Some 2SLGBTQ+ people in N.S. on edge as hateful rhetoric rises at home and abroad

Kai Skinner sometimes takes off her Pride pin and intentionally hides her queerness to avoid hate.

It's something the vice-chair of Lunenburg County Pride said no one should have to do. But a series of incidents in the past year affecting the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Nova Scotia has made Skinner feel uneasy about who she is safe with as a queer woman and where she is welcome.

"It's really hard knowing that I've done so much work to be an openly queer woman for myself, that I'm now having to go back to … pretending that I'm not part of the 2SLGBTQI [two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex] community in specific community spaces," Skinner said.

Last spring, a staircase painted in rainbow Pride colours at Bridgewater Town Hall was defaced with a spray-painted symbol of Diagolon — a network that's been called an ideologically motivated and violent extremist organization by a 2022 House of Commons report.

Since then, graffiti of the symbol has continued to appear in the area, according to Lunenburg County Pride, including at least 11 times on a rock face along the highway.

In 2024, CBC News reported on a document drafted by Canada's Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre which said that "anti-2SLGBTQl+ narratives remain a common theme in violent rhetoric espoused by white nationalists, neo-Nazis … and networks such as Diagolon and QAnon."

The founder of Diagolon, Jeremy MacKenzie, has denied the group is extremist. 

To Skinner, hate toward 2SLGBTQ+ people is becoming more emboldened under the current political climate.

The interview with Skinner took place next to the Bridgewater Pride staircase and was interrupted when a person from a nearby building began shouting comments out their window about drag performers, directed at the CBC News crew and Skinner.

"Are you here with the drag queens? Bridgewater loves the drag queens," the person said in a derisive tone.

In recent years, drag performers in North America have increasingly become the target of hate and, in many cases, threats of violence.

"That's the exact rhetoric that has emboldened the hate," Skinner said in response to the shouting. "That is why we have to do safety planning." 

She said Lunenburg County Pride has had to alert authorities when it holds events and create security plans.

Since the Pride staircase was defaced, there has been a spate of vandalism targeting 2SLGBTQ+ businesses and people in Nova Scotia.