VANCOUVER—In a bid to stamp out trans-misogyny and transphobia, the Vancouver Dyke March is centring the voices of trans people at this year’s march, which takes place Aug. 3, in East Vancouver.

Dyke March organizers also say they’re prepared to respond if anti-trans demonstrators show up at this year’s event, like they did last year.

Danniele Livengood, secretary treasurer of the Dyke March said the group invited WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre to be grand marshals of the march, because it admires how the centre has evolved to include trans, non-binary and gender diverse people in its sexual assault support services.

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“They exude the same values that we do — that trans people should be supported by their community and have valid identities and belong in queer spaces.”

The move is also the march’s effort to reiterate its support of trans people in the face of a transphobic and transmisogynistic backlash that was visibly present at its march last year.

In recent years the march, which says it attracts up to 4,000 people, has seen small groups protesting, holding up anti-trans signs and chanting.

They haven’t been welcomed by the march, which has had trans people on its board of directors since it started 16 years ago.

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Last year, a group of about 30 people showed up to “antagonize” trans people, Livengood said.

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“The biggest problem of having these TERFs, or Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists ... is that their tactics are often very subtle,” she said.

“To the uninitiated observer (their signs) can be very innocent, often with things like ‘Stop lesbian erasure,’ or two Venus symbols, and these seem like really legitimate things that most people would overlook, but often are weaponized against, particularly, trans women.”

People who are anti-trans don’t see trans women as women, said Livengood, who hesitated to explain what the protestors might have meant with their slogans for fear of giving them another platform.

“Unfortunately, these people see biological and genetic sex traits as immutable and unchangeable, so they see trans women as taking over women’s spaces, or erasing lesbians, however the Dyke March proudly asserts that trans women are women and everyone who identifies as trans has a valid identity.”

Felix Gilliland, WAVAW’s inclusion co-ordinator, will speak at the march about the importance of including queer and trans people in feminist organizing spaces and will touch on the history of trans peoples’ contributions to the feminist movement.

Trans people are not a “new influx of people coming into the feminist movement,” but “have been making substantial changes and improvements to the movement for decades,” they said.

Gilliland, who is trans masculine and uses the pronoun they, said they are “humbled” that WAVAW has been named grand marshal.

“It’s been an amazing and a long journey for us to get to where we are with trans inclusion.”

It’s a journey that Gilliland, 30, has a deep personal connection to.

Back in their early 20s, Gilliland volunteered for WAVAW’s sexual assault crisis phone line. It was meaningful work and part of their “big feminist awakening,” because they were able to make a tangible contribution, they said.

But around the same time, Gilliland said they started questioning their identity as a cisgender woman. At the time, WAVAW included trans women in its services, but the organization was a “women’s space,” and they weren’t sure if they would still be welcomed with their new trans masculine identity.

So, they left the organization.

“I wasn’t able to reconcile that, I quit the crisis line in order to pursue a transition. It sat really uncomfortably with me for a really long time.”

About five years later, WAVAW began an inclusion project. Having received feedback from the trans community, the organization started to address its “gap in services” for trans and non-binary people, Gilliland said.

WAVAW eventually hired Gilliland to help with the project.

“It’s this really amazing story of feeling pushed out of the organization and then to come full circle back to the point where I’m able to be the one sort of deeply involved in the changes toward trans inclusion,” Gilliland said.

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“We think of queer identities as being so marked by loss ... (so) to be able to come full circle back to something, I think that’s where the revolution is.”

Gilliland said they unfortunately expect transmisogynistic demonstrators to show up at the march again this year, and said there’s been a rise in transphobic backlash over the past year.

“In the wake of the city deciding to stop funding Vancouver Rape Relief (which excludes trans people from many of its services) there’s been a lot of backlash .... (it’s) more aggressive and more blatant transmisogyny.”

Correction - July 24, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled Danniele Livengood’s given name.