36:45,535
Although I recognize my white privilege, 
I identify as genocide white.

539
00:36:45,535 --> 00:36:50,175
So my friend D. Williams, she was talking about 
this concept of genocide white --

540
00:36:50,175 --> 00:36:53,651
or genocide brown depending on the experience-

541
00:36:53,651 --> 00:36:57,816
and for me that makes sense, because the reason 
my skin is white is because of genocide.

542
00:36:57,816 --> 00:37:03,391
And so it's a complicated experience for me
[ laughs ] to say the least.

543
00:37:03,391 --> 00:37:10,266
When Indigenous women married white men,
they lost any status they might have.

544
00:37:10,266 --> 00:37:14,105
Métis women actually didn't have any 
status until the 80's --

545
00:37:14,105 --> 00:37:22,138
actually we didn't have any status until this month 
[ laughs ] We have status now.

546
00:37:22,138 --> 00:37:25,758
What we had was citizenship in the 80's,

547
00:37:25,758 --> 00:37:33,715
and so my grandmothers, they made their choices 
according to that history. And it impacted my life.

548
00:37:33,715 --> 00:37:40,587
It impacted abuse that was in my family and in my, 
and in my own... on my own personal body.

549
00:37:40,587 --> 00:37:44,472
And so, uh, I carry that with me every day.

550
00:37:44,472 --> 00:37:48,986
So I wanna... I just wanna read my notes because...

551
00:37:48,986 --> 00:37:52,905
it's nerve-wracking to 
talk in front of a bunch of people

552
00:37:52,905 --> 00:37:56,147
especially when you're not in a circle!
[ laughs ] It's really nerve-wracking!

553
00:37:56,147 --> 00:37:59,504
So I'm just gonna look at my notes...
OK so the next thing I wanted to touch on

554
00:37:59,504 --> 00:38:04,467
is that I was raised by a single mother,
she never got married,

555
00:38:04,467 --> 00:38:08,041
and I never thought about marriage growing up.

556
00:38:08,041 --> 00:38:12,925
It wasn't something that like a lot of girls 
in particular, people who are raised as girls,

557
00:38:12,925 --> 00:38:16,355
are expected to think about their wedding day.

558
00:38:16,355 --> 00:38:19,792
There's a lot of pressure, socialization 
to think about your wedding day,

559
00:38:19,792 --> 00:38:22,933
think about what it's gonna be like to get married,
plan on getting married... I never had that.

560
00:38:22,933 --> 00:38:26,287
And my experience was actually 
that my mother was... was really...

561
00:38:26,287 --> 00:38:30,968
she really didn't want me to get married.

562
00:38:30,968 --> 00:38:36,535
And... but I also saw the other side of it,
which was that my mother was a single mother,

563
00:38:36,535 --> 00:38:42,548
and she didn't have access to a lot of the things 
that my friends had access to, my friends parents.

564
00:38:42,548 --> 00:38:45,281
My mom couldn't get a loan 
without a man in the 80's, and so

565
00:38:45,281 --> 00:38:46,717
we were very poor for a long period of time until 
my mother joined the system, worked for the city,

566
00:38:46,717 --> 00:38:56,100
and literally broke her back working for 
her whole life so that we could survive.

567
00:38:56,100 --> 00:38:59,491
So it's a complicated system.

568
00:38:59,491 --> 00:39:03,442
The reason we get... a lot of people feel 
the pressure to get married,

569
00:39:03,442 --> 00:39:06,987
is because the structure that we live inside 
doesn't support not being married.

570
00:39:06,987 --> 00:39:12,048
And so, what I wanted to sorta think about 
or get people thinking about is

571
00:39:12,048 --> 00:39:17,617
if you only have 1 concept of what is possible,

572
00:39:17,617 --> 00:39:20,871
of course you're gonna want to 
live inside that concept.

573
00:39:20,871 --> 00:39:26,177
So the paradox of human agency, speaks to the 
idea that people's choices are never straightforward.

574
00:39:26,177 --> 00:39:31,572
The context of our present particular times 
and places, constraints and possibility,

575
00:39:31,572 --> 00:39:37,673
shape not only our choices,
but even what we can imagine for ourselves.

576
00:39:37,673 --> 00:39:42,796
So right now the queer community, especially in 
the U.S., because in Canada we have marriage rights,

577
00:39:42,796 --> 00:39:47,129
but in the U.S. the queer community
is trying to fit inside a structure

578
00:39:47,129 --> 00:39:51,184
that is the only structure 
that people can comprehend.

579
00:39:51,184 --> 00:39:57,714
And if there's only one structure, 
people are not going to be able to...

580
00:39:57,714 --> 00:40:03,459
if there's only one possibility, 
if it seems like there's only one possibility,

581
00:40:03,459 --> 00:40:07,639
people aren't necessarily going to be able to create 
the world that they would want for themselves

582
00:40:07,639 --> 00:40:11,054
in a different system.

583
00:40:11,054 --> 00:40:14,594
So, uh, this is not just a... this is also about 
the politics of identity.

584
00:40:14,594 --> 00:40:17,264
It's about the politics of union, 
and it's about the politics of family,

585
00:40:17,264 --> 00:40:21,906
because if I'm gonna grow up 
and become an old woman,

586
00:40:21,906 --> 00:40:27,816
and not have a family to take care of me,
I'm basically going to be living in poverty.

587
00:40:27,816 --> 00:40:33,325
And so, there's a lot of pressure on me
as a woman, to have children.

588
00:40:33,325 --> 00:40:38,301
And there's a lot of pressure on me as a woman, 
to have children, and be in a couple,

589
00:40:38,301 --> 00:40:44,381
a specific kind of couple, with a romantic partner, 
preferably a male, a cisgendered male.

590
00:40:44,381 --> 00:40:47,633
So there's all of these pressures 
that I'm expected to live inside of,

591
00:40:47,633 --> 00:40:53,144
and, yes I want to have children, but I don't want 
to have that pressure or that expectation,

592
00:40:53,144 --> 00:40:56,515
I don't want it to be coming 
from the fear of ending up alone.

593
00:40:56,515 --> 00:40:58,589
So...

594
00:41:03,726 --> 00:41:10,162
I have an excerpt from an article that I wrote 
about whether or not I wanted to be a mother...

595
00:41:10,162 --> 00:41:13,408
thank you! It's perfect, it's how I wanted to end...

596
00:41:13,408 --> 00:41:19,539
So... the dominant culture has come to view 
family as a small scale, intensely private unit.

597
00:41:19,539 --> 00:41:24,893
In a healthy, traditional aboriginal community,
a child doesn't have just one mother.

598
00:41:24,893 --> 00:41:29,199
She has aunties, cousins, sisters, 
grandmas, and family friends.

599
00:41:29,199 --> 00:41:33,486
Often, a biological mother is not 
the most significant female in the child's life,

600
00:41:33,486 --> 00:41:38,932
and this is not viewed as neglectful, as child psych-
ologist Dr. John Bowlby would have had us believe

601
00:41:38,932 --> 00:41:46,215
when he said mid 20th century, when he mid 
20th century coined the term "maternal deprivation".

602
00:41:46,215 --> 00:41:49,633
In fact, it would be quite the opposite.

603
00:41:49,633 --> 00:41:53,048
The child has so many caregivers 
in an aboriginal community --

604
00:41:53,048 --> 00:41:56,576
or a traditional prior to colonization 
aboriginal community--

605
00:41:56,576 --> 00:41:59,834
that she is able to connect with and bond 
to the women, men, or Two-Spirited people,

606
00:41:59,834 --> 00:42:02,436
that are right for her at that time in her growth.

607
00:42:02,436 --> 00:42:07,897
Previous bonds with other women aren't lost or bro-
ken but maintained and evolved as the child evolves.

608
00:42:07,897 --> 00:42:12,668
This works because the well-being of the family 
community is valued above the individual,

609
00:42:12,668 --> 00:42:18,859
whereas in contemporary settler colonial culture,
the individual is valued above the whole.

610
00:42:18,859 --> 00:42:22,943
Bowlby's legacy has clearly entered 
the dominant ideology of motherhood.

611
00:42:22,943 --> 00:42:28,557
The requirement is that the individual mother should 
have total responsibility for her own children at all times.

612
00:42:28,557 --> 00:42:33,017
This has informed the decisions of colonizers 
to remove children

613
00:42:33,017 --> 00:42:37,755
from these traditional Indigenous family situations,
which we saw in the 60's Scoop,

614
00:42:37,755 --> 00:42:42,358
which was taking Indigenous children out of their 
homes and putting them into foster homes,

615
00:42:42,358 --> 00:42:45,316
and it's still happening to this day.

616
00:42:45,316 --> 00:42:48,664
Indigenous children are taken 
out of their homes and put in foster homes

617
00:42:48,664 --> 00:42:51,885
more than any other children in Canada.

618
00:42:51,885 --> 00:42:56,110
... lost my place...

619
00:42:56,110 --> 00:43:00,671
...because the ethic of domination 
has been used to corrupt, violate,

620
00:43:00,671 --> 00:43:03,969
and attempt to destroy these traditions 
through privatization of the family,

621
00:43:03,969 --> 00:43:08,474
it's often challenging for the individualistic culture 
of the colonized and colonizers

622
00:43:08,474 --> 00:43:12,017
to understand or see the merits 
in multi-shared child rearing.

623
00:43:12,017 --> 00:43:19,801
In my ideal world, an interdependent community 
of peaceful, practical, creative, spiritual people,

624
00:43:19,801 --> 00:43:23,443
working together to respect and tend to the earth,
and each other,

625
00:43:23,443 --> 00:43:28,574
sharing responsibility for each other's well-being, 
and the well-being of the children,

626
00:43:28,574 --> 00:43:32,403
whether a mother is single or attached
is irrelevant,

627
00:43:32,403 --> 00:43:35,495
as the child has many dedicated, 
loving role models of every gender,

628
00:43:35,495 --> 00:43:38,861
who are positively engaged 
in every aspect of the child's life.

629
00:43:38,861 --> 00:43:42,438
Prospective parents make informed decisions 
about when and whether to have children,

630
00:43:42,438 --> 00:43:45,154
and access to birth control is unquestioned.

631
00:43:45,154 --> 00:43:49,307
The elderly are cared for by the whole community,
regardless of their blood ties,

632
00:43:49,307 --> 00:43:52,713
and all community members basic needs are met.

633
00:43:52,713 --> 00:43:57,329
Some might label these values as anti-racist,
eco-feminist, with socialist leanings...

634
00:43:57,329 --> 00:44:00,737
but I prefer the title Indigenous Feminist,
and I wear that with pride.

635
00:44:00,737 --> 00:44:08,989
And I have one final thing, because I only have prob-
ably one minute left. I found this on Facebook today.

636
00:44:08,989 --> 00:44:11,320
[ whispers to a fellow panelist ] Would you be willing 
to hold this up? Thank you.

637
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:17,750
And I'll describe it for people who...
who can't see it.

638
00:44:17,750 --> 00:44:21,526
So, it's a series of three circles at the bottom.

639
00:44:21,526 --> 00:44:28,604
The 1st circle has a series of multiple blue circles 
in it, and outside is multicoloured circles.

640
00:44:28,604 --> 00:44:32,183
And this is labeled as "Exclusion".

641
00:44:32,183 --> 00:44:36,160
So all around the border of the circle 
has the multicoloured circles.

642
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:41,379
The 2nd circle has the blue circles in the centre, 
and a smaller circle on the outside.

643
00:44:41,379 --> 00:44:47,320
And it's got all the multicoloured circles in it.
Labeled as "Segregation".

644
00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:53,561
The 3rd circle has blue circles inside of it, and 
another circle inside of it with multicoloured circles.

645
00:44:53,561 --> 00:44:56,625
And that's called "Integration".

646
00:44:56,625 --> 00:45:01,571
The final circle has all the circles, 
blue and multicoloured, inside of it,

647
00:45:01,571 --> 00:45:05,374
which changes the entire 
formation of what it looks like.

648
00:45:05,374 --> 00:45:07,333
And that's called "Inclusion".

649
00:45:07,333 --> 00:45:13,291
And I've worked in many non-Indigenous 
organizations as an Indigenous person,

650
00:45:13,291 --> 00:45:18,200
and it's... of course I'm the Indigenous person 
who looks white, right?

651
00:45:18,200 --> 00:45:21,946
So I get hired because I look like everybody else, 
and I can easily fit into white culture.

652
00:45:21,946 --> 00:45:24,624
Or so people think until they know me.
[ laughs ]

653
00:45:24,624 --> 00:45:31,199
And so, what we're talking about here is 
literally changing the structure of society.

654
00:45:31,199 --> 00:45:38,029
So, not changing, not getting queer people to 
be able to get married and join the military,

655
00:45:38,029 --> 00:45:40,867
but what we're talking about 
is getting rid of the military.

656
00:45:40,867 --> 00:45:47,308
Changing the ideas of marriage. Changing our 
ideas of what partnership and family looks like.

657
00:45:47,308 --> 00:45:48,569
Thank you.
[ applause ]

658
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:55,428
[ Harsha Walia, No One Is Illegal ]

659
00:45:55,428 --> 00:46:01,103
That was it! [ audience laughter ]
That visual's incredible.

660
00:46:01,103 --> 00:46:05,433
Thank you to the organizers 
and thank everyone for being here,

661
00:46:05,433 --> 00:46:09,356
thank you Dean and Isabel and Anna
for really amazing presentations.

662
00:46:09,356 --> 00:46:14,078
I want to start by acknowledging that we're on 
un-ceded, occupied, Coast Salish territories,

663
00:46:14,078 --> 00:46:17,679
lands of the Musqueam, Tsleil Waututh, 
Squamish and Stó:lō people.

664
00:46:17,679 --> 00:46:21,462
And also too, as other speakers mentioned, 
to really understand in a deep way what it means

665
00:46:21,462 --> 00:46:24,486
to root our work
within an anti-colonial framework,

666
00:46:24,486 --> 00:46:30,689
and what it means to really truly be in alliance with 
Indigenous struggles against settler colonialism.

667
00:46:30,689 --> 00:46:34,790
And everything that that means, right?
It means multiple things.

668
00:46:34,790 --> 00:46:38,384
It means fighting in defense of the land,
it means fighting violence against women,

669
00:46:38,384 --> 00:46:41,684
it means fighting against prisons and police,
and the military,

670
00:46:41,684 --> 00:46:45,894
and all of the aspects of settler colonialism
that seep into our lives and our societies,

671
00:46:45,894 --> 00:46:50,125
and the ways in which we live here on Turtle Island.

672
00:46:50,125 --> 00:46:55,857
I wanna pick up where folks were kinda left off,
and what people were talking about...

673
00:46:55,857 --> 00:46:59,857
and particularly some of the stuff 
that Dean was talking about

674
00:46:59,857 --> 00:47:03,387
in terms of the co-optation of 
queer and trans liberation movements

675
00:47:03,387 --> 00:47:06,050
as well as women of colour movements,

676
00:47:06,050 --> 00:47:10,522
particularly for imperial, capitalist, 
and colonial ambitions.

677
00:47:10,522 --> 00:47:14,816
And particularly to talk about that in the intersection 
of immigration, both historically and currently.

678
00:47:14,816 --> 00:47:18,848
Y'know, first I do want to say 
that it's not new, right?

679
00:47:18,848 --> 00:47:21,829
There's this kind of new framework 
that's been developing,

680
00:47:21,829 --> 00:47:26,613
particularly with homonationalism when we talk 
about it, or pinkwashing when we talk about it,

681
00:47:26,613 --> 00:47:30,470
but I really think it's important to understand 
that this recent branding has a long legacy

682
00:47:30,470 --> 00:47:33,940
and has a long history in terms of colonial politics.

683
00:47:33,940 --> 00:47:39,169
And y'know in particular colonialism has 
always cast people of colour communities

684
00:47:39,169 --> 00:47:43,250
as barbaric, and savage, and backwards,
as you were mentioning Isabel.

685
00:47:43,250 --> 00:47:45,954
And this is not new, right?

686
00:47:45,954 --> 00:47:49,357
The kind of gay-saving rhetoric 
and the ideology of it is also not new.

687
00:47:49,357 --> 00:47:52,559
I'm gonna give some historic examples of that.

688
00:47:52,559 --> 00:47:56,901
Most people think that that is a recent kind of...

689
00:47:56,901 --> 00:48:02,508
a recent evolution of y'know "save the women!"
[ laughs ] but they've both always worked together.

690
00:48:02,508 --> 00:48:07,425
And so the kind of "save 3rd world women", "save 
women of colour" and y'know, "save 3rd world gays",

691
00:48:07,425 --> 00:48:12,967
have always been attendant processes of colo-
nialism, and have always been part of that project.

692
00:48:12,967 --> 00:48:17,274
And the thing that is most deeply 
offensive and ironic about that of course

693
00:48:17,274 --> 00:48:21,367
is that colonialism itself has imposed 
the most hetero-normative, patriarchal system

694
00:48:21,367 --> 00:48:25,419
on communities of colour, right?
Particularly through the Victorian era.

695
00:48:25,419 --> 00:48:28,483
So you have this simultaneous 
kind of rhetoric and discourse

696
00:48:28,483 --> 00:48:34,446
of saving communities of colour, while at the 
same time imposing the most rigid and oppressive

697
00:48:34,446 --> 00:48:37,952
family and community and societal structures
on our communities, right?

698
00:48:37,952 --> 00:48:41,424
So, there's nothing kind of new about this.

699
00:48:41,424 --> 00:48:45,624
So I want to look at some examples, 
particularly through a lens of immigration.

700
00:48:45,624 --> 00:48:49,829
There's of course y'know a lot 
of conversation that we've had,

701
00:48:49,829 --> 00:48:53,931
Isabel laid out a lot of amazing history 
in terms of pinkwashing,

702
00:48:53,931 --> 00:48:56,685
Dean also talked about it 
in the context of pinkwashing,

703
00:48:56,685 --> 00:48:59,350
also the examples as we know of course 
of the occupation of Afghanistan,

704
00:48:59,350 --> 00:49:03,966
where, y'know, the entire rhetoric of occupation 
and colonialism both locally and globally

705
00:49:03,966 --> 00:49:08,093
has been rooted in this white saviour 
industrial complex if you will,

706
00:49:08,093 --> 00:49:13,345
but I also want to look at it through the lens 
of immigration, which isn't often talked about,

707
00:49:13,345 --> 00:49:19,095
and the ways in which state controls and border 
controls are operating through these ways as well.

708
00:49:19,095 --> 00:49:22,496
So, y'know, a lot of people here probably know 
about the Komagata Maru, right?

709
00:49:22,496 --> 00:49:27,908
So, the Komagata Maru was the ship in 1914 
that turned, that was turned away

710
00:49:27,908 --> 00:49:31,392
-376 predominantly Punjabi immigrants-

711
00:49:31,392 --> 00:49:36,296
was turned away from the shores of 
British Columbia, here on the west coast.

712
00:49:36,296 --> 00:49:42,609
And y'know, that's known as a very obvious 
example of anti-migrant history in Canada.

713
00:49:42,609 --> 00:49:48,692
Y'know, the Tory government recently made 
an apology -or a kind of half-apology-

714
00:49:48,692 --> 00:49:53,750
for the Komagata Maru, in the same vein as 
the apology for the residential schools,

715
00:49:53,750 --> 00:49:57,134
in the same vein as the apology 
of the Chinese Head Tax,

716
00:49:57,134 --> 00:50:02,522
y'know, totally token, offensive, symbolic gestures,
but y'know, people know about the Komagata Maru.

717
00:50:02,522 --> 00:50:05,225
The thing that most people don't know about

718
00:50:05,225 --> 00:50:09,994
is the sodomy cases that were happening at the 
same time as the Komagata Maru was happening.

719
00:50:09,994 --> 00:50:14,477
So during 1909 and 1925, there was 
a number of sodomy cases

720
00:50:14,477 --> 00:50:18,168
that were being tried particularly 
in the west coast of Canada.

721
00:50:18,168 --> 00:50:23,690
And the largest proportion of men being tried 
under sodomy laws at the time were Sikh men.

722
00:50:23,690 --> 00:50:29,418
And in particular there was a really high profile case 
in 1915... has anyone seen Rex Vs. Singh?

723
00:50:29,418 --> 00:50:33,749
If not... check out the movie, 
it's a really important movie, y'know,

724
00:50:33,749 --> 00:50:39,871
that links and ties the connection between anti-
migrant sentiment and homophobia and transphobia,

725
00:50:39,871 --> 00:50:43,667
and in particular with 
the criminalization of communities

726
00:50:43,667 --> 00:50:47,514
and the assertion of state power 
in the act of criminalization.

727
00:50:47,514 --> 00:50:51,452
And so in 1915, there was 
a relatively high-profile "case",

728
00:50:51,452 --> 00:50:55,712
where there were two Sikh men, 
they were two Sikh millworkers,

729
00:50:55,712 --> 00:51:00,910
and their names were Dalip Singh and [Naina] Singh,

730
00:51:01,094 --> 00:51:04,480
and they were two men 
who were tried for sodomy in 1915.

731
00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:09,944
And this was a time of... right.. one year after 
the Komagata Maru was turned back, right?

732
00:51:09,944 --> 00:51:13,654
So, this is again happening in a period 
when there's heightened

733
00:51:13,654 --> 00:51:18,467
-particularly anti-Sikh anti-Punjabi, 
anti-south Asian- sentiment in BC,

734
00:51:18,467 --> 00:51:24,221
where newspapers are filled with y'know, "Turn back 
the Hindus!", "Hindus are invading our shores!",

735
00:51:24,221 --> 00:51:29,450
while at the same time there's also a simultaneous 
crackdown on working class gay men,

736
00:51:29,450 --> 00:51:32,682
in particular, working in the mills.

737
00:51:32,682 --> 00:51:36,561
And so, the sodomy cases really are a confluence 
of the ways in which the state

738
00:51:36,561 --> 00:51:39,963
is simultaneously criminalizing under sodomy laws,

739
00:51:39,963 --> 00:51:43,041
and simultaneously criminalizing 
under anti-migrant laws.

740
00:51:43,041 --> 00:51:48,692
And again, the largest proportion of men tried 
under these cases during 1909 to 1929

741
00:51:48,692 --> 00:51:52,011
were Sikh men, Sikh migrant men.

742
00:51:52,011 --> 00:51:57,440
And so again I say that to show
kind of an historic trajectory,

743
00:51:57,440 --> 00:52:03,389
of the ways in which the state has been 
actively criminalizing communities of colour,

744
00:52:03,389 --> 00:52:06,936
particularly queer and trans communities of colour
through state processes.

745
00:52:06,936 --> 00:52:10,347
And so I wanna move quickly to the current context,

746
00:52:10,347 --> 00:52:14,103
because again there's often a sense 
that all of this is new.

747
00:52:14,103 --> 00:52:18,436
And again in the current context we see 
the same kind of thing, where on the one hand

748
00:52:18,436 --> 00:52:22,281
the Canadian state is actively excluding 
queer and trans communities of colour,

749
00:52:22,281 --> 00:52:26,128
while at the same time it's upholding the myth

750
00:52:26,128 --> 00:52:29,973
of being welcoming for persecuted 
queer and trans folks from the global south.

751
00:52:29,973 --> 00:52:32,853
And so we see that these 
parallel discourses are necessary.

752
00:52:32,853 --> 00:52:38,183
So one of them is the kind of homonationalist dis-
course; y'know, similar to the Israeli pinkwashing:

753
00:52:38,183 --> 00:52:43,320
"We're so welcoming", "We're this bastion 
of queer and gay rights",

754
00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:47,237
"Western civilization frees everybody", y'know, 
"Western civilization is where equality rests";

755
00:52:47,237 --> 00:52:53,401
while at the same time, the reality on the ground
is one that is actively of persecution.

756
00:52:53,401 --> 00:52:57,290
We see, particularly through immigration laws,
the ways in which heteronormativity

757
00:52:57,290 --> 00:53:01,742
-and particularly an assimilation politic-
at various levels is being reinforced.

758
00:53:01,742 --> 00:53:08,809
So one really kind of obvious on the face example,
is that until 2002 same-sex relationships

759
00:53:08,809 --> 00:53:12,009
-so this is just same sex relationships,

760
00:53:12,009 --> 00:53:16,239
we're not even talking about diverse 
queer familial relationships-

761
00:53:16,239 --> 00:53:19,954
same sex relationships were not even recognized 
until 2002 under the Canadian immigration Act

762
00:53:19,954 --> 00:53:24,943
as being able to be qualified 
under the Family Class, right?

763
00:53:24,943 --> 00:53:29,411
So this is 10 years ago, or how many years ago?
10 years ago, right?

764
00:53:29,411 --> 00:53:33,738
This is very recent, in terms of 
Canadian immigration policy.

765
00:53:33,738 --> 00:53:38,058
But just to move to kind of more recent examples,

766
00:53:38,058 --> 00:53:41,765
and then to talk about the ways in which homo-
nationalism has been an active part of Jason Kenney

767
00:53:41,765 --> 00:53:47,988
-who is the current Minister of Deportation, 
as some of us like to call him-

768
00:53:47,988 --> 00:53:52,070
there's a number of ways in which we see... 
I wanna talk about 3 of many examples,

769
00:53:52,070 --> 00:53:57,240
I'll only give 3 examples ... of the ways 
in which that active exclusion is happening,

770
00:53:57,240 --> 00:54:01,115
and persecution is happening, 
of queers and trans folks

771
00:54:01,115 --> 00:54:05,729
who are trying to immigrate and particularly 
claim asylum within Canada,

772
00:54:05,729 --> 00:54:10,205
and then the final thing is kind of fortification of 
homonationalism through the immigration system.

773
00:54:10,205 --> 00:54:13,298
So the first is, y'know, the citizenship guide.

774
00:54:13,298 --> 00:54:18,691
So the citizenship guide was a brand new citizenship 
guide for Canada, espouses Canadian values...

775
00:54:18,691 --> 00:54:23,062
and we find out through the citizenship guide 
that Canadian values means

776
00:54:23,062 --> 00:54:26,936
-absolutely no reference to 
queer and trans liberation struggles,

777
00:54:26,936 --> 00:54:29,731
it doesn't even mention same sex marriage.

778
00:54:29,731 --> 00:54:34,287
But what it does have is a number 
of recruitment ads into the military.

779
00:54:34,287 --> 00:54:39,514
And this is the example of y'know 
what Canada is presenting itself as,

780
00:54:39,514 --> 00:54:43,086
in terms of for newcomers 
and for people becoming citizens.

781
00:54:43,086 --> 00:54:47,087
The Immigration and Refugee Board
has a number of new judges

782
00:54:47,087 --> 00:54:51,267
that Jason Kenney and the 
Conservatives recently appointed,

783
00:54:51,267 --> 00:54:55,269
who are openly anti-queer judges. 
Openly anti-queer.

784
00:54:55,269 --> 00:55:00,615
One of them actually spoke at a fundraiser 
that was an openly anti-queer fundraiser.

785
00:55:00,615 --> 00:55:04,787
And he gets appointed by Jason Kenney, 
to do what?

786
00:55:04,787 --> 00:55:12,259
What kinds of claims is this person supposed 
to be hearing? Anyone take a guess? ...

787
00:55:12,259 --> 00:55:18,929
Yeah, basically, he is looking at claims 
based on gender and sexual persecution.

788
00:55:18,929 --> 00:55:22,995
And so this is the kind of system 
that we have in place, right?

789
00:55:22,995 --> 00:55:29,204
And the other thing that we have that y'know 
completely continues to re-entrench

790
00:55:29,204 --> 00:55:33,983
heteronormativity as well as 
capitalist values and assimilative values,

791
00:55:33,983 --> 00:55:37,094
is the Humanitarian and Compassionate 
Claim in Canada right?

792
00:55:37,094 --> 00:55:40,524
So this is like the claim that, 
if you are trying to stay in Canada,

793
00:55:40,524 --> 00:55:42,932
and your sponsorship has been refused,

794
00:55:42,932 --> 00:55:47,584
or you're one of the many refugees who are
increasingly being deported by Jason Kenney,

795
00:55:47,584 --> 00:55:52,989
or you're thrown into prison, as women and kids 
are increasingly being thrown into prisons,

796
00:55:52,989 --> 00:55:56,177
the Humanitarian and Compassionate Claim 
is something you can apply for,

797
00:55:56,177 --> 00:55:57,679
and you have to have an income,

798
00:55:57,679 --> 00:56:01,419
if you have a spouse and children, 
then that looks good,

799
00:56:01,419 --> 00:56:04,025
if you're taxpaying, that looks good,

800
00:56:04,025 --> 00:56:07,903
y'know so it's basically the system 
where immigration is increasingly becoming

801
00:56:07,903 --> 00:56:11,641
a tool of capitalism and colonialism 
and oppression and heteronormativity,

802
00:56:11,641 --> 00:56:14,466
in terms of the kinds of immigrants...

803
00:56:14,466 --> 00:56:17,916
And y'know it's similar to 
the examples that Dean was giving,

804
00:56:17,916 --> 00:56:21,129
in terms of an immigration system that is 
not based on justice, at all, right?

805
00:56:21,129 --> 00:56:26,316
It's based on people who are gonna fulfill the needs 
of the Canadian state and the Canadian economy.

806
00:56:26,316 --> 00:56:31,223
But at the same time, so while we have this, y'know, 
this level of persecution, oppression happening,

807
00:56:31,223 --> 00:56:33,709
what do we have Jason Kenney do?

808
00:56:33,709 --> 00:56:37,042
Jason Kenney sends an email to everyone 
who ever signed a petition for Alvaro [Orozco],

809
00:56:37,042 --> 00:56:40,990
who is a young, queer, Latino man in Toronto 
who was facing deportation,

810
00:56:40,990 --> 00:56:45,010
and he, he spams that email list...

811
00:56:45,010 --> 00:56:49,380
-because when you sign those email petitions, 
you give your email to Jason Kenney-

812
00:56:49,380 --> 00:56:51,849
he sends every one of those people an email about

813
00:56:51,849 --> 00:56:58,386
how Jason Kenney is helping queers in Iran to come 
to Canada. So this is what Jason Kenney does.

814
00:56:58,386 --> 00:57:04,277
So there's a number of policies that are 
actively anti-queer, anti-refugee, anti-migrant,

815
00:57:04,277 --> 00:57:09,830
but everyone who's advocating for queer liberation, 
for queer rights, for migrant rights, for migrant justice

816
00:57:09,830 --> 00:57:13,673
gets emails about how the Conservative government
is saving queers in Iran.

817
00:57:13,673 --> 00:57:18,441
Which is, y'know, part of the pinkwashing, 
the imperialist agenda of the Tory government,

818
00:57:18,441 --> 00:57:22,464
but really of the Canadian state, right?
This is just its current formation.

819
00:57:22,464 --> 00:57:28,622
So I just want to echo in ending, what everyone 
has already said, right? Which is:

820
00:57:28,622 --> 00:57:33,833
How do we imagine -and how do we particularly 
because I'm talking about a lens for migrant justice-

821
00:57:33,833 --> 00:57:36,385
how do we imagine a lens for migrant justice

822
00:57:36,385 --> 00:57:40,232
that isn't dependent on people as labour, 
or people as commodities?

823
00:57:40,232 --> 00:57:45,217
That really truly respects and values 
the diverse ways in which people are communing,

824
00:57:45,217 --> 00:57:47,473
the diverse ways people are forming relationships,

825
00:57:47,473 --> 00:57:51,297
the diverse ways in which 
people imagine family, right?

826
00:57:51,297 --> 00:57:54,431
Because one of the other things 
that Jason Kenney has done

827
00:57:54,431 --> 00:57:57,924
is to say that people can't bring 
their parents and grandparents any more,

828
00:57:57,924 --> 00:58:01,684
because grandparents are using our tax... 
are using our healthcare, right?

829
00:58:01,684 --> 00:58:04,579
So Jason Kenney is active in this immigration system,

830
00:58:04,579 --> 00:58:07,938
is actually devaluing the various ways 
in which people have families,

831
00:58:07,938 --> 00:58:11,966
which include extended families 
and doesn't just include your spouse, right?

832
00:58:11,966 --> 00:58:14,777
It includes the ways particularly 
for communities of colour,

833
00:58:14,777 --> 00:58:17,528
in which family includes 
many many people in our lives.

834
00:58:17,528 --> 00:58:20,922
Listening to Anna talk it was making me weepy,

835
00:58:20,922 --> 00:58:24,488
because I grew up not calling my mother 
but two other women, my moms,

836
00:58:24,488 --> 00:58:27,459
and when I tell people that here, 
people think it's really bizarre,

837
00:58:27,459 --> 00:58:30,256
and assume that my mother was not part of my life.

838
00:58:30,256 --> 00:58:34,537
But... so how do we imagine 
a kind of immigration system

839
00:58:34,537 --> 00:58:39,239
where people are valued based on basic principles 
of justice and dignity, right?

840
00:58:39,239 --> 00:58:44,389
And also, an immigration system and a welcoming 
of migrants that is fundamentally anti-colonial,

841
00:58:44,389 --> 00:58:47,075
that respects that this land is not terra nullius,

842
00:58:47,075 --> 00:58:53,757
this land has been in the stewardship, taken care 
of by Indigenous peoples for a very long time.

843
00:58:53,757 --> 00:58:59,015
There's Indigenous laws on these territories. How do 
we respect and honour and live under <i>these</i> laws?

844
00:58:59,015 --> 00:59:03,978
How do we pledge allegiance to Indigenous 
sovereign law, sovereign Indigenous laws, right?

845
00:59:03,978 --> 00:59:07,888
Rather than pledging allegiance to a 
totally fucked up colonial capitalist system

846
00:59:07,888 --> 00:59:11,010
that makes us believe that people are expendable,

847
00:59:11,010 --> 00:59:15,756
that make us believe that the only way 
to get ahead is to assimilate, right?

848
00:59:15,756 --> 00:59:20,738
That the only way that we're gonna get ahead is by 
buying into capitalism, by buying into colonialism,

849
00:59:20,738 --> 00:59:24,192
by buying into cops and prisons 
and sweatshops and apartheid,

850
00:59:24,192 --> 00:59:27,865
rather than y'know, believing that we can actually 
pledge allegiance to our communities,

851
00:59:27,865 --> 00:59:31,301
and pledge allegiance to all our diverse families.

852
00:59:31,301 --> 00:59:34,602
And pledge allegiance to the sovereign Indigenous 
laws of these lands. Thank you.