IN 2008, Shawn Rouse and his wife, Amanda, found out they were expecting a child. The couple, who live in Quispamsis, a suburb of Saint John, New Brunswick, couldn't decide on a name. They pored through books in search of ideas, but nothing stuck. "We must have discussed 100 options," says Rouse. After months of intense debate, they finally settled on what they thought was a winning name for the baby girl they were expecting. It didn't occur to either of them that, one day, their child might have thoughts of their own on the matter.
Nine years later, puberty hit hard. Their child had long seemed uneasy as a girl, but the discomfort was suddenly all-encompassing. "Each physical change came with depression and terror," says Rouse. The kid would only wear baggy clothes, eager to hide every curve. When their child came out to the family-first at age 10 as nonbinary, then months later as a trans male-the family had confirmation of what they'd suspected. A year later, in 2021, their child came home with a test for his parents to sign. The name at the top, Levi Rouse, was unfamiliar. "I asked him, 'Who's Levi?"" says Rouse. "He said, "That's what I go by now.""
Rouse was surprised. The name he and Andrea had worked so hard to find had been summarily cast aside. He couldn't help but feel as if Levi, only 12 years old, had left him out of a huge life decision. He had also kept the name change secret.
In time, Rouse came to understand Levi's secrecy not as insubordination or fear, but as prudence. He hadn't wanted to burden his parents with a half-baked decision, so he'd tested it out in a social context first. "Once you come out to your family, you make the choice official," Rouse says. "You want to ensure you get things right. Young people need a zone of privacy to figure themselves out."
Bu hikaye Maclean's dergisinin October 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Maclean's dergisinin October 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
So You've Been Hacked - A new generation of ultra-sophisticated cybercriminals are targeting governments, corporations, hospitals and libraries and laying bare how ill-equipped Canada is to fight back
A new generation of ultra-sophisticated cybercriminals are targeting governments, corporations, hospitals and libraries and laying bare how ill-equipped Canada is to fight back.On a July morning in 2022, Brad Hynes, the IT manager for the town of St. Mary's in southwestern Ontario, was backing up the town's computer systems when things went haywire. File names became unintelligible strings of characters. Desktop icons went blank. File after file was impossible to open, a string of digital duds. The background wallpaper on Hynes's screen disappeared, replaced by the red-and-black logo of a Russian ransomware gang called LockBit. A line of all-caps text appeared: All your important files are stolen and encrypted!
Bill of Health - I spent years with excruciating hip pain, languishing in Canada's health-care queue. I finally paid for private surgery-in Lithuania.
My hip pain started around 2015, when I was in my mid-30s. It began as stiffness, then the odd pinch or tweak. I live with my wife, Barbara, and our three kids on an acreage in Sturgeon County, Alberta, where we raise a handful of cows and some chickens. Our lives are very active. I'm also a maintenance supervisor at a nearby provincial park. That's a physical job, too-overseeing buildings, outhouses and campsites. I'm not exactly used to sitting still, so when my hip started to hurt, I pushed through it. I figured it was something minor and did some extra stretches. Instead, it got worse.
Green Scene - Montreal's Théâtre de Verdure stages plays and musical performances against a naturally beautiful backdrop
Théâtre de Verdure is a setting straight out of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: a thespian's paradise in the middle of a lush woodland. Since 1956, the open-air stage has occupied an island in the middle of Montreal's Parc La Fontaine, exposing park-goers to regular, accessible (read: free) and dazzling productions.
Log Off To Find Love - Apps have gamified meeting and mating-and affected our social skills for the worse. The real future of dating is offline.
In 2017, after being single for a few years, I wanted to get back into the dating game. I was newly sober at the time, so I wasn’t super-confident about venturing into my local bar scene in London, Ontario. Instead, I leapt into the world of digital dating via Bumble, which, back then, required women to send the first message. I thought, That’s feminist. I’m a feminist. Let’s try it! My first few months online provided me with an emotionally exhausting education.
"I escaped Gaza and sent my family to Egypt. Now, my goal is to reunite with them in Canada."
Bombs destroyed my neighbourhood and killed my loved ones. I hope my family and I can find refuge in Quebec.
TIDAL WAVE
Susan Lapides chronicles her family's summers in a tiny New Brunswick fishing town
THE NORTHERN FRONT
In Ontario's hinterlands, a battle is brewing between First Nations, prospectors and the provincial government over a multi-billion-dollar motherlode of metals. Inside the fight for the Ring of Fire.
THE CULTURE WAR IN THE CLASSROOM
Several provincial governments now mandate parental consent for kids to change pronouns in Schools. Who gets to decide a child's gender?
THE JACKPOT GENERATION
Canada is in the midst of the greatest wealth transfer of all time, as some $1 trillion passes from boomers to their millennial kids. How an inheritance-based economy will transform the country.
My Child-Free Choice
For a long time, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to become a parent. The climate crisis clinched my decision.
