Halfway through Grade 9, Jesse Thompson moved to a new school in a new city and faced a slew of disorienting new problems: how to make friends, how to succeed in school, how to fit in.

It was stressful — but it was also a welcome fresh start. Thompson, who is trans, was born a girl but had transitioned to a boy. No one from his new school or community in Oshawa would know him as anything other than a sports-loving teenaged guy.

Eager to find a sense of belonging, Thompson signed on to play hockey, his longtime safe haven.

“Hockey for me was a way to escape what was actually going on — school, personal stuff,” Thompson, now 19, told the Star in an interview Wednesday. “Then that started causing me more problems, too.”

What began as his amateur hockey league’s staunch refusal to let Thompson change in the boys’ room prompted a complaint to Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal to challenge long-held dressing-room policies within Ontario’s minor hockey league — rules Thompson says ultimately outed him to his teammates and exposed him to harassment.

Thompson’s complaint culminated this week in the Ontario branches of Hockey Canada posting transgender-inclusive policies for the upcoming hockey season, including a rule stating players identifying as trans can use the dressing room corresponding to their gender identity.

“I’m feeling really good,” said Thompson. “It’s going to take a while to see that change is actually happening, but eventually it’s going to get to the point that transgendered kids are going to be playing sports more, because a lot of us quit because we start to feel uncomfortable and not accepted anymore.”

Hockey Canada’s inclusive policies also include ensuring trans players be addressed by their preferred pronoun and name, and that they have the confidentiality of their transgender status respected.

Hockey Canada’s Ontario members have also committed to educate its more than 30,000 coaches and trainers on transgender inclusiveness by 2017.

The changes come as a result of a 2013 complaint Thompson filed against Hockey Canada, alleging discrimination based on gender identity. At the time, Hockey Canada had a dressing room policy requiring male and female players 11 and older to change in separate rooms. The policy was based on anatomical sex, not gender identity.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission intervened on the case, which resulted in a settlement in 2014. It took until this year for new policies to be developed and implemented.

By the time the complaint was filed, it was already too late for Thompson; noticing Thompson never changed in the boys’ dressing room, Thompson says his teammates realized he was different.

“I wanted to quit because everyone thought of me as the little sister of the team, because they knew I was a girl because I wasn’t allowed to change with them. I didn’t want to play anymore.”

Pushed out of frustration to lodge the human rights complaint, Thompson initially felt nervous about putting his name front and centre on the issue.

“I didn’t want people to think about me being transgendered, I just wanted to be Jesse the guy. But then I realized I had to let people know that someone was standing up for them,” he said.

Renu Mandhane, chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, praised Thompson for being “extraordinarily courageous” in taking up the fight.

“He took an experience that I think at the time was quite upsetting to him, and saw that it could really be something that could really make a change for the next generation of hockey players.”

For children or teenagers only just discovering their identities, she said, it’s especially important that institutions such as schools or sports teams have inclusive policies.

“Sports can be a real driver for inclusion, it can be a moment where other kids meet a trans kid or meet somebody who may be different from them and we don’t want there to be barriers to that happening,” she said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The policies have yet to be adopted by Hockey Canada’s other provincial branches. Both Mandhane and Thompson hope there will be a domino effect, and that other sporting associations, clubs and teams will follow suit.

With files from the Canadian Press