The Sonor Foundation Research
Powering Narrative Change in Support of Trans, Two-Spirit, and Gender-Diverse Communities in Canada
The creation of this report was led by Emma Wakelin, Senior Fellow at The Sonor Foundation, in partnership with LeBlanc (& co.) Communications, who provided support with research, analysis and writing, and overall strategic guidance.
This report provides an overview of the state of narratives on trans communities in Canada and outlines what can be done to shift narratives and improve public opinion on trans communities.
Read the full report
This report underscores what so many of us working in trans rights and systems change already know: that progress requires more than reaction, it demands strategy, credible data, and sustained narrative power. When we invest in shared infrastructure and cross-sector collaboration, we don’t just respond to crises, we build the conditions for long-term public opinion and policy change. Lasting progress for trans communities requires strong services, credible research, and thoughtful narrative strategy working together. As a foundation, our role is to listen, learn, and invest in the conditions that allow trans advocates to lead durable change.”
Emma Wakelin, Senior Fellow on Trans Rights at The Sonor Foundation
Why this report?
In recent years, hate against trans, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse communities has been on the rise in Canada, and around the world – including in our influential neighbour to the south, the United States. This rising transphobia mirrors the broader environment of increased polarization, misinformation, attacks on democracy, distrust in institutions, and the erosion of community safety. This is evident through the targeting of several distinct and overlapping communities, including rising homophobia, xenophobia, racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. The scapegoating of trans communities is a key strategy contributing to this landscape.
This report aims to provide trans advocates, philanthropic partners, and allies with actionable recommendations that further narrative change and can be used to shape broader public opinion.
Since 2023, The Sonor Foundation has been in conversation with trans leaders across Canada, listening to and learning from the communities this work is meant to serve. This ongoing engagement has deepened over time, leading to increased community input, the commissioning of this report, and a growing understanding of the narrative landscape.
There is an urgent need to reinforce positive narratives and counter prominent negative narratives about trans communities. Doing so is essential to reversing the decline in public support for trans communities and building a foundation of broader, lasting support.
| Common Opposition Narrative | How It's Used | Key Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Parental Rights | Frames anti-trans policy as a defence of parental sovereignty or family values rather than an attack on youth. | NB Policy 713 SK Bill 137 |
| Biological Sex | Uses scientific-sounding terms to deny the reality of gender diversity. | Alberta Bill 28 |
| Age-Appropriate Content | Links gender identity to "sexualization" to justify restricting 2SLGBTQI+ education. | 1 Million March for Children |
| Gender Ideology | Pejorative used to frame trans identity as a "political agenda"; also implies being trans is a choice or a fad. | Rebel News |
| Trans Violence and Threats to Safety | Instrumentalizes criminal reports to imply trans people are a threat to women and children. | The Post Millennial headlines |
Our key findings
The trans rights narrative landscape in Canada is complicated. It can, especially for trans people and those serving trans communities, feel polarized and threatening. But in our research, we also encountered effective storytelling, winning campaigns, parents campaigning for their children, and organizations leading effective narrative change.
New Brunswick and Manitoba demonstrate the political costs of exclusion, and the path to winning through inclusion
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Based on our partner engagement survey, for many advocates, including current partners of The Sonor Foundation, it feels like the anti- trans tide is rising. From our media analysis, we see US President Trump administration’s attacks on the rights of trans people and migrants making Canadian headlines and shaping Canadian politics. Our partners recall more opposition messages than supportive messages, and believe opposition messaging to be more prevalent in public discourse. Mainstream Canadian media like CBC and CTV amplify both opposition and supportive messaging in their coverage, as demonstrated by our media analysis.
While trans advocates may feel like anti- trans rhetoric has been a winning political strategy when Alberta and Saskatchewan have introduced anti-trans restrictions and even invoked the notwithstanding clause, some provincial elections show how it can be a significant political liability. In New Brunswick, former Premier Blaine Higgs’ 2023 “parental rights” policy and political strong-arming drove significant backlash, contributing to his ultimate electoral loss in the 2024 election and the reversal of the policy by the new premier later that year. In Manitoba’s 2023 election, the Progressive Conservative campaign’s focus on “parental rights” was decisively rejected in favour of the NDP under Wab Kinew, whose campaign centred on unity and dignity. This shift allowed for the election of the province’s first openly trans and non-binary MLAs, Logan Oxenham and Uzoma Asagwara, who have begun reclaiming the narrative by focusing on safety and belonging for all youth.
Moreover, despite setbacks in Saskatchewan and Alberta, trans advocates and allies in those provinces have been mobilizing through public education campaigns led by local advocates and supported by national groups and through legal efforts by UR Pride, Skipping Stone, Egale Canada, Skipping Stone, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
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Research has been done around the world on where and how professionals support trans people and their rights. These studies show that the barrier to trans-affirming environments is frequently not a lack of personal conviction, but a lack of organizational backing. A 2022 study of Ontario K-12 educators found that 94% personally support trans-affirming policies, yet many reported being unable to act on those values due to administrative limitations or a lack of professional guidance. This gap creates an opportunity for narrative work: help individuals close the disconnect between their personal values and their professional reality, when they experience conflict between their personal support for inclusion and institutional “caution” or bureaucracy.
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Across Canadian political talking points, media, and actual anti-trans legislation, we see a strategic avoidance of explicit terms like “transgender,” helping restrictive policies evade detection by the public and even research tools. A search of Canadian legislative databases found only 14 results for the word “transgender” compared to 23 for “pronouns,” illustrating how restrictive policies are often sanitized using language like “child welfare” or “women’s spaces.” This “cloaking” is so effective that in our late 2025 research, AI platforms (for example, Perplexity and ChatGPT) failed to identify Saskatchewan’s Bill 137 as anti- trans, because the bill’s text avoided the word “transgender” entirely, obscuring its intent.
Our research also demonstrated many examples of opposition narratives obfuscating or legitimizing real consequences for trans people by avoiding the framing of “trans rights.” For example, legislation prohibiting the participation of trans women in sports or using women’s restrooms cites “fairness” and “women’s safety” to support a false division between the well-being of cis women and the well- being of trans women.
As a similar false division, some French speakers in Canada and elsewhere have argued for restricting inclusive language (for example, restricting the use of gender-neutral French) to preserve language “integrity” around the gendered nature of French and its grammatical rules, which positions inclusive language on gender diversity as being up against grammatical clarity.
This obfuscation strategy undermines trans rights on two fronts. First, it calls into question the worthiness of protecting the rights of trans people. Second, it deliberately frames protecting trans rights as a barrier to protecting others’ rights. It implies there is a limit to inclusion, that not everyone can be protected.
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Our media analysis shows that the parental rights narrative is highly visible online, in legislation, and in public discourse in Canada. Media coverage skyrocketed after New Brunswick introduced Policy 713 in 2023, which greatly contributed to the prevalence of parental rights narratives. The policy stated that parents have the “right” to know if young people are questioning their gender identity or have come out at school, despite the risks this could pose for youth at home. “Parental rights” legislation has been trialed by certain conservative parties across Canada - in New Brunswick (until reversed), Saskatchewan, and Alberta - and have been effective at:
Building support for anti-trans policies.
Polarizing political debate.
Creating an expectation in public spaces that trans, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse peoples’ self-determination and self-identity are “debates.”
The “parental rights” framing currently prominent in Canada is a strategic import from the United States, rooted in 20th-century legal battles over issues like desegregation and critical race theory. This playbook harnesses language of self-determination and family sovereignty to mask efforts to marginalize trans youth and create a foundation for undermining rights in other sectors, including the workplace. Themes of child wellbeing, education, independence, and personal sovereignty evoked in this narrative draw out strong emotions. They also attract a wide variety of sometimes unlikely allies in opposition, with, for example, the now reoccuring Million March for Children, being joined or supported by known xenophobic and white supremacist groups. These uneasy alliances show the importance of strategizing across communities and issue areas.