At a time when transgender rights in the United States face mounting legislative rollbacks, a small television station in rural New Brunswick is making a deliberate choice: to put these issues at the center of its programming.
CHCO-TV, the region’s independent community broadcaster, has begun devoting long-form segments to conversations about how political rhetoric and policy shifts within the United States may spill over the border. Its current affairs program, Southwest Magazine, recently featured Vivian Myers-Jones, a dual citizen and U.S. veteran, who described what she called a “systemic erasure” of protections for trans Americans.
“They took the steps first by removing references to trans health in the CDC documentation,” she said, likening the trend to “the book burning of the 1930s.” Her words, broadcast from a studio in St. Andrews, carried far beyond the coastal town, resonating with viewers who recognize the precariousness of rights even in Canada.
As more U.S. states restrict gender-affirming care and public expression of queer identities, Myers-Jones predicts Canada will face new pressures — including LGBTQ+ refugees seeking safety. For CHCO-TV, the response is clear: create space for voices on both sides of the border and remind audiences that rights must be defended before they are lost.
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About LJI
LJI Impact is the section of commediaportal.ca where the journalists and their organizations participating in CACTUS' Local Journalism Initiative can share their greatest successes.
Through the written stories, photos and videos you see in the LJI Impact section, you'll be able to read first hand accounts about how the presence of a community journalist is making a difference in communities across Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative and the Community Media Portal.
The Community Media Portal is a gateway to the audio-visual media created by community media centres across Canada. These include traditional community TV and radio stations, as well as online and new media production centres.
Community media are not-for-profit production hubs owned and operated by the communities they serve, established both to provide local content and reflection for their communities, as well as media training and access for ordinary citizens to the latest tools of media production, whether traditional TV and radio, social and online media, virtual reality, augmented reality or video games.
The Community Media Portal has been funded by the Local Journalism Initiative (the LJI) of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) in association with the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec (the Fédération). Under the LJI, over 100 journalists have been placed in underserved communities and asked to produce civic content that underpins Canadian democratic life.
