Canadian-Trinidadian Activism: Navigating Intersectional Identity in Queer Care

Abstract

For Trinidadian-Candian Queer activists, identity must be navigated through queer identity, ethnic community, and cultural background. This paper seeks to explore what Trinidadian Canadian QTBIPOC and allied activism and care can look like in Canada and how this activism is informed by this complex intersectional identity. This research was conducted under the supervision of Professor Tara Goldstein and postdoctoral fellow Jenny Salisbury as part of a Research Opportunity Program (ROP) towards a larger project focused on 60 Years of Queer, Trans, BIPOC (QTBIPOC) Activism and Care. This paper focuses on research into three activists via the ArQuives: Richard Fung, Anthony Mohammed, and Deb Singh. Richard Fung informs complex art-based activism through his complex identities as Trini, Chinese, Canadian, and a gay man. Fung presents an example of complex identity informing complex activism, for Fung, this is film-based art that spans and explores the many topics surrounding his identity. Anthony Mohammad and Deb Singh present similar experiences of complex identity as Trinidadians within a South Asian diaspora and identity within Queer communities. For Mohammad navigating his sexuality as a gay man through Caribbean and South Asian communities presents contradicting yet synchronous experiences of inclusion and exclusion. Mohammed exhibits complex activism through his work in varied queer groups intended for Caribbean and South Asians separately. Singh similarly identifies the acceptability of a particular identity; navigating fluid sexuality, binary gender, and monogamy presents a similar thread of contradicting inclusion and exclusion. Her activism presents through her work in bathhouses for women and nonbinary folx and her work in the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre and Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres. For Trinidadian-Candian Queer activists, their complex navigation of intersectional identities informs their community work and artistic expression as activists.