Trans Teens

Being Trans is already hard work, and more so when you’re a teen. Jumping that cutting gap between childhood and adulthood is hard enough, and doing it in today’s climate must be a bruising experience, what with the prevailing insanity swirling around us all.

But Will seems to have something radiant inside him, his spiritual and kind eyes make me want to thank him, but I’m not sure what for. It’s hard to imagine the costs he has to pay, just to be himself.

“It kinda feels like with friends you can be in a safe place, which you can’t really be with, with many other people – you can be more yourself, and open with them, which you can’t really be with any old person”, he tells me. I’m feeling old enough, but I don’t think he means it that way.

I like Jamie immediately, and if I was picking teams, I’d want him on my side, though I imagine I wouldn’t be captain for all that long. “I definitely identify as trans, but I don’t identify as a boy, and under no circumstances am I comfortable with she / her pronouns, as my labels of choice would be son, boyfriend, husband, all that kind of thing – but I’m not a boy!

“Like I own a skirt, I own a suit, it’s a spectrum.” It’s so complicated, and again I’m thinking of how hard it must be to jump the gap at such a tender age.

Eden’s opposite me, chomping on some chips and taking me through a few of his experiences. “You don’t need to tell people that this is what you are. Labels put you into a box, and a lot of time the box isn’t helpful. A lot of time you can’t grow, when you’re in a box.”

He’s light in his mannerisms, and kindly touches my arm every now and then – “I want to educate people on LGBT issues, I want people to understand: don’t take people at face value, don’t assume you know certain things about a person before you actually know them.”