The Editor,
If you're thinking something resembling "I'm still calling him Bruce," like Drake Bell and many other transphobic trolls did on Twitter some time ago, then I probably don't like you for a few really, really good reasons. In fact, don't even think about trying to convince me that I'm somehow a bad person for shaming you for not using her actual name, because I'd sooner walk across Death Valley without food, water or clothes than associate myself with you. Using trans peoples' dead names – names that they were born with which are either wrong through either legal or preferential means – has been and always will be an act of aggression, not just to the person you're deadnaming but to all trans people. I'm not just saying this as a bystander or activist either; I have a dead name, too. My legal name doesn't matter, Caitlyn's doesn't matter either, and it shouldn't matter to anyone. If we want to talk about our names being inherently wrong, calling people "Billy" or "Jenny" would be inherently wrong too, which it isn't.
I identify as gender non-binary. Identifying as gender non-binary means I can't fit into the male or female gender. In layman's terms, imagine yourself as a triangular peg and being shown a circle- or square-shaped hole, then asked which you would fit in best. Imagine that you know you're not going to fit in either of them, and you tell everyone that, but no matter how much you try convincing people you won't fit, you'll still have people telling you that you're just going through a phase, and that you'll fit through one of those holes eventually. That's the story about my life as a publicly out non-binary person.
Lots of people would deny my identity, and I can see why. I was raised a cisgender male, meaning I was born and raised male. I can totally understand how people would hear of transgender people for the first time via evening news and tabloids and quickly assume it's some weird fetish or something. I thought the same thing myself for a long time, to be quite honest. I assumed drag queens and crossdressers were the same thing as trans people, which is extremely wrong, as any trans person would adamantly tell you. I also recall a story being run in this paper about Jessica Billard, a transfemale living within Estevan; I heard more about her being a sex worker with severe mental disorders and STIs in high school than I heard the school's sports team scores. However, thanks to the Internet being the gigantic information highway that it is, I was able to do some research about what a transgender person really is. Soon after looking up what "transgender" actually meant, I realized that the weird gut feeling that I was a triangle trying to fit in a circular pit wasn't just bad gas or a weird stomach flu that would only flare up when I looked at a mirror. I was 18 years old when I began questioning my gender as a result of my research. As of writing this, I have recently turned 21, and I've settled on non-binary as a gender identity for almost a year now, after I found transfemale and genderfluid to be incorrect to me.
Caitlyn's coming out is a sign of better days for trans people. I'm very glad she was so brave and came out in the fantastic way that she did, and she honestly does look flawless in her photo shoot. That said, I think the spotlight should be shared with the issues transgender people face. Medical care for transgender people in Canada is archaic in more than a few areas and needs to be more comprehensive, especially for transgender people who live paycheque to paycheque or below the poverty line. Sexual education is beyond disgraceful, and should include at least a couple sections on sexual orientation and gender identity. Trans people need the right to use the restroom without worrying about being assaulted by people who assume wrongfully that we are there to assault them first. There is a lot of change that needs to have happened decades ago, but with Caitlyn Jenner's coming out, now is as good a time as any to initiate a conversation and make some positive progress for LGBT+ people.
Luca Kuchinka
Estevan
