Two Halifax-area businesses are grappling with vandalism after discriminatory messages targeting the trans community were written on their buildings.
The troubling incidents have raised concerns about a possible rise in hate crimes and whether it’s linked to politics south of the border.
Just over a week ago, someone wrote graffiti on Venus Envy’s storefront with a harmful anti-trans statement.
In a social media post, the store says the “reality is that the landscape for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community is shifting in many ways, including negative ones which infringe on trans and gender non-conforming people’s right to exist.”
Another business, Glitter Bean Cafe, was also vandalized last week with a crude, anti-trans scrawling made on the side of the building.
In that case, the cafe said it will “persist and continue to be a space that offers safety and comfort for marginalized folks” and that the rise in “aggressive, bigoted behaviour” was concerning.
Some wonder if those behaviours are linked to the political climate.
“I think it’s hard not to connect it to the sweeping measures that are being undertaken currently in the United States and most notably the executive orders that Donald Trump has issued just in the very short time,” said Margaret Denike, a Dalhousie University political science and gender and women’s studies professor.
Lisa Lachance, the province’s NDP 2SLGBTQIA+ spokesperson, said what happens across the border has reverberations at home.
“We’re seeing rights that seemed firmly entrenched being stripped away, and that’s really concerning for folks. So far, that hasn’t happened here, but I’d like to think that we’re going to avoid the culture war around this,” Lachance said.
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