When Taylor Straw was in Grade 7 she wanted to wear a pink T-shirt to school. Her parents warned her it would bring trouble. “I was so blown away. Why would the colour of a shirt make such a difference?” They let her do it anyway, and sure enough, she faced ridicule by classmates and friends. “I never wore that shirt again,” said Straw, a transgender parent and LGBTQ activist on the Sunshine Coast. She shared her story at the School District No. 46 District Day on Feb. 9.
In high school, it didn’t get better. Straw witnessed another teen get beat up because students thought he was gay. While watching the conflict, “at that moment I said I would never, ever come forward.”
Straw grew up as a boy in the 1980s. In 2015, at the age of 42, she came out as transgender. She told her wife of 14 years and her three children who attend school on the Sunshine Coast. It was a scary process, she said. “I still fear for my children and myself being out in the public.”
Straw wants her children to have “a smoother ride,” and said initiatives like SOGI would have changed the course of her life. “Coming out later in life is harder when you have a marriage and children involved.” She said her transition triggered divorce, even though her ex-wife remains her “top ally and supporter.”
Straw first learned about SOGI on the news, and began independently championing the cause at schools on the Sunshine Coast. Today she co-chairs a trans mentor and support group on the Sunshine Coast as well as the Elphinstone Secondary Gay-Straight Alliance.
“To my eyes it’s simple, the SOGI program, it’s just a little bit of language. Instead of saying ‘good morning, boys and girls,’ say ‘good morning, everyone.’” She said it’s better not to rush programming and instead to allow schools that are naturally taking on trans-positive and LGBTQ initiatives to act as models. “The Sunshine Coast is a great place for this type of program. I think we’re just getting started.”
