By: Victoria Hincapie Gomez
Jan,25.2024
Brook Hallet is in Humber’s Bachelor of Music program, and she is currently in her Fifth semester. Before attending Humber, back home in Newmarket, she started exploring her femininity.
Hallet sits cross-legged at a table in the Black Goat cafe near Lakeshore Campus; she wears a brown crochet beanie that goes down to her brows and showcases her green coloured eyes, paired with a black cardigan and beige skirt that hits the floor. Behind her, the gloomy sky of a late afternoon in October is visible.
Hallet orders a coffee to the waiter and rearranges her guitar case that sits underneath her chair. She blows some air, and her hands stop fidgeting.
“ In grade 12, I started dressing more feminine,” she says while glancing at people walking down the street through the cafe’s see-through glass. “ But at that point I kept telling myself I was still a guy and I just liked wearing girl’s clothes.”
Hallet is now one year and a half into her transition, and ever since she has faced some public disdain in the form of verbal abuse. "I am not one who cares a ton about ‘passing’, I know I am not a cis woman,” she says while taking off her coat. " I like to experiment with my presentation, and sometimes it puts me at risk, because people can tell something’s up.”
Last year in September, marches took place protesting against a policy of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI 123) curriculum for schools, which was implemented back in 2020. But in June, the policy was changed in New Brunswick by Minister of Education Bill Hogan.
Policy 713, originally stated that kids under 16 and over were allowed to opt for a preferred pronoun or name change without parental consent. Since July.1, parental consent is needed in New Brunswick for a formal change.
Protesters used the “1MillionMarch4Children” banner and claimed to be marching for “parental rights”. The counter-protesters marched to reverse the change of policy already implemented in New Brunswick, and to prevent these policies from being approved in other cities.
Brook says it has always been a “ control thing” and parents yield to these types of movements because they don't understand what being trans is and have an issue with it.
“ By choosing to not support them, and letting them be who they are, without your input, you are going to have a kid who is actively trying to rebel against you,” she says while sipping her coffee. “Because as a parent you don't love them for who they are.”
According to a 2019 Canadian Trans and Non-binary Youth Health Survey conducted by the Stigma and resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre, most trans and/or non-binary youth (63%) reported experiencing severe emotional distress; however, those with supportive families, safe schools, and/or a legal name change were less likely to report severe emotional distress.
Brook finds this type of news draining and playing music helps with her gender dysphoria.
“ Music is my life, is what I study, is my work , and my form of expression,” she says with a smile. “ When I am on stage not only do I have gender euphoria and feel the most feminine, but I also have something else to think about. The most important form of expression, when I am performing or doing anything musically, is the music itself.”
Similarly to Brook, Carmen Laurent has been able to diminish feelings of gender dysphoria through her craft.
Carmen is 31 years old, being 11 years Brooks’s senior. She graduated from Atlanta institute of Aesthetics in 2012, and before creating her podcast last year called ‘Beauty Translated’, she worked as an esthetician for 10 years.
Laurent sits on her apartment floor in Atlanta, the sun hits her face making her ginger coloured hair look yellow-ish and blue eyes less prominent. She wears a brown oversize hoodie that seems to go down to her knees, and although her background is blurry, one can still picture her spacious bedroom.
Laurent says working as an esthetician during that time was the best thing she could’ve done for her gender dysphoria, since she had knowledge at her disposal to make herself beautiful and cared for.
Laurent now works full- time hosting her podcast, which features North American trans public figures like Calpernia Adams.
Laurent says that presenting at the Podcast Movement Evolutions convention in Vegas last March was one of her proudest moments.
“ It was surreal when it all sank in, and I realized that I wasn't behind a microphone in my closet, but that I was doing something meaningful.”
Carmen grew up in Grayson/ Lawrenceville Georgia and around the age of Eight or Ninth started to feel signs of gender dysphoria.
“ I even remember having dysphoria about my private parts even younger than that,” she says while her eyes wander up. “ but around that age I found the words to explain it, and I told my mum that I felt I should be a girl, and I remember her telling me it was just a phase.”
Carmen went to school in Georgia’s Grayson High School and dropped out in 2009 after suffering from bullying.
“ The bullying, the harassment , and the death threats I was receiving were so bad that staying in school made me wonder, what for and who for ?.”
According to the 2019 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) surveillance study in youth risk behaviors, 43% of transgender youth have been bullied on school property. Compared to 18% of cisgender youth; transgender youth were more likely in 2019 to have been bullied on school property than reported in 2017.
After dropping out of school Carmen moved away from home and started Hormone Replacement therapy at the age of 18.
“ I had to wait until I was 18 and unfortunately I wish for myself personally , that I could have begun HRT at an age like 16,” she says with a wistful smile. "I wouldn't have had to face irreversible changes in my body like facial hair or need some gender affirming surgeries like ffs (facial feminization surgery).”
Weeks before marches protesting against SOGI 123 burst all over Canada, from Sept.7-9, a conservative delegates convention took place in Quebec. Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre hosted the convention, and one of the resolutions included banning minors access to HRT, which 69 % of the delegates agreed to.
The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) conducted a 2021 study about the mental health benefits of puberty blockers for minors, and the data showed that puberty blockers were associated with improved body image and significant decrease in body dissatisfaction.
Carmen says children that have reached an age where they have sexual function as an adult should have access to HRT.
“ The answer is not eliminating gender- affirming care for children, the answer is to offer gender-affirming care in a way that is thoughtful and ethical.”
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