June 1st, 2016 marked the date that Parliament Hill raised a pride flag for the first time. This began the very first pride month in Canada. One single year later, the transgender pride flag was also raised.

This year’s Pride Month marked 6 years since the first Transgender Flag was raised on Parliament Hill.

Journaling is a great way to get to know yourself intimately. If you do not know yourself well, you can’t develop your identity in a way that honors your true self. This is the first week of journal prompts on genderMe.ca, so let’s start simple and work our way into some more complex prompts as the weeks go on.

Your journal can be on many different types of media; it can be an anonymous journal online. It can be a plain notepad. It can be a bullet journal, mixed along with daily task lists and other seemingly unrelated things. It can be an email you send to yourself. Or even a sketchbook where you can draw and write at the same time. Whatever your journal looks like, it should be whatever is best for you in your current journey.

No one is allowed to read your journal without your permission. You do not need to let anyone read your journal. It is private. It is sacred. It is yours.

Journal Prompt, Week One

How am I feeling right now? What do I feel physically? What worries me the most right now?

It is a good idea to start or end each journal entry with something you are proud of yourself for. It could be something as seemingly small as reading this post. It could be starting a journal or even being vulnerable with yourself. We don’t all learn emotional vulnerability during our childhood, but it is a skill we can learn.

Give yourself permission to be yourself and to be vulnerable.

Welcome to the brand new website, GenderMe.ca, whose focus is to breakdown societal barriers and help inform Canadians of the many ways we can come to know and understand one another. Education and coming to a mutual understanding is the first step in helping to break down stigma and reduce barriers.

Laws, acts, bills, community resources, government supports, research, concepts and mutual understandings… What are we doing here?

This website is focused on understanding laws, acts, or bills that might be passed related to the transgender community and participants. It is also focused on helping to finesse out the definitions of some words as well as some concepts that seem to cause a barrier to a natural discussion of intimate subject matters.

We are dedicated to providing resources to LGTBQ+ individuals, parents, allies, friends, and anyone else who is hoping to better support and understand their loved ones, or those who they want to support.

My goal is to provide well researched and thought out articles that can help us all in our daily discussions when we need something to reference while having those heated discussions.

Education brings understanding.

Feminine or femininity.

Femininity refers to socially constructed characteristics or attributes that are commonly seen in girls or women.

Masculine or masculinity.

Masculinity generally refers to the characteristics that society has assigned to men. Although masculinity is often assigned to men, it is largely a social construct that outlines physical characteristics, mannerisms, and personality.

For the individualistic piece, masculinity is partially embedded in instinctual behaviours and partially based on social settings. In the animal kingdom, males are often in a protective and hunting role even though these roles are certainly not exclusive to males.

Most people will have characteristics that are considered masculine, regardless of sex or gender. This is the same for femininity and feminine traits.