Hon. Kristopher Wells: Honourable senators, we have just witnessed the first time that drag performers have been introduced in the Senate of Canada. It is truly a very fitting way to begin the start of Canada’s Pride Season.
The history of the word “drag” has interesting origins. Some people believe the word originated with Shakespeare, with drag serving as an acronym for “dressed as a girl” during a time when women were not allowed on stage. Others believe the word originated from a time in theatre when large colourful dresses would literally drag across the stage.
Whichever story you believe, drag is most certainly an incredible and long-standing art form. Today, drag represents an important form of community building in the 2SLGBTQI+ community, and it’s a hugely popular cultural expression on television, including shows like “Canada’s Drag Race,” as well as Canadian works like Darrin Hagen’s book The Edmonton Queen and his play The Empress & the Prime Minister, and, of course, there is Michel Tremblay’s groundbreaking 1973 play Hosanna.
Drag, whether on stage, on screen or in the community, continues to make a powerful statement about equality in the way that it playfully challenges stereotypes and assumptions about gender and identity. Importantly, like all great works of art, drag makes us reflect, laugh and sometimes even cry.
As we mark the start of this year’s Pride Season, sadly it is our drag performers and gender-diverse communities that are under heightened attack. We are witnessing a deeply disturbing trend of anti-trans and anti-2SLGBTQI+ prejudice and discrimination taking place globally, in the United States and, yes, even here in Canada. This populist wave of so-called gender ideology is not just about harmful rhetoric; it is fundamentally about dismantling the hard-won progress that countries like Canada have made over decades.
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Canada’s legalization of same-sex marriage. This achievement is a standing matter of pride for our country and shows us all what can be accomplished through the work of advocates, allies and champions. This momentous change was led by countless individuals who, conversation by conversation, helped to open hearts and minds so that in the end, love won.
If history tells us anything, it is that we can never rest in the defence of the progress that we have made, and we can never stop the work of building a more just and inclusive society.
Honourable senators, last week we were reminded by a different King that Canada is the sovereign nation of the true north strong and free — free to love whom we love, free to be who we are and free to live proudly in a country where we can fully express ourselves.
This Pride Season, I hope I speak for all my honourable colleagues when I say that we stand on guard and we will always defend diversity and the fundamental rights and freedoms that Canada is built upon.
To all Canadians from coast to coast to coast, I wish you a happy summer filled with Pride, love, laughter and hopefully a colourful drag performance or two.
Thank you. Meegwetch.