Last week's anti-SOGI protest was a "first" for Montreal, says counter-protest organizer Celeste Trianon. Hundreds of protestors and counter-protestors of the “1 Million March 4 Children,” which opposed sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) curricula in schools, faced off downtown on Sept. 20.

Trianon has helped organize demonstrations against anti-trans speakers and legislation in the past, and says for the first time she felt outnumbered. 

"You want to know what's the worst part?" Trianon asks. "They were using ... children as human shields."

Anti-SOGI protestors have billed themselves as concerned parents, against the teaching of an ideology they don't support. But Trianon says she heard far worse at Wednesday's protest than what's taught in any classroom.

"Some of them [were] openly spewing anti-trans rhetoric with their parents, openly calling us pedophiles and calling for us all to die."

Premier Francois Legault condemned the "animosity" of the protests in a presser the next day, saying that most Quebecers are somewhere in the middle on issues like these. Amidst ongoing polarization, he called for unity, asking people to try and share a "common vision."

Quebec doesn't have a SOGI-based approach in schools, and instead incorporates lessons about gender stereotypes early on, adding more about sexuality as kids approach puberty. But Legault proposed a "committee [to examine] the different subjects, the rights of the parents, the rights of the children, all the debate around gender decisions."

Trianon says it's a false equivalency to act as if both sides hold equal dangers.

"It's the premier positioning himself as 'neutral' in a scenario which cannot be neutral. Because there's a community whose lives, whose very existence, is at stake."

Trianon joined CKUT live in studio on Tuesday. Listen to the full interview below: