To watch the accompanying video please click here.
Dropped off a campaign pin and flyer to Lisa Stroud today. A small gesture, but one rooted in something much larger.
Lisa had many of her teeth punched out in a hate-motivated attack after leaving Hamilton’s only bar marketed to the 2SLGBTQ+ community. The attack cost her months of acting work, her sense of safety and tens of thousands of dollars in dental care. Lisa reported that a detective described what happened to her as a hate crime.
In September 2025, Lisa stood beside me while I delegated to Hamilton’s Emergency and Community Services Committee. I demanded a trans, non-binary, Two-Spirit and intersex safety audit modelled after the City of Vancouver’s safety and inclusion work. Her presence made the stakes impossible for Council to ignore.
That day, I told Council that trans people deserve to grow old in safety. We deserve to live in cities. We deserve more than Pride statements, policies gathering dust and corporate inclusion language that never changes our material conditions.
A campaign pin and flyer are small things. The promise behind them is not.
My campaign for mayor is about community-led safety, housing and tenant protections, accessibility, transparency and holding City Hall accountable to the people it has failed. Trans safety must be built into our housing, shelters, recreation facilities, public spaces, data collection and city services. It must be designed with us, not merely about us, and trans people must be paid for that work.
Lisa once said the City of Hamilton needs less hate and more compassion. She is absolutely right.
Please donate to or share Lisa’s GoFundMe. She has worked her entire life, and she should not be left alone to carry the financial consequences of violence committed against her.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/wzn9zq-help-lisa-stroud-rebuild-her-life
This is why I am running for mayor: because safety must mean safety for every Hamiltonian – not only the people whom our institutions already find easy to protect.