Pride & Prejudice
What Happens When Ordinary People Decide to Show Up
Smart, sassy, and a little bad-assy, for Gen X women who’ve earned their laugh lines.
🌈 Glitter Beats Hate
Hey Gigglers,
Pride Month tends to bring out the best and worst in people.
For many, it is a celebration. For others, it is a reminder of how far we have come and how much further we still need to go. And then there is the vocal crowd that seems personally victimized by a rainbow flag, a drag queen story time, or a kid being told they are allowed to exist exactly as they are. Honestly, some people need a hobby that does not involve policing joy.
This issue is about Pride, but not the sanitized corporate version where a logo turns rainbow for 30 days and then quietly goes back to beige on July 1st. This is about the actual meaning of Pride: safety, visibility, dignity, protest, community, and the right to live without being treated like your existence is up for debate.
It is also about our children, our grandchildren, our nieces, nephews, neighbours, coworkers, friends, and the people sitting beside us at family dinners who may still be figuring out whether it is safe to tell the truth about who they are.
So pour the coffee, pour the wine, or pour whatever is getting you through the week. This one has glitter, history, some hard numbers, a unicorn, and a reminder that staying silent is not the flex some people think it is.
🌈 Why Pride Month Exists
Pride Month is celebrated every June because of the Stonewall Uprising, which began in New York City on June 28, 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gathering place for LGBTQ+ people. At the time, LGBTQ+ people faced widespread discrimination, police harassment, job loss, family rejection, and social exclusion. Stonewall was not a parade. It was resistance.
The first Pride marches took place one year later in 1970, including the Christopher Street Liberation Day March in New York. What began as protest evolved into a global movement for LGBTQ+ rights, safety, visibility, and equality. You can read more about the history of Pride Month in this overview from Time.
In Canada, Pride events began growing through the 1970s and 1980s, often led by people who were taking real personal and professional risks by showing up publicly. Pride has always been both celebration and protest. It is music, colour, chosen family, drag, dancing, and joy. It is also a reminder that rights are not handed over politely. They are fought for, defended, and passed forward.
That matters now because we are watching a renewed wave of misinformation, homophobia, and transphobia show up in school board meetings, municipal politics, social media feeds, and comment sections that make you want to throw your phone into Lake Ontario.
🏳️⚧️ Let’s Talk About What Transgender Means
A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. That is the basic definition. It is not an ideology, a trend, a social contagion, or something a child catches because they saw a rainbow sticker at the library.
Some transgender people transition socially, medically, legally, or in a combination of ways. Some do not. Some are binary trans men or trans women. Some are non-binary, which means they do not identify exclusively as male or female. The details are personal, but the basic human need is not complicated. People want to be safe. They want to be respected. They want to live without being mocked, targeted, erased, or treated like a political football.
SOGI stands for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. SOGI education and resources are designed to help schools create safer, more inclusive environments for all students. It is not about forcing children into identities. It is about helping them understand that families and people come in different forms, and that every student deserves dignity. You can learn more through SOGI Inclusive Education and SOGI 123.
For Gen X women, this can feel like one more culture-war topic being thrown into the already overflowing laundry basket of life. We are managing aging parents, adult kids, careers, menopause, rising costs, family group chats, and whatever fresh hell the algorithm serves before breakfast. But this one matters because the stakes are not theoretical. They are deeply personal.
📊 The Numbers We Need to Talk About
The mental health risks facing LGBTQ+ youth, especially transgender and non-binary youth, are not vague or exaggerated. They are documented, serious, and directly connected to how young people are treated by families, schools, peers, and communities.
According to the Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey / Being Safe, Being Me, conducted by researchers connected with the University of British Columbia’s Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre, 65% of transgender youth reported seriously considering suicide during the previous year, and 35% reported at least one suicide attempt during the previous year.
For comparison, suicide attempts among the general youth population are significantly lower. The exact comparison depends on age group, survey year, and method, but Canadian public health data consistently shows that transgender, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ youth experience much higher rates of suicidal ideation and attempts than their heterosexual and cisgender peers.
Statistics Canada has also reported that transgender and non-binary Canadians experience higher levels of stigma, harassment, violence, and discrimination, all of which are linked to increased suicide risk. More information is available through Statistics Canada and related Government of Canada health equity publications.
The Public Health Agency of Canada identifies LGBTQ2+ people as a population facing elevated suicide risk, with stigma, discrimination, social exclusion, and lack of support identified as contributing factors.
Family acceptance is one of the most powerful protective factors. The Family Acceptance Project found that LGBTQ+ youth who experience high levels of family rejection are more than 8 times more likely to attempt suicide than LGBTQ+ youth who experience strong family support and acceptance.
Those numbers are not just statistics. They are kids sitting in classrooms. They are teenagers at kitchen tables. They are young adults deciding whether it is safe to come home for Thanksgiving. They are the child, grandchild, niece, nephew, cousin, neighbour, or friend who may be listening carefully to what the adults around them say when LGBTQ+ issues come up.
The elevated risk is not because someone is LGBTQ+. It is because of bullying, rejection, isolation, discrimination, harassment, homophobia, and transphobia. When people are supported, accepted, and protected, outcomes improve. That should not be controversial
🎧 Episode 11: Not Today Hate
📺 Watch the full episode here:
This Pride Month conversation became very real when we sat down with Brenda Holdsworth, an award-winning documentary filmmaker from Pickering. Brenda joined us to talk about her documentary, local activism, and how a group of community members responded when misinformation, homophobia, and transphobia started showing up close to home.
What began as concern over the actions and comments of a local city councillor evolved into something much larger. Community members started speaking out, organizing, and supporting one another because, as Brenda put it, people reached a point where they simply “can’t do nothing anymore.”
The documentary follows that response. While it began with local politics, it became a story about what happens when ordinary people decide they are no longer willing to ignore misinformation, discrimination, and division in their own community.
🦄 Enter Glitter
Every movement needs a symbol, and this one got a unicorn.
Glitter became the rainbow mascot for a community response that chose creativity over confrontation. When protesters showed up outside drag queen story time events, Brenda and others organized bubble dance parties, rainbow signs, music, and family-friendly activities that created a buffer between children and the adults shouting outside the library.
As Brenda explained, it was about finding “creative solutions to combating hate and misinformation.”
The approach may have looked unconventional, but it carried an important message. The goal was never to out-shout the people spreading hate. It was to create something more positive, more welcoming, and ultimately more powerful.
💔 The Story That Stayed With Us
One of the most difficult stories Brenda shared involved a young girl who attended a drag queen story time event and later came home upset after hearing hateful comments from protesters outside. Her mother was left trying to explain why strangers were saying hurtful things about people the child cared about.
Moments like that remind us why these conversations matter. The impact of intolerance rarely ends with the intended target. It affects families, children, friends, neighbours, and entire communities. This is one reason Pride continues to matter. It is about creating a world where no child is left wondering whether they or the people they love somehow deserve less respect, dignity, or acceptance.
🎬 From Local Activism to Award-Winning Documentary
Brenda’s documentary recently received the Best Future Documentary Award at the Niagara International Film Festival. Using a unique storybook format narrated by a drag queen alongside real footage and interviews, the film tackles a difficult subject in a way that is accessible, engaging, and deeply human.
What makes the documentary so compelling is that it takes a national conversation and makes it personal. It reminds us that hate does not only happen somewhere else. It can show up at a library, a council meeting, a school board session, or on a neighbour’s Facebook feed between posts about lasagna recipes and rising grocery prices.
Gen X Giggles & Shit Facebook Community
🎉 It’s an Exciting Time for Giggles & Shit
Speaking of community, we have some exciting news of our own.
The Gen X Giggles & Shit Facebook Community has officially launched, and membership is growing fast. Apparently, Gen X women have a few things to say. Shocking, we know.
This group is a place for the conversations we are already having in real life: aging parents, adult kids, menopause, marriage, friendships, careers, politics, mental health, technology, grocery prices, and all the delightful midlife chaos nobody warned us about.
Join the community here:
Gen X Giggles & Shit Facebook Community
Come join us, engage, post your own Shit List or Hit List, and invite your friends. Bring your sister, your work wife, your neighbour who rage-texts you every time lettuce costs $8, and the friend who says “I’m fine, everything’s fine” while clearly being one group chat away from losing it.
The more Gigglers, the better.
🎙 What’s Coming Up
Next week we will return to our regularly scheduled Gen X chaos. There will likely be ranting, questionable life choices, a little midlife reflection, and at least one moment where we wonder whether we are becoming our mothers.
We want to hear from you too. What should we talk about next? What is making you laugh, rage, cry, or hide in the pantry pretending to look for crackers? Drop a comment, reply to the newsletter, or bring it into the Facebook group.
💩 The Shit List
This week’s official Shit List:
💩 Adults bullying children outside libraries.
💩 People who think kindness is controversial.
💩 Having to remember 47 passwords just to order pizza.
Your turn. What’s on your Shit List this week?
❤️ One Last Thing
Pride is not just a month, a parade, or a flag. It is a reminder that visibility matters, safety matters, and belonging matters.
Brenda’s story is powerful because it shows what can happen when regular people decide not to look away. They did not wait for a perfect plan. They did not wait for a massive organization to swoop in. They started with what they had: signs, bubbles, music, community, and one very committed unicorn.
Most of us will not make a documentary. Most of us will not lead a protest. But we can pay attention. We can challenge misinformation. We can support LGBTQ+ kids and families. We can stop pretending hateful rhetoric is harmless just because it is dressed up as “concern.” We can make sure the people around us know they are safe.
That is not political correctness. That is basic human decency. And frankly, basic decency could use a comeback tour.
Keep giggling, even when the shit gets real.
— Jill & Dianne
📩 Subscribe. Share. Comment. Keep showing up.
Mental Health, Suicide Prevention & Family Acceptance
Need Help? Canadian Mental Health Resources
Suicide Crisis Helpline Canada
Call or Text 988
Available 24 hours a day across Canada.
https://988.ca
Kids Help Phone
Free, confidential support for youth.
https://kidshelpphone.ca
Canadian Mental Health Association
https://cmha.ca
Trans Lifeline
Peer support by and for trans people.
https://translifeline.org
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