Young trans people seek understanding, and child advocate says education is key

Newfoundland and Labrador's child and youth advocate says young transgender people in theprovince need the adults and peers they interact with to better understand who they are.

"It's really difficult to work with these young people effectively if you fundamentally don't understand their reality," said Jacqueline Lake Kavanagh.

Her office released a new report on trans youth, based on conversations withtwo focus groups made up of 18 young people between the ages of 12 and 24, who are transgender someone who does not identify with the binary notions of female or male.

The bottom line is that these young people really have a right to live with respect and dignity.-Jacqueline Lake Kavanagh

"This is not a representative sample throughout the province, but it is meant to identify some of the issues that these young people are facing and to stimulate a discussion on it," said Lake Kavanagh on Monday.

The issues they identified expose the struggles many youngtrans people face, especially those who don't have family support or have to leave their homes.

Lake Kavanagh said among the problems highlighted were issues in the school system, their names, basic use of washrooms, lack of access to medical services and a general lack of understanding from peers and adults in their lives.

"I changed my name legally last year.. [But] my deadname was on my public exams I go into my exams and my deadname is right there on my desk in front of me. I'm like, 'What's going on?' That threw me way right off," said one participant quoted in the report.

"Deadname" refers to a trans individual's old name, prior to adopting and legally changing a new namethey feel they identify.

They said schools without gender-neutral washrooms cause stress on a daily basis, andone student offered a way to improve that problem: "[Not] having it located in the office where you have to get the key and then out yourself by accessing that bathroom because you have to pass by administration."

"It's a dignity issue" many people take for granted, Lake Kavanagh told CBC Radio'sOn The Go.

Learning and understanding needed

Basic education is an overarching failingidentified in the report.

Those issues range fromnot being represented in school curriculum, to their teachers, doctors and other professionals failing to understand gender diversity and publicly asking personal and invasive questions.

There's a road ahead of us.-Jacqueline Lake Kavanagh

"If you don't have the language for something, how can you talk about what it is?" said one participant.

"People tend to think that being trans is a mental illness, and it's not that," said another.

In the report, Lake Kavanaghoutlined five recommendations the provincial government can follow to quickly start improving the lives on trans youth.

Four of them focus on mandatory professional development for teachers, social workers and health care professionals and changing school curriculum to incorporate gender diversity. The fifth calls for province-wide access to safe and accessible shelter space for gender-diverse young people.

"There's a road ahead of us. There's a lot of learning and a lot of understanding that has to take place," said Lake Kavanagh.

"But I think the bottom line is that these young people really have a right to live with respect and dignity and free from discrimination and prejudice, and I think those are the kinds of things that we're tackling here."

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