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Day of Remembrance marked with hopeful optimism (7 photos)

Flag-raising at Barrie City Hall marked Transgender Day of Remembrance

The message exposed at a flag-raising on Tuesday was that attitudes are changing, slowly but surely.

About 40 people braved the cold to honour Transgender Day of Remembrance at Barrie City Hall late on Tuesday afternoon.

Pte. Lynette Dang, a transgender woman in the Canadian Armed Forces, shared her story about coming out.

“I first enrolled (in the armed forces) in 2015, and I was a bit worried at first,” said Dang. “I had heard that the armed forces were pretty accepting nowadays, so I decided to just give it a shot.”

Dang went through basic training and eventually decided to open up to her closest friends on the base.

“I was really worried about that,” she said. “But it turns out, they were all accepting of me and that really impressed me. They commended my bravery.”

Dang had one friend during the course who didn’t know her situation, and once asked her why she didn’t act more like a man.

“Afterwards, when I told him, he actually apologized to me,” she said. “It just goes to show that the people who join the forces now are much more accepting.”

After coming out as transgender, Dang says she came to Canadian Forces Base Borden and started her transition process there.

“I have to commend my supervisors and my bosses. They were very professional. It’s a small military, people found out I was trans, but my bosses never outed me. They let me do it on my own terms and that was wonderful of them,” she said.

While going through the transition process, Dang also had a hand in helping to form the Borden Pride Network.

“Our goal was to make sure no one felt uncomfortable like other people before me who were transgender in the forces who had to go through hardships and face prejudice. Our group makes sure they are able to transition in peace,” she said.

“Some of the greatest strength and courage I have ever witnessed was in the pride community,” said Dang, adding the Borden Pride Network’s most recent goal is to establish a pride network on every military base across the country.

Caleb Kenehan from Trans Q, a support group for the local transgender community, spoke about statistics.

“This year, on the official list of (transgender) people we have lost this year, there are 369 people,” he said. “That is not anywhere near what the actual number is.

"There’s many people we don’t know (about) because they were not identified, or they were not identified by law enforcement as being trans, or simply they were never found," Kenehan added. "Those are only the ones we know of, who were murdered.”

“We do not know how many people we have lost due to suicide,” he continued. “The suicide rate of those in the trans community is 25 times higher than the rest of the population.”

Mayor Jeff Lehman was also in attendance to raise the flag.

“The message that I always want the city to give is that this is a community for absolutely everybody,” said Lehman. “It is a place where we work to reduce judgment.

“The optimistic note I’d like to leave on is that, in our lifetime, we have watched stigmas fall, we have watched attitudes change and that is possible again,” the mayor added. 


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Jessica Owen

About the Author: Jessica Owen

Jessica Owen is an experienced journalist working for Village Media since 2018, primarily covering Collingwood and education.
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