Amanda Jetté Knox does not know who tried to throw a bottle at them from a car while they were returning home in Ottawa last month, but she remembers feeling like she almost lost consciousness.

Jetté Knox, who is known as "non-binary," said they were called weird and the car sped off.

This was the first time Jetté Knox faced anything so violent in Canada, but the activist has endured a lot of hateful comments since publicly sharing their story several years ago. 

The Jetté family closely follows anti-LGBTQ+ hatred in the United States, where gender diversity and expression have become common targets for Republican politicians, far-right groups, and online trolls. Recent threatening phone calls led to the cancellation of a planned play at a Victoria café, and other events at public libraries elsewhere in Canada were canceled after threats. Pride flags of the LGBTQ community were torn in London, Ontario, and other parts of Canada. In early June, a 17-year-old youth was arrested in Mississauga, Ontario, for allegedly threatening to carry out a shooting.

Professor Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, said hatred against transgender people, gays, bisexuals, and transsexuals is always "escalating," including in Canada.

A survey released by Statistics Canada in 2020 found that transgender people are more likely to experience physical or sexual violence compared to cisgender people in Canada. They were also more likely to experience "inappropriate behaviors" in public places, at work, and online, which Statistics Canada defined as acts that “make people feel unsafe or uncomfortable” and have a lasting impact on mental and physical health.

But far-right groups here seem to have become bolder due to what Perry describes as "horrifying narratives and political shifts" seen in the U.S. since earlier this year. The U.S.-based Human Rights Campaign documented over 300 proposed bills introduced in 36 states directly targeting transgender rights, sexual diversity, and expression. These attempts include investigating families who help affirm their children's gender identity and barring trans children from participating in sports.

Harmful language aimed at discrediting transgender people and those who support them is routinely used online and in right-wing media 

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network has documented the narratives appearing in far-right political discourse in this country. Perry said far-right groups are the ones "inflaming" people, slowly attracting new followers to their ideologies by playing on their fears and suspicions.

Similarities have been highlighted between the current climate of transphobia and what is known as the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory promoted by far-right nationalist white movements and some conservative media. It is a racist claim that white people are being systematically replaced by immigrants.

Editing: Dima Abu Khair