OTTAWA – With New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Alberta having passed what many consider to be virulently-transphobic laws forcing Trans children to be addressed by their deadnames rather than the monikers they prefer, some Trans children of colour are finding themselves less triggered by the action than their White counterparts, due to their teachers already addressing them by another person’s name on a regular basis.
Professor of Sociology at Mount Allison Gurdeep Sandhu explained the phenomenon. “Part of the shared experience of growing up of South Asian, East Asian, African, Indigenous, and Other descent in Canada is the frequency with which people address you by the name of someone else of South Asian, East Asian, African, Indigenous, or Other descent. Sometimes it’s by accident, other times they straight up think you’re that person. Either way, it’s fucking annoying”.
He continues “What results is that many children of colour develop a kind of enhanced immunity due to the gross dehumanisation of forced-deadnaming as a result of years of micro-dosing on constant reminders that you’re already ‘different’ and may never be truly accepted in the only home you’ve ever known”.
Many Trans students have confirmed Mr. Sandhu’s assertion. “When I first heard they were going to force us to be deadnamed, I was pretty upset,” explained Ghanian-Canadian Sean Addy of Lethbridge. “But then I remembered that Mrs. Clark always calls me by my friend Kelly’s name all the time, anyway, so, I figured I at least had a leg up on preparation”.
Cathy Liu, a Trans girl from Fredericton says that, in the past, such ethno-misnaming has occasionally been a positive experience. “In my case, one of my regular other-Asian-kid-in-grade-four names actually belongs to a cis girl so, even before I transitioned, it was actually weirdly kind of nice when they’d do it”.
In an effort to help their Europe-descended counterparts manage many Visible Minority Trans Canadans are offering experience based suggestions on how to deal with this forced-abuse. Priya Subramanian of Saskatoon offers “You can have a little fun with it. My personal favourite is to let my teacher call me that wrong name multiple times without answering to the point where they get really frustrated and then say ‘are you talking to me?’. You also can’t go wrong with calmly looking at your fingernails while casually saying ‘That is not my name’, followed by a clear eye-roll”.
“Bonus points if there’s another kid in the class it happens to, as well, and you two make a big show of locking eyes and laughing”. But, Priya does add one caveat “Just don’t respond by addressing them by the name of a different White teacher, or you’ll get in trouble because, apparently, that’s ‘disrespectful'”.
Asked for further comment, Mr. Sandhu had one brief note to add. “Just remember, it’s our differences that make us special. Being Trans isn’t just ‘okay’. It’s genuinely great. But it’s even better to be White”.
