TS Just Wanna Have Fun

“Okay, let’s do something about it.”

- Eve Parker Finley

I cherish moments like this: two trans friends talking about changing the world. “When I realized you were just as pissed as I was, I knew this was a big issue we needed to address,” explains my friend Rene. We’re sitting in Parc Outremont reflecting on how, in a few short weeks, we went from being isolated individuals experiencing transphobia at our local YMCA to galvanizing community support, creating spaces for solidarity, presenting our concerns to the YMCAs of Québec’s higher administration, and having them respond with a draft plan for building a more trans-inclusive YMCA.

It’s an amazingly powerful experience to challenge exclusion, and to realize the strength of your community of trans friends – new and old – and cis allies. It can also be some of the most emotionally exhausting work. During these weeks, I cried, burnt myself out, and at times doubted the effectiveness of everything we had done and were doing.

After I posted on Facebook in April about an experience of transphobia at my local YMCA, I was swept away by the outpouring of support and stories from trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming friends about similar and much more extreme experiences of transphobia. People told me about being kicked out of change rooms, being forbidden from having their names or genders recognized, being denied access to women-only spaces, being misgendered, experiencing physical violence and verbal harassment from other gym-goers and staff, and being asked invasive questions about their bodies and surgical history.