Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey every- Hey everyone! It's me, Drew Alfuallo, host of The Comment Section Show. Come join me and one of my iconic special guests every week on the show as we dive into the dreaded comment sections of our tagged videos and take down the most terrible men on the internet, period. Somehow they won't go away no matter what I do, no matter how incredibly awful and mean I am to them, but I don't mind doing this work. In fact, if I'm being honest, I think it's God's work.
So make sure y'all follow me on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes every Wednesday. Welcome to the Jan Arden podcast and show. I am your host, Jan Arden. I'm here with Caitlin Green, who is in Toronto. And Sarah Burke is here also in Toronto, right out of the gate.
Taylor Swift. There's so much stuff going on. AI, nude pictures, Super Bowl. The fact that she is going to publicly endorse Biden, presumably. This is the rumor. And that Trump says that he is more popular than Taylor Swift. Anyway, Caitlin is the expert on all these things. I am not. So please lead us through the Taylor Swift Super Bowl extravaganza. Okay.
I just want to say this is the world I'm forced to occupy as a byproduct of my job. So anyways, but I do stay on top of it because I find it interesting. And I like Taylor Swift.
Um, so yeah, she is going to the super bowl. Everyone who comments and says, well, she's going to be in Tokyo. You're not wrong. She's going to be in Tokyo, but because of the time change and the time difference between Tokyo and Las Vegas, she can finish her show in Tokyo, make it to the airport, hop on her plane, cross the international date line, and she will make it in Vegas a day before the super bowl. So if she decides to go, sure. Will she be a little bit jet lagged for her next leg of shows in Australia? Probably.
Probably. Does that necessarily matter? No, she'll just get like a shot of cortisol in her butt on the private jet on the way over and she'll be off, off the races. So there's that. Everyone always is like, there's this whole narrative around Taylor Swift ruining football. Oh, she'll be about football. Shouldn't be about this lady dating someone. She's generated $331 million in brand value. Like that's the equivalent of the brand value that she's added to both the NFL and the Kansas city chief ever since she attended the first game in September.
So, trust me when I say the NFL is just fine with Taylor Swift being a part of that whole world. So is Travis Kelsey. So is his family. So are the Kansas City Chiefs. So is everyone involved in football except for a bunch of people who are like sitting on their couches with a mustard stain getting angry about nothing. Like if you don't like her, that's fine. Like who cares? You don't have to like her music. It's subjective.
So why are people up in arms about someone who's bringing so much monetary value to a game that probably could use an injection since, you know, all the incredible losses from COVID, you know, when people weren't playing at all? So why are they so opposed to her? I think ever since in her documentary, she sort of came out against Donald Trump and sort of like being against his policies and his politics. A lot of people who like him and his supporters or who don't identify with what she's
you know, says that she's in support of politically. The second that you say anything that someone doesn't agree with politically, they then don't like you forever. And it's like, I don't want to see you at my game. I don't want to see you playing, you know, with my person. This is my world. I want her to stay out of it. And so I think it's just that they don't like her politics. And so they don't want to see it around.
But she's not being asked to be shown on the camera. She's literally attending her boyfriend's football games. I would counter that. Then take it up with the NFL and say, stop showing her. I mean, if you don't like seeing her, she's not demanding to be shown. She was actually seen mouthing to the cameras, please go away at the most recent game because she's not looking for this attention. It just comes to her.
So, yeah, and she's making them a lot of money. And then they blame her. And then they blame her. And then they make AI, unconsensual AI generated images of her in very pornographic ways. And this now, this has been happening for a long time, I want to say. Regular women have been sounding the alarm bells over the fact that AI has gotten to the point where it's so good, you can slap someone's face on anything.
any kind of depraved image you want. And it looks pretty real. And so this is essentially tantamount to sexual abuse. That's what it is. It's abuse and harassment. And so because these images circulated 47 million times following the championship game on Sunday on Twitter, they actually temporarily disabled the ability to search for Taylor on Twitter and
And then they put forth a bipartisan bill. So it's like everyone agrees that this is bad. It's not a political thing. They put forward a bipartisan bill to address the issues of non-consensual pornographic AI images, not just around Taylor Swift, but around everyone. And it would make it illegal for people to distribute it, for people to make it. And then anyone who carries it, like any social media platform who carries it, anyone who retweets it, anyone who promotes it, you're then going to be
legally liable as well. So one thing to say, you know, it's not that she should have to be the person who takes this on. But when something really bad happens to someone who's the number one celebrity in the world right now, it just goes to show you that, like, this is the power for good that she can do, which is like, this is an issue that affects all women and men and children. You know, if you have a picture of your kid on social media,
Some sicko in a basement can put their face on any number of images. So just be aware of this because it's not just about Taylor Swift. It's about everyone's personal safety. And so she just winds up being this lightning rod. And I will say that historically she does wind up sort of on like the morally good side of many of the issues that she gets pulled into, like with Kanye West. Look where he is today. Well, a magnet cultist boasted that they can counter Taylor Swift all
All the stuff with Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, and Jon Voight. Yeah. Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, and Jon Voight are going to be the counter attack to Taylor Swift's popularity. I don't know. It's all nuts. Anybody know anything about the five social media giants that were recently in the Capitol speaking to all
these kinds of things and the danger to children. I mean, people are actually accusing Zuckerberg and his counterparts of literally being involved in the deaths of thousands and thousands of children that are affected by the internet, online bullying, all that stuff. Online bullying. And I think another portion of this, of course, is not being...
not being on top of the fact that like you are the faucet that all of this abuse pours out of. And so sure, is everyone ultimately responsible for their own actions? I mean, certainly. But would it not then make more sense to turn the faucet off?
And make people accountable, make these people who make a ton of money accountable for what is happening on their sites that they run. And one of the things that was revealed in these hearings on Capitol Hill yesterday is that Meta had put a dollar value on a teen user.
And a teen user to them is $270. Like your life is worth more than that. That's so, that's terrible. It's sick. It's just awful. So you're the commodity on social media. Your eyeballs, your influence, like this is the commodity that they're dealing in. And when they started out with these companies...
Did they know they were going in this direction? No. But along the way, you've become the most powerful players in media. So should you be held accountable for what happens on your site? Absolutely. You have made billions and billions of dollars and you've derailed industries in the process.
Like, I don't think there's anything wrong with their progress. I just feel that if you know that children are being exploited sexually on your sites, if you know that you are drawing in huge groups of pedophiles, if you know that human trafficking takes place on your site, if you know that there's an underbelly, like deal with it. And if you decide not to deal with it, that is a decision.
Well, then they lose money. Well, they should deal with the consequences. So what is the outcome then of them in these hearings? Is it still ongoing? Are they still... It's still ongoing. And they're considering, you know, like new regulations to sort of rein in content on the site and how legally...
responsible they are for the types of content that live on their sites, how fast they have to pull it down, permanently banning users, working with the authorities to out people who harass others on sites, who share images without people's consent, all that kind of stuff. They really have to dig in. And this is such a long overdue thing. I can't believe it's only really just starting to happen, this conversation now. It should have been happening 10 years ago.
Well, change is going to be really slow because I think people that use social media don't really want it to change. Nobody seems to care about the ads, in my opinion. Sarah, like, what do you think? I see ads pop up. I swear to God, I was talking about buying a new shark vacuum. And this conversation has been had a million times of people talking by their phones, by their computers, whatever. And within moments, all of a sudden, an ad will pop up for
Maxi pads if they were talking about their periods. So Shark Vacuum, I'm not kidding you. And I had Shark Vacuum ads coming up on my Facebook page. And it really was jarring. I don't feel like Big Brother is watching me. I mean, if they want to listen to me making cabbage rolls, that's all fine. But
I was jarred by that because I've never really thought about it before. It's rented space. All these accounts we have are rented space. We don't own them. Somebody else does, right? So anytime you're putting anything on a site, whether it's a piece of audio, a video, or a photo. You have no ownership. Yeah, it's on that rented space. And from a business perspective, a lot of people talk about like,
you know, e-blasts and like sending an email to your community that way. And that's not rented space. That is, you know, you communicating directly with people without the influence of whatever platform it is. I was just going to ask both of you guys, if you've ever, we all hit agree when we get emails
Yeah.
Okay. It depends on what it is. Go ahead, Sarah. I was just going to say, and to your point about, you know, the ads on socials now, I actually, I've seen my social media go down, like my usage just on my phone where it's telling me. And that's because when I've been going on Instagram, which is one of my favorite platforms at this moment in time,
Every other story is an ad. So I was like, I can't do this. What is the implications with Chum, Caitlin? Obviously, you guys are using all these social media platforms. Now, do they have no ownership of any content that they're putting on these social media platforms? I would think someone as big as Belle would have something to say about
you know, how Meta uses the information that you are constantly daily feeding into all those platforms, be it Instagram, the little clips that you guys put up. Do you not, does Bell not own that outright or that is part of the Meta? It exists on their platform. So I don't think it's as simple as like you own it because what else are you going to do with it if it goes somewhere else? Do you know what I mean? So it's like, it's the content that we are creating for this platform specifically. Yeah.
So yeah, like we're not going to pull those clips and do anything else with them. But if they delete the account, if the account becomes inactive or in the case of when Bill C-35 was going through or 38, I forget which one it was. Bill C-18. We were having our sites blocked because we had been mislabeled. Oh.
Still some are blocked. We were mislabeled as news, even though we're like a pop radio station. And so you had to put in appeals and go through the process of proving that you're not in fact news, which anyone who would see our platform should know. But we definitely own our own handles. We own all that stuff. I know we're verified. That's a big deal for us. But
But yeah, it's sort of no man's land. Like it's the wild west out there on social media. You can put that same content. You know, if you put on Twitter, you might also put the same content on Facebook or TikTok and Instagram, right? Like so there is a degree of like understanding who made the content when you see it distributed across all the platforms. People are so bored listening to us right now. Hang on. Rick Mercer is calling me. Put him on speaker. I am...
recording my podcast. But listen, if you're using social media, user beware, and we'll continue to say that. I just want to give a shout out to Reba McEntire, who is, if she's not 70, she's damn near close to 70. I think she is 70, singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. That is so amazing. I mean, this year we have seen Dolly Parton, well into her 70s, donning a
very lovely little outfit, and she was out there singing a medley of her stuff. Women are rocking it. Your age has nothing to do with anything. And it's just so great to see not only the buyers giving the green light to women of a certain age, like they could have had anybody sing the national anthem. It's such a big gig. But to have a 70-year-old country star who's had a 50-year career going in, I don't know. I just love it. Welcome to all our listeners. Thanks for tuning in week after week. We really appreciate it. Ha!
So in Alberta, it's like a, so, uh, and a double, huh? Is probably the worst one you can do. That's that's bad. So Daniel Smith, the premier of Alberta, who it's a very split decision. I think she won the election with 51%. It was very, very close with Rachel Notley of the NDP. Uh, this province is very split, literally figuratively in every way. We are very split.
And with the left and the right. And that's all I can say about it. That's so many places. Yeah. It's just so, so broken in every way, but she has now done something that is basically illegal. They did not consult the teachers associations and the announcements that she has made this week that really affect thousands and thousands of families with LGBTQ two spirit two plus kids and youth.
The conservative government has inserted themselves in to what parents can and cannot do, seeking medical intervention for their children. I think parents know better than anybody. Danielle Smith has no children, but the government has taken upon itself to basically out these people at school. They have to have parental permission, you know, to change any pronouns.
Caitlin, you can tell me a little bit more about the actual age limitations and what they're enforcing. There's no vote. There's no nothing. They are literally stepping into people's personal lives and saying, this is what you can and cannot do. I feel like it might almost be like flipped in a sense. So what I had read, and maybe I'm mistaken, was that in order for a student to change their name and pronouns at school, they would need parental permission if they were aged. People have been changing names forever. Like,
But I feel like it was like on your like legal documents at school and also to change your gender at school. So if you're doing that and you're 15 and under, you would need parental permission to change your name, like in the school's filing, like in your filing system, like, you know. And then if you were 16 and 17 and you want to change your name and your gender, then you don't need parental permission. But the school is responsible to notify your parents that their child has decided to do that.
So that's what I had read. There's all kinds of things with medical intervention, hormone therapies. There is not one child in this province that has had a bottom surgery of any kind that is a child. It just simply does not happen. And to mislead people and to start a conversation, you know, this community is already besieged with insults,
bullying and the outing of people. It's a community that it's always ravaged. It's already ravaged with horrible comments and all kinds of stuff. And now she's starting a conversation, a person who has no right inserting themselves into people's personal lives. And I would think
Hormone blocking therapy should be available, especially when children are confused about their genders at 13 or 14. It buys them some time to think about what the repercussions of larger actions are. And she's literally stopping families that can seek that here in Alberta. It's not available to them. Like even if parents were okay with it? No one can have it? Oh, okay. It's not available to them, Caitlin. Okay.
They can't access it. They cannot access medical transgender care for their children. Is there an age, though, that this part I don't know about? I read about the name change portion for schools. No, no, that is a minor little glitch in what she's doing. There's so many implications that literally infringe on people's legal rights.
And parents that love their children and that are struggling to understand what's happening to them mentally, what's happening to them physically, what's happening with their mental health,
they're going to be denied support of pretty much any kind to help navigate this stuff. It is a huge story. It is exploding here in the prairies. Do you want me to read this one paragraph with the ages? Yeah. Yeah, please do. So for children 15 and under, puberty blockers and hormone therapy for the purpose of gender reassignment or affirmation is not permitted.
except for those who've already started treatments. Those 16 and 17 can begin hormone treatment as long as they're deemed mature enough and have parental physician and psychologist approval. Who decides when...
A government should not be deciding any of this. Period. Full stop. This is up to a family. And I'm telling you right now, people do not. This is a very complicated issue. And people are without knowing anyone transgender, without ever experiencing anyone that's been transgender, not knowing. People are inserting their opinions in a way that defies my imagination.
I know so many transgender people. Every story is specific. Every story is different, but every story is fucking tragic of what they have endured. And if you deny access for any of these things, and when you're saying, if they, if they sort of pass the test, if they're, if they're deemed the word deemed, the language is sinister because it's still telling families, parents that love their kids,
and are trying to do everything they can to help them navigate this unbelievably complicated time, they're going to have to jump through hoops because they can have someone say to them, no, I just, I don't think it's, there's going to be a lot of people leaving this province. They're already leaving this province. I'm thinking about people from that community that I've like interviewed who talked about their coming out story where the parents were like their biggest fear.
There's the other side of the coin too. So when you have the school going to parents, these kids can end up on the street. These kids can end up taking their own lives. This is really, really serious. It has to be left up to families and the individual. And it is, you know, physicians take a Hippocratic oath.
to help people. And the government certainly is not in a position to tell you what the medical care includes. You know, now you've got someone that's going to tell you every step along the way, no, you can't do that. You just seem immature to be going into any kind of puberty blockers. I'm sorry. I just, I think you should wait. And your parents don't want you to do that either. Well, fuck that. Honestly. Is there any verbiage there, Sarah, that you can see on when someone sort of like
unencumbered by any form of government influence could like autonomously seek whatever they wanted.
If the medical community is willing to help them, this puts a wedge into every decision that physicians make, Caitlin. It's not that easy because she has opened a door for them to say, I'm not doing it as a doctor. I'm not comfortable with that because of my religious beliefs, because of my political beliefs. This is what's going to happen. And everybody here is talking about the door that she has swung open because it gives every, it's like a priest that doesn't want to marry gay people.
It opens a door to denying people care because of what she is doing. These actions, it has opened a Pandora's box.
that is so far reaching and so hideous. Just shame on them here. It's just embarrassing. It looks at 17 is the age for top and bottom gender reassignment surgeries. Like free from like any sort of... You're considered a minor until 17. Okay, okay, okay. Because I didn't know if it was like 18 or because you never know because of voting. Well, we'll see what happens here. And like I said, this is if physicians will be willing to do that.
And it's just made these stories for thousands and thousands of children and youth that are already at the tipping point. And like you said, Sarah, of parents that are so opposed, they're so frightened, they're so terrified. They think these children have been groomed and indoctrinated and gender doesn't work that way. Sexuality doesn't work that way. You know, and no one has paid any attention to the science that has been
It's been established for 15 years at least. There's going to be students who find school and escape from whatever's happening at home. And so to like,
even to force a parent to be involved in that if they don't feel safe at home. That's like another side of this too. Conversely, as a parent myself, I would want to be notified. There's no way that I'm all of a sudden going to just sit here and say, oh, my kid's going to change their name at school and change their gender and no one has to tell me. Like that counter for many parents is going to hit different. Trust me. Yeah. But also if you have a child that
that is being raised in an environment that they have actually felt unsafe to tell you and your husband that they are doing that. You have to look at where these problems begin and end. If you're living in a household, that option is, it's more frightening to tell your parents than to keep it a secret at school. Then that's a parenting issue. That what has been created at the home, I would hope that any child would be able to go to a parent
a mom or a dad and say, this is what's happening. And this is the same story of, of, of teenage mothers throwing kids into dumpsters because they have been so frightened with their parents at home that they've been unable to have a fucking conversation about what's
being pregnant because the fear is bigger. They're so afraid of their parents. This is part of that conversation too, Caitlin. I just think she's going to represent in the naming aspect of this for sure. She's going to represent a group of parents who also feel like I would want to be notified and I should be notified. And so you can't discount the opinions of a bunch of parents who will ultimately be supportive of their kids and maybe don't have those issues at home, but you're not going to tell me that you aren't going to tell me. Maybe that's where it should have ended is right there. Those conversations.
As you can see, there's lots of different opinions, even among the three of us. So don't go away. We've got more to discuss. Whether you agree or disagree, it's an important topic, trans issues are human rights issues. We'll be back right after this break. This episode is brought to you by Shopify.
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Okay, so we're just picking up where we left off. Very hot topic today. And Caitlin has some really great points about, you know, being notified by the school if your child is suddenly changing their name or wanting to change their gender on their status at school. And those are important things. And I'm not disagreeing of being notified. Then it's the parent's issue to deal with if their child's going to get beta blockers and all the medical ramifications. It should have ended there, but they're not.
They're inserting themselves into the health care. So even a parent can't override what the government of Alberta is telling them they can and cannot do. So if they have a 14-year-old girl that doesn't want to have her period, they can't even intervene. And ironically, this is a lot of the same group of people who doesn't believe in vaccines.
Well, I'm just going to say, so this ends up, you end up falling down this rabbit hole of intervention on many fronts, right? And so that's the problem. And then there's a bunch of then legal precedents that are set where once the government starts to have some sort of say over people's bodies, whether that means they're telling everyone you have to get the vaccine.
whether that means they're telling people how far they have to carry their pregnancies. Like, it is a slippery slope legally. And so that's why ultimately... Well, they are being sued. They are being sued. There's already a couple of agencies that are going to launch a lawsuit against the provincial government. Yeah. I mean, the default setting, I feel mostly is that it's, you know, it's up to the families and it's up to the individuals and to their medical practitioners. Exactly. Exactly. It's up to them. And so...
But the thing is, that has two sides to it, which then also means that, you know, if the school is saying, well, we are going to, you know, start calling your kid by a different name and addressing them as a different gender and not telling you like that's a concern for parents, too. That I understand. Yeah. Caitlin, I'm not I'm not disagreeing with you. Yeah. No, no. I'm just saying it's sad that it would get to that within a family that a child would not feel comfortable enough to go to their parents. So that's a whole other issue. That's a family issue.
You know, if they're doing it at school and not telling, you know, my brother, my older brother changed his name at school. He wasn't gay or queer or trans or anything, but he hated his name. And when my mom and dad got a report card in 1977 that said a different name than his first name.
They said, what is happening? What did he change it to? Well, he changed it to Drake. Oh. I'm not going to say his name. Okay, okay. Little did he know what weight that name would carry in the future. Yeah, but he just, you know, and my mom was so, she was, she was upset. But he was also a guy that had a litany of problems. And he had lots of mental health issues.
And so I am not disputing that aspect of your argument at all. It's a minor, well, it's not minor for the child that it is happening to, it's major, but it's so fear-based that they don't feel comfortable going to a parent. And every kid growing up
You know, it's funny, young Canadians, I'm just going to bring this up. It's the, it's part of the Calgary Stampede. It's, it's all their music programs and stuff like that. There is, there is a point to this story. They don't allow parents to come to the rehearsals. They don't allow parents to sit there when the kids are working because they're so different.
The children are so different. They can pick them up. They can drop them off and pick them up afterwards, obviously. But they don't let them sit there because of how much children are affected by the eyes of their parents on them. They are not authentic. They don't act the same. They don't interact with other kids the same. They're not as artistic. They don't express themselves like they do without a parent's
standing there looking at them dancing or singing or whatever. They don't like it. And over many, many decades, they have found this to be something we can't have the parents here. So in a sense, when kids go to school, they are away from those prying eyes. They're away from that, especially a young mind, a young person going through puberty. My God, puberty is hard enough as it is without questioning how you identify. Right.
And people need to have some more sympathy and empathy. And they have to understand that it's not easy for anyone, the kid, the parents, the teacher, nobody. It's not easy. Even as like regular, regular, regular puberty. Oh my gosh. Such a hot mess. Just no matter what. I literally felt like a spotlight was following me around with everything I was going through at whatever age it was, I think like...
10, 11, 12. Like you just feel like, oh, this is everyone knows and everyone's watching. And it's like no one knows and no one's watching. Yeah.
Yeah.
You had to like unlearn some of that stuff. So, you know, ultimately that is why like it's just so important to have
I especially think, you know, group therapy, like group support is really good for people and families who are in those situations because when you feel other, it can be very isolating no matter what that looks like. So it would be great if the conversation was being geared more towards individual health choices between the families and their doctors. And then how can you support people who are going through this? How can you connect them to other people in the community so that you know you're not by yourself? Not happening here. It's the antithesis of what is happening in this province now.
It's the antithesis. And these kids are in for a lot of trouble. The families are in for a lot of trouble. They're in for a lot of vitriol. They're in for a lot of hatred, hatred that already exists. This is a very, very sad time for this province. Nobody, not a government, not an individual, no one on this planet should tell you who you can be. So if you are listening out there, if you're a parent with a trans child, don't let someone say, well, we really care about you. We really love you. But that's what Danielle Smith has done.
She's created a soapbox for every lunatic in this province to say, see, you're not welcome here. You're not wanted here. We don't want you going to school with our kids. You're just grooming them. You're going to turn every, this is, it's not a simple conversation. It's not like telling the parents that your kid has changed their name. This is a litany of horrific things that are about to unfold here.
By the time people listen to this, there will have been a huge, I'm hoping that it was huge, protest at City Hall. And I will have been there. So I'm going to go down there. I'm going to show up. And if I don't say a word, I'm going to be one of the bodies in the crowd standing there because I don't think it's right. And it's not as simple as she makes it out to be. I'm exhausted talking about this stuff. And all of us are really concerned. And all of us have really viable ideas.
real concerns about when a government steps in and creates more problems than they need be. It's sad. I don't think parents are going to let their kids do anything extreme. I think parents, for the most part, love their kids.
They want to see them happy and they want to see them thrive. They want them to be who they are. And having a group of people in a government that are saying, oh, but anyway, it's so convoluted. I think everyone can sort of across the board agree that like in general, we'd all love a little less government oversight into our lives. Like I think that's... Thank you. Can we all across the board hold hands and say, kumbaya, please stay out of my business? Yeah. Yeah.
Well, and to your point, Jen, like we all have different opinions on things, but like the fact that we can like see a discussion through respect each other as we're talking, that's not the case for a lot of people across this country. No, it's not. Well, also too, I think you have to like, if you're coming from a place ultimately of caring about people and trying to be sympathetic and trying to say that like,
let's all agree that everyone should be out here, especially the government that's collecting your tax dollars. Everyone should be out here to improve the lives of Canadians, whoever that Canadian is and however they feel. That should be what it's about because everyone's like, they certainly take enough of your money. When you feel cared about, when you really feel supported and care about and acknowledged and seen and accepted, you know, warts and all. Yeah. And to feel safe. And to feel safe. So it's just...
another brick in the wall that's been, you know, the barrier has been set yet a little bit higher for people to feel understood when they don't understand it themselves. And this is what people have to be kind about. You know, if people were to sit and ask me about my sexuality, it's not a simple, I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm gay. I don't feel that way. You know, I'm absolutely bisexual and I'm absolutely, I mean, I never understood it growing up. I didn't
really know about that growing up. I didn't have any friends that I could corroborate with or like, oh yeah, me too. I just went to school with 40 kids, but I never felt... I was very lucky because I did have parents that were so generous with me. My mom would say, I know you're a private person, but I want you to know something, Jan. You're normal. You are a normal person.
When you have someone telling you that, and I've told you guys this before, when I kind of tried to explain myself to my parents, my dad was on the extension phone. My mom's there, but I could hear him breathing on the extension phone. And he said, this guy, this gruff guy said, mom and I would love you if you were pink with purple spots. So I was able to go forward going, huh.
If that guy thinks I'm good, however I am, then anyone can be accepting. But my mom said I'm normal. You're normal. That's important because I do. I mean, I know I have so many friends in the LGBTQ community. And I think a lot of them share that story of feeling other growing up. And it took a long time to like, you know, everyone's coming out stories different. And it took a long time to sort of find themselves and in many cases, find their chosen family if their families weren't, you know,
properly supporting them at the time. So it's really complicated. And I just always, whenever these issues come up that are so personal and that they're so, I don't want to like speak to somebody else's life, truly. It's not a generalization, right? It's not a generalization. Yeah. Yeah.
It's not a generalization ever. And it's so individual. And I don't want to tell other people what to do. Like, that's really ultimately where like, I end up falling is I'm like, I don't want to tell other people what to do. You have to live with your own life and be who you are. And that is only going to impact you. But I do believe that I think the last census report said that there were between 55 and 60,000 transgendered Canadians living outwardly as trans people. So imagine the layers of complications that
the generalizations of people that are at varying degrees of that. Oh, I don't want to do any surgery or hormones, but I want to dress this way. So there's so many levels of this. That's where people don't understand. There's some people don't want a bottom surgery or they don't want to have breasts created. They just want to get electrolysis and grow their hair out. It's a spectrum. There's yes. As many varieties of human beings, if you guys can think back and especially people that are my age, 60 plus, um,
The Kinsey Report, which was this thing that came out using anonymity. They literally got hundreds of thousands of people to fill out forms and to talk about their sexuality from every walk of life. And people were very happy to do it because they didn't have a name. There was no address, no phone number. There was no contact. But they wrote down...
sexual behaviors or things that they thought about or things that they did or practices that they had or experiences that they had. And the question that the Kinsey people got asked the most is all these people filling out these questionnaires asked this question, am I normal? Is that normal? It is heartbreaking. It gives you a lump in your throat because I
I always feel like in a relationship, you know, looking for relationships as people and looking for a sexual relationship, you're looking for someone who will do things with you that you like to do together. I don't care if it's watching Netflix or the way you kiss or the way you make love, or you're looking for a partner that agrees with your physicality and can make you feel normal and can make you have a sense of identity and intimacy that feels normal and right and
and good, especially if you're a religious person or if you've had a terrible upbringing with parents that are like, everything that you do is a sin and you're going to burn in hell. So there's so many complications with being a person as it is, but the question, am I normal? Isn't that everybody's question? So when you have someone telling you you're not normal, that's not fair because there is no such thing. And the Kinsey Report people are like, yeah, it's all normal. I
And they did draw the line at pedophilia. They did draw the line at horrific things. Yeah, we're not talking about that. I don't want your fucking letters, you know, coming at me. They did draw the line. Things are illegal for a reason. So it's just like we're working within that spectrum of legal consenting adults. Yes.
But yeah, I think that, you know, it is heartbreaking because people do feel that way and they want to feel accepted. And then, you know, once you get to that point of acceptance, you do want to feel celebrated, right? And not necessarily by the whole world, that's not possible, but by the person you're in a relationship with.
Or the group of people around you, the people that you have made, created into your family. No, your chosen family. It's just, it's heartbreaking. And like I was going to say, like that number of 55 to 60,000 people, it's not representative of the whole spectrum of experience in Canada, obviously. But I do want people to be mindful of the fact that
Like that's not a big number. It's a small number statistically, but yet it's made into this very, very large issue, very hot button issue. To divide people. Well, exactly. And so you have to ask yourself, if this isn't something that's necessarily, it's only affecting one in 300 Canadians or whatever that breaks down to, why is everyone so obsessed over this?
When it should just ultimately, like we've said, be up to the individual, the parents, the family members, the whatever it is. Like, why is everyone trying to be so like I declare myself here or here or here, but I'm not actually part of this conversation. Even if you've got no skin in the game. I don't know. Someone I know scoffed at the they them a couple of days ago. I said out loud, oh, it's they them actually. Like I corrected someone.
And they were like, whatever. And I was like, that literally impacts you zero. Yeah. Like it literally impacts you zero. Like, why do you care about someone else's choice about their pronoun? And then what happens is people who are like, if you get it wrong, say you miss, like you miss misgender someone or you don't use the proper pronoun.
And then someone calls you out on it and they're like, you're a bigot for doing this and you didn't do it right. And then everyone gets scared about it and then it shuts down the conversation and stops people from learning. So it's like on all sides. Good point. There has to be a lot more room for like learning. And like you said, Sarah, like you've got no skin in this game. Like however someone wants to be identified is how they want to be identified. Now I will say if I misgendered Sam Smith a few times on the air, which I did after they started,
stated that they were they. I do it all the time with my transgender friends. My friend Ari, my friend Ari is they them. She used to be she. And she's like, don't you worry about that, Jan. She goes, stop it. She goes, we are so good. And she goes, the fact that you acknowledge and are trying. She goes, it's hard. She goes, they? Yeah, they. They? They. Anyway, in these times, I would love it if there was just a little more grace for everybody to
grace and some support because, and I'm not talking about the people who are extremes on either side. I don't get it. I don't understand extreme points of view. It's not for me, but you know, the rest of us who are just nice people who want to stay in the middle and be supportive of others, let's all the group of us just get together and say, um, I'd like it if everyone could stay out of my business. And I'd also like it if we could be a little patient. And, and, and now for these kids that are caught in the crossfire, and I don't care if it's 150 kids in Alberta or
or like a thousand kids in Alberta. I don't care if it's three kids in Alberta. These kids are caught in the crosshairs.
These are young people that have so much on their plates. And this is a terrifying time for them. And never before have they needed your support and kindness and caring. The parents, the sisters, the siblings, the siblings that go to school with, with their, they, them and their peers, like my gosh. So basically the government has picked them out, cherry pick them out of a group and made them to feel even worse and more lost and
and more unwanted than they did yesterday. That's not right. It's not right. Whatever side of the issue you're on, you have to consider the individual that this is absolutely affecting. You and I can have opinions until we fucking fall off the fence. But for the people that it's happening to, this is a horrific situation.
frightening, terrifying time. That's kind of who I want to hear from. I echo that sentiment where I'm like, I kind of just want to hear from the people who are being impacted by this and what it's been like for them. I have to always just add in these resources. I know it's kind of a glib thing to do, but some people don't know that there are like serious mental health resources out there for everyone. And sometimes it's not like you're not going to reach out to the Canadian Mental Health Association.
a great resource, like even just go to the, you know, CMHA website. Let's include that in the show notes today. Yeah. You know, if you just don't feel supported in your regular everyday life and you're looking to take on some autonomy and continue that conversation that you're leading, do look out to those resources because
I just know from like my own experience with like grief and loss, I found so much support from the like grief and loss community because those are people who understood what I was going through. My own friends and family were fabulous. They were so supportive. But ultimately, somebody who is your kind of contemporary in suffering is what you're looking for. In community. In community. So the Canadian Mental Health Association is great. And KMH here in Toronto is like a world-renowned mental health resource.
try it. You know, it's not like it's going to be easy. You're not going to make, get the perfect help right away. You got to keep at it and self advocate. But if you're feeling down and out, you know, get out there and, and, and try something because it takes a few hits until you connect with a, a group or a, or a therapist, but it can make a huge difference. And nobody wants to be outed folks. I don't care if you're 10 or 13 or saying things to yourself that may or may not be true by the time you're 17. This is what we have to understand. And,
So know that scientifically, statistically, all the data that has been accumulated, the story is that's their true north. So anyway, we're going to leave you with that today. This was not a discussion that I thought we were going to have, but-
All hell is broken loose here. We started out with Taylor Swift, by the way. Well, I'm going to blame her. Everyone else is. Why not? Super, super fast. We've been for the last, well, some people have been on this journey 20 years, but I've been involved the last six or seven years. The horseshit campaign, www.horseshit.ca. A private member's bill put out by Tim Lewis.
From Kitchener, the Member of Parliament, he presented this bill to the House of Commons. It went to his first reading and then went to a second reading, which passed yesterday. We had 181 votes yes and 137 people, Members of Parliament, all Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois, who simply wanted to vote against the Liberals because it was a Liberal MP that introduced the bill. 137 people voted to continue to torture and torment the
and have people 8,000 kilometers from here eat horses. But the bill passed. Now it goes to an agricultural committee. They will discuss it. They will make amendments to wording and language in a bill. There's a lot to it. And then finally, when they're happy about that, it will go to the Senate. So we have so much work to do, but this is the biggest, most important step we've had in this campaign. And in 20 years, we've never gotten this far.
and people are hearing us. And I think 187 voices that, you know, stepped forward and said, no, we're not exporting horses anymore. I think we have a really good chance of having this happen, but the work still continues. So thanks to all of my horse shitters out there. What a funny name for a girl. We're horse shitters and we're proud horse shitters. We have a fantastic team. Shout out to Wendy Williams-Watt. Shout out to the Canadian Horse Defense Coalition who have been working on this since 2006 and
Shout out to the Rebecca's, to Rebecca's in Seneca, Lonnie. What a great determined group of people. And to you, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Canadians that have supported this bill, who have signed petitions, who have bought the T-shirts. We need your help more now than ever. So thank you very much. Thanks for listening to the Jan Arden Podcast and Show. Thank you, Caitlin and Sarah.
for putting yourselves out there. Whenever you express an opinion, you open yourself up to a lot of vitriol. We don't expect people to agree with us. We're just here to tell you what's going on and to tell you what's in our hearts. And that's as simple as that. I'm a proud Canadian. I just want it to be the best country it can be, which is why I'm running for premier of Alberta.
You've been listening. You can subscribe to us. We'll just leave it at that. And YouTube is up. Jan Arden Pod YouTube. Check it out. And then all the Jan Arden Pod, just go to Jan Arden Pod. You're going to be inundated.com. Dot com. Dot com. Can you send us a goddamn voice note for Christ's sakes? Hi, I'm Lisa from Maryland, USA. And I just want to say I love the Jan Arden Podcast.
Anytime a new one is up, I am on it. Jan, thank you so much for doing this along with your cohorts there at the Jan Arden podcast. And please, please, please come to the States, specifically Maryland. All right. Thanks, Jan. And keep up the good work, everyone. I love the podcast. Hey, Jan. Love, love, love your... This is Richard calling, by the way. Love, love, love the episode with Adriana, Breaking Bread with Adriana. Hello to Caitlin and Sarah as well.
And I can't wait every week when I go to the walking track four or five times a week. And I can't wait till the new podcasts come out so I can listen to them when I'm doing my walks. Toodaloo. It's Rebecca Brown. I totally agree with you and Adriana that books should be organized by genre and not by color. Jeez, who does that? Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. Have a fantastic day, ladies. Keep up the brilliant conversations because we are out here listening and laughing along with you.
Thanks so much. Bye now. Yeah, send us a voice note. If you're listening on the iHeartRadio app, you can just, it's so easy to leave us a voice note there, but you can also DM it to us. But don't DM us anything mean, please. I have to hear them. Okay, see you next time. Totally do. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.