Keywords:
coming out, lesbian, friends, support, school climate, non-binary, gender identity, preferred name, administration, gender neutral bathroom
coming out, lesbian, friends, support, school climate, non-binary, gender identity, preferred name, administration, gender neutral bathroom
Transcript
Dan: I’m Dan.
Tara: Hi Dan.
Dan: I’m sixteen. I’m in grade 11. This is my mom.
Chantale: Chantale.
So tell us a little bit about life at school and how does it feel and, uh, your own journey around, um, gender and how that worked in school. Because it can hard. It can be not so hard.
Dan: Okay, yeah. So um, at school I guess I came out as kind of as lesbian in grade seven.
Tara: Right.
Dan: Um, because our school goes from grade seven to grade twelve. Um, where I told all my friends or word got around, as it does in high school or middle school. Um, I didn’t get too much bad stuff about it. I got the odd person that would, like, I don’t know, snicker. Not much to me. I never really got much to my face. Um, everyone was pretty supportive. Um, then what about was it last year?
Chantale: For what?
Dan: Gender?
Chantale: Yeah last year, about a year and a half or so, yeah.
Dan: Yeah, so I came out as non-binary and changed my name to Dan. Um, that was kind of tricky but the school was really good about it.
Chantale: Yeah, very good about it.
Dan: Um, yeah. I was able to go to the office and get my name changed within the school. Um, right away I had a talk with the principal. We just got a new principal. I’m still feeling out, like, how he is.
Chantale: But the change was done before he -- the new principal came in.
Tara: Okay.
Chantale: And that was fine and smooth and...
Dan: She was — right away was okay. Yeah, let’s do this. RIght away asked me which bathroom I would like to start using. I chose to use the -- our gender neutral bathrooms, which are the staff bathrooms. Um, yeah. It was pretty smooth. I never really got anything from the students either like--
Tara: No?
Dan: I have a couple of people that were like, “Oh I’ve known you forever so I’m just gonna keep using your old name”. And I’m like, “Well, no”. Not how that works. But everyone’s done pretty good at, like, switching and getting used to it and stuff.
Dan: I’m Dan.
Tara: Hi Dan.
Dan: I’m sixteen. I’m in grade 11. This is my mom.
Chantale: Chantale.
So tell us a little bit about life at school and how does it feel and, uh, your own journey around, um, gender and how that worked in school. Because it can hard. It can be not so hard.
Dan: Okay, yeah. So um, at school I guess I came out as kind of as lesbian in grade seven.
Tara: Right.
Dan: Um, because our school goes from grade seven to grade twelve. Um, where I told all my friends or word got around, as it does in high school or middle school. Um, I didn’t get too much bad stuff about it. I got the odd person that would, like, I don’t know, snicker. Not much to me. I never really got much to my face. Um, everyone was pretty supportive. Um, then what about was it last year?
Chantale: For what?
Dan: Gender?
Chantale: Yeah last year, about a year and a half or so, yeah.
Dan: Yeah, so I came out as non-binary and changed my name to Dan. Um, that was kind of tricky but the school was really good about it.
Chantale: Yeah, very good about it.
Dan: Um, yeah. I was able to go to the office and get my name changed within the school. Um, right away I had a talk with the principal. We just got a new principal. I’m still feeling out, like, how he is.
Chantale: But the change was done before he -- the new principal came in.
Tara: Okay.
Chantale: And that was fine and smooth and...
Dan: She was — right away was okay. Yeah, let’s do this. RIght away asked me which bathroom I would like to start using. I chose to use the -- our gender neutral bathrooms, which are the staff bathrooms. Um, yeah. It was pretty smooth. I never really got anything from the students either like--
Tara: No?
Dan: I have a couple of people that were like, “Oh I’ve known you forever so I’m just gonna keep using your old name”. And I’m like, “Well, no”. Not how that works. But everyone’s done pretty good at, like, switching and getting used to it and stuff.