I often wonder what I can do to educate others about transsexualism. More importantly today I ask how a blog post can help someone whose child comes to them and reveals that they have been forced to pretend to be someone they aren't.
Some parents might not have the time to read a great book on the subject. A blog might not be able to help them. But a beautifully made, award winning* video, short and to the point, might be the perfect solution.
I lived behind a mask for a long time, so it heartens me to see someone able to articulate their own need to live an authentic life before they reach puberty. Even more so to see parents and most of a small community come together to support that young person as they begin living the life they should.
The National Film Board of Canada presented film-maker Rachel Bower's movie, I Am Skylar in 2019. Here is a link to a post by Bower this past year in the NFB Blog, that has an interview with Skylar in her sixteenth year. If you wish to see the movie, it is there as well.
During our time, we had neither the language nor the fortitude to express what we felt and so buried it to make ourselves fit in. As hard as it is to be trans at least these kids can be caught early and their behaviour taken seriously instead of castigated with derision.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that children like Skylar will be spared decades of denial before finally arriving at self acceptance.
Spared denial, and able to live a full life as themselves. I love how Skylar is already, at fourteen, integrating her past into her present; not afraid to accept what for us was a subject of derision, as you say. Wonderful.
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