Red-Dress-Day

"Today, on Red Dress Day, we honour Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, and gender diverse individuals who have been lost to violence.", Leah Gazan -- https://www.leahgazan.ca/mpgazan_reddressday_2026 

I am wearing red today.

A few weeks ago, Leah Gazan caught a lot of abuse for using, out loud, "MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+".

I understand the first reaction. It looks absurdly long. That was my first reaction too.

But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed that the length is not the real problem.

Red Dress Day is not a generic day for everyone. It is for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit people, and other Indigenous gender-diverse people.

The long name is awkward. Plain language matters. But so does not erasing people because the full truth is inconvenient to say.

If the list feels too long, the decent answer is not to cross people off it. The decent answer is to stop the violence, neglect, and indifference that put people on it. 

The best way to shorten the list is to remove the injuries, not the people.

Today I am wearing red in remembrance, respect, and witness.

We name people because they matter.

#RedDressDay #MMIWG2S #MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA

The acronym is good precisely because it is so long. For me, it's a stark reminder that we have much to repair so that everyone, regardless of label, can thrive in safety. Red Dress Day has a specific focus, the longer naming is meant to avoid leaving out targeted Indigenous people. The real target should be the harm, not the wording. That fits the facts better. CIHR describes May 5 as the day of awareness and remembrance for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQI+ people, and ties Red Dress Day to Metis artist Jaime Black’s REDress Project. 

"MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+" is a reminder that we do not have a system that adequately protects everyone so that they don't need a particular targeted campaign. By their very nature, focusing on a body of individual targets creates psychic 'means tests' for who needs support -- by dropping one penny in every second bowl we make half the beggars lose. Where we really need to get to is a recognition of and a pledge to support fundamental rights across the board so that we support the right of everyone to thrive: https://dapaday.blogspot.com/2025/12/CovenantOfCoreRights.html