I confess I’ve been thinking a lot about travel to the United States these days.
I’ve turned down one invitation to keynote a conference south of the border and also declined one conference acceptance.
I think, as long as Trump is in office, I’m just not going to do it.
I’ve also been thinking about about American academic colleagues in Canada, the border, and their need to visit family. It feels like the situation at the border is going to get worse, not better, in coming months.
Lately I’ve also been thinking about friends and colleagues in the US who can’t leave because they’re worried about re-entry. Trans friends and colleagues, are obviously worried but so too are friends and colleagues with student visas and green cards etc. It’s not just that I’m cut off from the US. Lots of people in the US may also feel trapped inside the country.
I follow these conversations in my academic circles but they’re also affecting music and sports. They’re both global activities that bring people together, across borders, in normal times.
But these aren’t normal times.
See this story: Victoria’s roller derby league pulls out of U.S. games over safety concerns:
The Esquimalt-based Eves of Destruction are concerned about the safety of players who are trans and non-binary
“Eves of Destruction charter team manager Sloane Chomeakwich said they knew things would deteriorate when Donald Trump was re-elected as U.S. president in November, but didn’t anticipate it would happen as fast as it did.
“We could not have imagined that things would get this bad, this quickly,” Chomeakwich said. “It’s honestly very wild to watch and witness.”
Chomeakwich said the league made the “preemptive safety call” not to travel to the U.S. last month, though they had been discussing it since November.
Sonja Pinto, the representative for the Hard Core derby league team, said the decision was made in reaction to Trump signing an executive order that called for the federal government to limit gender options to male or female and for that to be reflected on official documents such as passports and policies such as federal prison assignments.
“So many of our skaters identify under the trans umbrella,” said Pinto, who is non-binary and uses she/they pronouns. “They’re worried they might run into issues crossing the border … it’s causing skaters to feel really nervous, to feel really uncertain.”
Roller derby has historically been a sport that has been more inclusive of trans people, Pinto said.
Chomeakwich, who changed their passport gender designation to X three years ago, said the league in general is “so gender diverse.”
“That’s really important as a value to our league [and] something that we’re not willing to give up just so that we can have a bit more competitive play.”
Pinto said reducing travel to the U.S. is one way that the league can support its trans skaters.
“We can choose solidarity and prioritize games in Canada.”
The league is now playing primarily at the Archie Browning Sports Centre in Esquimalt, where it is based.
In June, the Eves of Destruction are hosting the Capital City Chaos tournament and inviting teams from Washington, Alaska, California, and Oregon to come to the capital region instead.”
You can read more about it here.
The team website is here.
