A single acronym uttered in a parliamentary press conference has become the most talked-about political moment of the week, but for all the wrong reasons.
What the Canadian MP actually said
Leah Gazan, a New Democratic Party MP from Manitoba, was speaking at a press conference in Ottawa alongside Indigenous leaders who had gathered to protest the federal government's latest budget. The budget, introduced by Prime Minister Mark Carney's government, cuts $7 billion from Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations.
Gazan was visibly angry. "When the budget was released, I was shocked to find out that Prime Minister Carney is cutting $7 billion between Indigenous Services Canada and Crown Indigenous Relations," she said. "They provided zero dollars to deal with the ongoing genocide of MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+."
She continued, accusing the prime minister of turning a blind eye to rising rates of violence. "Indigenous women, girls, 2SLGBTQQIA+, are not safe. In fact, rates of violence are increasing. And what is the Prime Minister doing? He is turning a blind eye on this violence" .
The problem was that by the time viewers got to the end of the acronym, most had stopped listening to her message entirely.
"MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+"The Canadian government just dropped this absolute monstrosity (and no, it isn't satire). pic.twitter.com/xY9R2W4kVz
- Samantha Smith (@SamanthaTaghoy)
The internet reacts
Within hours, the clip of Gazan delivering the acronym in a single breath had gone viral across social media platforms. The reaction was almost entirely negative.
"This person is doing a disservice to these women," one user wrote. "Why is she not focusing on the issues. Her cause is lost ….in a ridiculous acronym."
Others were more direct in their confusion. "I'm failing to understand why MMIW is grouped with LGBTQ? Like are those not two entirely separate things? Almost feels very diminishing of the MMIW," said another commenter.
One user wrote, "Talk about insult to injury. First you get murdered and then you become gay." Another joked, "Can I identify as murdered? And where does that fall on the hierarchy of grievance?"
The jokes kept coming. "Seriously would have been an implausible comedy routine even from circa 2010," one person commented. Another user wrote that the acronym looked like "an excellent idea for an ultra-secure password" .
Canada gets a new nickname
The controversy has led to Canada being dubbed the "gay capitol of the world" by some online commenters, though the phrase was used more as a punchline than a compliment.What does MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ actually stand for?
The acronym is not something Leah Gazan invented on the spot. It is actually a term used by the Canadian federal government itself in official documents. The full breakdown goes like this:MMIWG stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This part of the acronym refers to a documented crisis in Canada where Indigenous women and girls face disproportionately high rates of violence, disappearance and murder compared to the rest of the population. Indigenous people make up about 5 per cent of Canada's population but nearly a quarter of homicide victims, with women being especially overrepresented among those numbers.
The 2S refers to Two-Spirit, a term used by some Indigenous people to describe a distinct gender or sexual identity that is rooted in their traditional cultures. Many Indigenous nations recognised more than two genders before European colonisation, and Two-Spirit is a modern umbrella term that honours those traditions.
The rest of the letters follow the familiar LGBTQ pattern: L for Lesbian, G for Gay, B for Bisexual, T for Transgender, Q for Queer, the second Q for Questioning, I for Intersex, and A for Asexual. The plus sign at the end indicates that the list is not meant to be exhaustive
So the full term attempts to describe Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual people.
Why are people so angry?
The outrage boils down to one central question that keeps appearing in comments and posts across social media: Why are murdered people being lumped in with the LGBTQ community?Critics argue that being murdered is not a sexual orientation or a gender identity. They say that by grouping the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women with LGBTQ identity categories, activists are doing a disservice to both causes.
"Murdered is now a queer identity," one user wrote sarcastically. "This is the kind of innovation we get from Canada."
But by adding more and more letters to the acronym, some worry that the specific pain of Indigenous women and girls is getting lost in a larger conversation about LGBTQ rights. "How are they not embarrassed by this," one user asked. "Even if you are trans or whatever. What a ridiculous, nonsensical thing."
The timing of this controversy is particularly bad for those trying to draw attention to the budget cuts. Indigenous leaders had gathered in Ottawa specifically to protest the end of federal funding for organisations that support families of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Instead of talking about the $7 billion in cuts, the internet is talking about an acronym, and not for the reasons the speaker may have intended.