Growing up trans. Skye, her transition and the experiences that are transforming her
Skye Cross's testimony given to Zosia Bielski, published on the website of the newspaper The Globe and Mail (Canada) on 16 July 2015, freely translated by Giacomo Tessaro
Raised in poverty with a homeless mother, 18-year-old Skye struggles with the costs of transition, from surgery to laser beard treatment to legally changing her identity. This teenager from Halifax hopes to do social work in the field of addictions and mental health in the future.
In my second year of high school I began experimenting with make-up but I still identified as male because I didn't know anything else. The following year I left school due to bullying and have had several mental health problems since then. I didn't know exactly who I was and it's hard to ask for help when you don't know what you need.
When I left school I came out. The following year I moved to another city and went back to school there, but it didn't go well there either. I was still in an early stage of my transition, I had just started taking hormones and I was very androgynous in appearance. I was teased, my classmates and teachers treated me like a boy, so I dropped out of school again and started working. Soon I will take the GED [series of tests to evaluate the scholastic knowledge of those who do not regularly complete high school and which gives access to the diploma, ed.], it is the best thing to do.
Now I'm stuck because I can't legally change my name yet, here in Nova Scotia you have to be 19 unless you have parental consent, but my dad lives out of the province and won't hear of it.
Technically I never came out to my mother. At a certain point I started wearing makeup and after a while she started giving me makeup as gifts. I changed my name on Facebook and she started calling me Skye too. Until this year we had never talked about it but now she also refers to me as a girl. He talked to my other family members, tried to address their objections. She was very direct and decisive. This is what I want above all: for my mother to defend me.
Trans teenagers need to see themselves represented, points of reference. I would have liked to have them. I went through my transition absolutely blind and it was extremely stressful. With hormones it would have been nice if someone had asked me “Hey, what's going on?”. I was the only trans woman I knew and I had no one to talk to, so I started attending a community here called Progetto Giovani. I'm on the board of directors and they've given me a lot of opportunities. They sent me to Toronto to speak at the national meeting of the Homo-Straight Alliance for a Safe School. I spoke at the Human Rights Commission and in many schools in the province. It's the thing that changed me the most as a person.
Today I have much more confidence in my body; it's certainly not perfect, but it's not perfect for anyone.
Original text: Growing up trans: Six teens open up about discovering who they really are. Skye Cross
