Face of Nation : Montreal police are investigating violent online threats directed at a group organizing a popular monthly event meant to provide a safe social space for trans women.
The monthly event, called Trans Amour, is part-fundraiser, part-community event.
On one of the Facebook event pages, a person writing from a now-deleted Facebook account made posts insulting trans women and referencing the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, FL, where 49 people were killed and 53 others were wounded.
The person suggested they would attend the group’s next event and added a link to the Wikipedia page for the shooting.
“Being a trans person on the internet and in public, you experience this kind of [online] violence a lot,” said Eve Parker Finley, who organizes Trans Amour, which is a fundraiser for Taking What We Need, a group that supports trans women.
“This is the first time it really feels like a threat of … mass violence.”
“This felt like an escalation, which is why we wanted to bring attention to it.”
Brasserie Beaubien, the venue where Trans Amour events are held, has filed a police report. The venue is looking into booking a security guard for the next event on July 20.
“We have a right to exist in public just like everyone else, and we will not let this kind of intimidation push us back into the closet or anywhere else,” said a post on the Taking What We Need Facebook page.
Organizers say they respect anyone who chooses not to attend the events in the face of this news.
“Transmisogyny is no joke,” they wrote on Facebook.
Finley said the comments were the most alarming Trans Amour has received yet.
Since the events are an important space for Montreal’s trans community, she said, it was important organizers stand their ground.
The event added a tagline for their next event: “Not going anywhere.”
“The response from community and allies has been amazing,” Finley said.
