Diagnosing Erasure: Pride, Power, and the Historical Legacies of Care

Author: Anisah Ali

Editor: Ajia Shahzad

Pride’s Roots

In 1969, the Stonewall Uprising signified a catalyst in the liberation of the 2SLGBTQ+ community in North America. Taking form in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York, the influence of resistance efforts against surveillance, criminalization, and erasure of queer and transgender individuals transcended borders. Consequently, the initiation of legislative liberation in Canada began with the decriminalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults in 1969 (QE). Moving forward, the pursuit of queer and transgender liberation in Canada accelerated with the assistance of grassroots-based activism (QE). The amalgamating acts of resistance by gay and transgender liberation groups laid the foundation for Pride. Though often understood to be a celebration, reflections on the history of Pride reminds us of the arduous journey of materializing systemic change.

Stonewall Uprising, 1969: The roots of Pride began here. Image source: The New York Times

Echoes of Trump’s America in Canada’s Socio-Political Landscape

Our reflections allow us to understand the anguish of erasure in response to recent anti-2SLGBTQ+ legislation under the Trump administration. Alongside rescinding other diversity-related protections, the Trump administration rolled back protections for transgender individuals in the Affordable Care Act by redefining “sex” in ways that excluded gender diversity (Crowell & Moring LLP, 2025). Consequently, the influence of American politics is referenced in Canada’s recent anti-2SLGBTQ+ rhetoric (CBC News, 2025). 

The implications of the Trump administration’s actions are speculated to have influenced Canada’s sociopolitical landscape, contributing to growing public tension and cuts to queer-affirming healthcare access. For instance, the Government of Alberta had passed three acts relating to parental involvement in children’s engagement with gender identity and sexual orientation in educational, medical, and athletic contexts (CBC News, 2024). These laws include provincial government review of proposals for sex education curricula, increasing age-limit to gender-affirming care, and restricting gender-based sports membership based on one’s sex assigned at birth (CBC News, 2024).

Legacy of Pathologization of 2SLGBTQ+ Identities

Furthermore, these recent developments have revived the salience of queer and transgender identities as a pathology—an archaic practice we presumed had been left behind in 1973 (QE). Historically, momentum from the Pride riots assisted with correcting the classification of sexual deviance, leading to the removal of “homosexuality” from the DSM-II (QE). Although the DSM remained an influential text reflecting biomedical psychiatry, authoritative bodies continued to pathologize queer and transgender identities. Specifically, the World Health Organization referred to homosexuality as a psychiatric diagnosis until 1991 (Day of Pink). In Canada, the echoes of this medicalized stigma remain embedded in institutional policy and practice, shaping how care is accessed, delivered, and denied. 

Reflections on Pride

Our sociopolitical landscape is deeply entwined with legislation; you cannot understand one without the other. In light of this intersection, the systemic challenges to meet the healthcare needs of the 2SLGBTQ+ community reaffirms the dominance of cis-heteronomative notions, such as practitioners’ educational gaps in gender-affirming care, and difficulties in addressing unique mental health issues (Mousavian et al., 2024; Stryker et al., 2022). In ruminating about the possibility of an equitable healthcare system, we must turn to the past. Reflections on the history of Pride elicit an identification with resistance in the face of present-day oppressions. Past resistance efforts offer the groundwork for our ongoing, interconnected fight for liberation–and with it, the radical reimagining of equitable healthcare for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

Works Cited

CBC News. (2024). Alberta legislation on transgender youth, student pronouns

and sex education set to become law. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary

/alberta-legislation-on-transgender-youth-student-pronouns-and-sex-education-set-to-become-law-1.7400669. 

CBC News. (2025). Trump’s gender identity rhetoric is seeping north of the border,

say N.L. advocates. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/ trump-gender-nl-advocates-1.7438225.

Crowell & Moring LLP. (2025). Trump Administration rescinds protections against

discrimination on the basis of gender identity under health care nondiscrimination laws. Crowell & Moring. www.crowell.com/en/insights/client-alerts/trump-administration- rescinds-protections-against-discrimination-on-the-basis-of-gender-identity-under-health-care-nondiscrimination-laws,

Day of Pink. (n.d.). DSM. Day of Pink. https://www.dayofpink.org/dsm. 

Mousavian, M., Ranganathan, K., Keuroghlian, A. S., Park, Y. S., & Kumar, A. (2024). What are

the barriers to health professionals' training on gender-affirming care from patients' and clinicians' perspectives?. Social science & medicine (1982), 351, 116983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116983. 

Queer Events Canada (QE). (n.d.). History of Pride in Canada. Queer Events Canada.

https://www.queerevents.ca/canada/pride/history. 

Stryker, S. D., Pallerla, H., Yockey, R. A., Bedard-Thomas, J., & Pickle, S. (2022). Training

Mental Health Professionals in Gender-Affirming Care: A Survey of Experienced Clinicians. Transgender health, 7(1), 68–77. https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2020.0123.