Humans of USyd: growing up transgender

James* is a USyd student and transgender man who provided the following statement in response to Mark Latham’s Parental Rights Bill. A full explainer of the bill can be found here.

“Mark Latham’s proposed ban of the discussion and affirmation of transgender children in schools would have heartbreaking consequences for transgender people and their communities. Many people will be familiar with statistics concerning the mental wellbeing of transgender people, so I won’t reiterate those. Instead, I’m going to tell you a story.

I was thirteen when I learned what it meant to be transgender, and the more I found out, the more people’s stories I read, the more their experiences resonated with me. It would take me another four years to settle into my identity as a transgender man, but it was clear that I was not cisgender. I knew that my parents would not support me if I came out, so I stayed closeted. I told only my school counsellor and a close friend what I was experiencing. My secret weighed me down, and I fell into the depths of depression. I was fourteen when I attempted suicide for the first time.

Following my suicide attempt, my parents and a couple of my teachers learned that I was trans, and a year later, I came out to the rest of the school. I was right in my belief that my parents would not affirm my gender, but I never could have imagined the amount of support I received from my teachers. Although I continued to struggle with mental health, I knew that while I was at school, my gender and my name would be respected.

Without that support, I’m not confident that I’d be alive today to write this. If I’d been turned away by my counsellor, if my teachers had been required to continue calling me by my birth name, my depression would have gotten worse, not better. I likely would have stopped attending school, and I definitely wouldn’t be pursuing a career in teaching myself.

If Latham’s bill passes, I earnestly believe that he will have the blood of transgender children on his hands. He will also instil a strong anti-trans bias in cisgender children, who will go on to perpetuate discrimination and violence later in their lives. For the safety of the transgender community in NSW and Australia, transgender children must be free to transition at school and have their identities affirmed and respected by their communities.”

*Name has been changed.