VANCOUVER — I have a dream that one day a man will be able to stand before Mark Carney and ask a simple question — “How many genders are there?” — and receive an answer not requiring a committee, a cavalcade of litigators, a row of riot police, or a press secretary.I have a dream that one day the answer will be precisely the same one biology has given every generation before this one. The word “woman” will not be pressed into service to soften the description of a man accused of helping plan the murder of schoolchildren.I have a dream that when national newspapers write about James Cody Bryant of Bellingham — a man who goes by “Melody,” who is accused of spending months advising the Tumbler Ridge shooter, sending money, and offering to livestream the killing — they will not begin by calling him a woman..I have a dream that no one will ever again treat the question — “Who was the murderer?” — itself as an act of violence, nor treat an act of violence as a reason not to ask the question.Men commit the overwhelming majority of school shootings.I have a dream that one day we will be able to state this as plain fact, without feeling compelled to apologize for it first. That the pronoun “male” will not be treated as an optional detail, nor as something to be softened by a preferred name, a preferred pronoun, or an awkward future correction the editor hopes the reader does not notice..I have a dream newsrooms will one day be able to report such a reality without being put on a list by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. I have a dream that the first sentence of a news story about such a person will name the biological fact corresponding to their sex at birth, that the second sentence will name the alleged crime, and that neither sentence will require the reader to participate in a fiction before being told what happened.We hold these truths to be self-evident: chromosomes are unchangeable.I have a dream that one day, on the playing fields of this nation, a girl will run, and swim, and lift, and not be told she must yield her place, her scholarship, her record, or her safety to a male body that has simply renamed itself.I have a dream that we will be free at last.Free from the requirement that we call a man a woman so that the man who helped plan the murder of children may feel affirmed. Free at last.And when that day comes — when the question “How many genders are there?” can be asked of even Mark Carney, when the man can be called a man, when the pattern can be named — we will be free at last.Free at last from the demand that we unsee what is directly in front of us.Free at last from the singular “they” that pretends a man is not a he, and from the plural “them” that turns one male body into a protected class — even if he's committed a crime of unimaginable horror..I have a dream that the pages of the Globe and Mail, the CBC, and the Toronto Star will be free from such fictional reporting, and that truth will take its place.Let the truth ring from the newsrooms of Vancouver. Let it ring from the towers of Toronto. Let it ring from the Hill in Ottawa. Let it ring from every desk that once reached for the preferred pronoun before it reached for the fact.From every newsroom, every schoolyard, every change room, and every courtroom, let it ring.When that day comes — when the man is called a man, when a pattern can be named for what it is, when the question can be asked and answered without a lawyer, a police officer, or a human resources administrator in the room — we will be free at last.Free at last from men in women's sports and change rooms.Free at last from male rapists in female prisons and homeless shelters.Free at last from “they,” free at last from “them.”God Almighty, we will be free at last, free at last.
