Sawyer Bailly
This past Tuesday, actor Elliot Page shared with the world that he is transgender in a letter posted to his Twitter and Instagram pages. “Hi friends,” he began. “I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life.”
Page has long been an advocate for queer causes. In 2014, he came out as gay in a speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s Time to Thrive conference. “I am standing here today with all of you on the other side of that pain,” he said, after describing the suffering that hiding his sexuality had caused to his spirit, mental health, and relationships. “I am young, yes. But what I have learned is that love, the beauty of it, the joy of it and the pain of it, is the most incredible gift to give and to receive as a human being. And we deserve to experience love fully, equally, without shame and without compromise” (Human Rights Campaign, 2014).
Like me, Page is from Halifax, Nova Scotia. In Halifax, we are known for our donairs, our waterfront, and our friendly faces. We’re known for our seafood, our folk music, and our tendency to congregate in the kitchen during parties (any Maritimer reading this will understand). We are not, however, particularly known for our representation in Hollywood. When we hear the mention of our city in television or movies, we go berserk (hearing Tommy from the series Peaky Blinders mention that he was shipping his rum to Halifax was a big moment for me). Celebrities hailing from Halifax are few and far between.
Elliot Page is our star. His breakthrough performance in Jason Reitman’s Juno (2007) struck a chord with audiences around the world, inciting laughter and tears alike. “There’s a special kick that comes in finding a new star… Page (Hard Candy) has the rare knack of being brutal and funny simultaneously,” said Rolling Stone in its 4.5/5 star review of the film, applauding Page for the wit and emotion that he brought to the role. When I watched Juno as a teenager, I was excited knowing that the actor I saw onscreen, acting alongside Michael Cera and Jason Bateman (who I’ve always loved), was from the same special little province as me. In fact, Page attended my middle school, which made him even more of a household name in my little teenage world. When I was in fifth grade, I watched him appear in the 1999 CBC Television series Pit Pony, years before Juno. In seventh grade, Page’s Time to Thrive speech played at our annual anti-bullying assembly. This was my first time seeing anyone speak publicly on queer issues. His speech, vulnerable yet strong, moved me, the same way that his letter did when I saw it this Tuesday afternoon.
This week, Page described the joy he feels after coming out as trans as “fragile.” “The truth is, despite feeling profoundly happy right now and knowing how much privilege I carry, I am also scared. I’m scared of invasiveness, the hate, the 'jokes' and of violence,” Page stated. “To be clear. I am not trying to dampen a moment that is joyous and one that I celebrate, but I want to address the full picture. The statistics are staggering. The discrimination towards trans people is rife, insidious and cruel, resulting in horrific consequences.” He went on to note that in 2020 alone there have been 40 murdered transgender people, most of which were Black and Latinx trans women. These statistics are real and devastating. Violence and discrimination against transgender people continue at nearly every level of society today, disproportionately affecting trans BIPOC (black, indigenous and people of colour) women.
Elliot Page’s coming out provides an opportunity for all of us to learn how to support transgender people with love and respect, whether they be celebrities or individuals in our own community. As I was doing my own research into how I could best show my support, I came across the term “deadnaming.” Deadnaming is the act of referring to a transgender person by the pronouns or name that they identified with pre-transition. It attaches a person to a “name, an identity, a place in life that they may have actually felt very uncomfortable occupying for a very long time” and therefore invalidates their true identity (Felton, 2020). “For most trans people, deciding on a new name is a chance to correct the record,” says Gillian Bransetter, co-founder of the Trans Journalists Association. “Elliot is the only expert source on the matter. Every person is the only expert on their gender identity, not doctors, not courts or official documents. It’s a matter of self-identification” (Felton, 2020).
GLAAD, an American non-governmental media monitoring organization that was founded against defamatory coverage of LGBT people, also recommends describing Page as a non-binary, transgender person, as Page uses the pronouns “he/they.” GLAAD wrote: “Both transgender and nonbinary are umbrella terms that describe many different types of experiences. In Page’s case, it can be used like this: Elliot Page describes themselves as transgender and nonbinary, meaning their gender identity is neither man nor woman.” (GLAAD, 2020)
So, lead with love, and listen. “Trust this person to declare who they are,” Branstetter says. “It’s not about second-guessing or skepticism. If your vision of someone in your life requires them to live a lie, you should question your own motives" (Felton, 2020). Gender identity is complex and deeply personal. I invite everyone to take Elliot Page’s coming out as an opportunity to learn. Donate to a trans organization that lifts up trans/queer people of colour in your own community (linked below). Read a book, watch a movie, have these kinds of conversations with your loved ones. Through doing this, we can create inclusive and safe spaces for people of every gender experience.
The visibility that Page has brought to this conversation is important. “The most important thing to takeaway is that the volume and positivity of this discourse is hugely important,” says Samantha Allen, author of “Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States.” “People who are still in the closet are seeing that, noticing it. Seeing so many people loudly and with huge smiles on their faces celebrating Elliot living his authentic self makes a difference for them” (Felton, 2020).
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Sources
G. (2020, December 04). Elliot Page, Oscar-nominated star of Umbrella Academy, speaks out about being transgender. Retrieved December 05, 2020, from https://www.glaad.org/blog/elliot-page-oscar-nominated-star-umbrella-academy-speaks-out-about-being-transgender
Felton, L. (2020, December 03). What Elliot Page's coming out can teach us about supporting transgender people: 'Lead with love'. Retrieved December 05, 2020, from https://www.thelily.com/what-elliot-pages-coming-out-can-teach-us-about-supporting-transgender-people-lead-with-love/
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