VANCOUVER—A group of transgender youths are proving that you can’t be too young to be involved in politics and get action as they’ve lobbied provincial ministers and managed to get a private member’s bill introduced in the B.C. Legislature.

The teenagers’ priorities have been updating health care, education and privacy legislation to prevent future tough experiences they’ve faced.

Sixteen-year-old Alex Bradley said he once had a teacher out him as trans to other staff at school. He also said he hasn’t been getting the necessary medical guidance he needs in his gender transition.

These difficulties ignited him to fight for change, something he thinks all trans youth can do.

“Reach out, get involved in the community, it’s more than likely that these people will have similar experiences to you,” he said. “I met a lot of people who’ve had bad experiences with the health system, and I thought I was the only one.”

Bradley lives in Victoria and is part of a project called the Trans Tipping Point, which is sponsored by researchers at the University of Victoria.

Lindsay Herriot, an adjunct professor of education, and a handful of other adults, many of them trans, have supported six teens in scheduling meetings with provincial ministers, writing agendas and documents for the meetings, and following up afterwards.

Bradley helped draft a list of changes to health care policies to ensure other trans youth don’t slip through the cracks, which he presented to Minister of Children and Family Development Katrine Conroy. He also wrote suggestions on how schools could protect the privacy and confidentiality of youth, so others don’t have to go through the pain of being outed as he was, and presented it to Education Minister Rob Fleming.

Speaking to StarMetro after their meeting in March, Fleming said he was impressed by the “very articulate, passionate kids.”

He said hearing from the youth helped him understand how the province’s SOGI — sexual orientation and gender identity — policies are playing out in schools.

“We have a requirement that every school board and independent school have codes of conduct in place and anti-bullying policies that are SOGI inclusive and today was a chance to just get personal stories from students as well as a lot of great research they’ve compiled,” he said.

Fleming didn’t commit to proposing specific legislation but told StarMetro he would look into the possibility of making it mandatory for school district superintendents to learn about gender identity, as suggested by one of the teens during the meeting.

Astrid Neilson-Miller, 14, who is gender-fluid and also involved with the Trans Tipping Point, has been studying B.C. laws and rewriting them to make them trans-inclusive.

In preparation for the group’s meeting with Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver, Neilson-Miller stayed up late the night before and went through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection Amendment Act.

“I’m a really big fan of writing and it turns out that ministry documents and stuff, they’re not that dull,” she said with a laugh. “So I read through the entirety of both of those acts as well as the Human Rights Act, and was like, ‘you know, I think I can do something about this ... I’m going to write down all of the stuff that needs changing.’”

She suggested changes to the acts that would ensure a person’s gender identity can’t be revealed to members of the public when releasing documents as part of a Freedom of Information request. It would also update legislation to replace references of “he/she” with the gender neutral pronoun “they.”

Weaver was impressed by Neilson-Miller’s edits. After meeting with the youths, he and a colleague pored over the suggestions, and added a few of their own.

“I looked at it and I thought, yes it’s absolutely brilliant, you’re absolutely right, I agree with everything you’ve done here,” Weaver told StarMetro.

On March 15, Weaver brought the suggestions forward in a private member’s bill. Bradley and Neilson were at the legislature when Weaver introduced the bill, and remain hopeful that it will pass.

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“I’ve always been involved in leadership groups, but I’ve never actually seen change happen” through legislative processes, Neilson-Miller said. Through the experience, “you feel heard, you feel like adults, which is so amazing, because usually you’re passed over.”

Their mentor, Herriot, is inspired by their success, but said it’s important to manage expectations.

“Their voice does matter, it’s serious, it should be listened to,” she said. However, “that doesn’t mean they get everything they want, because that’s also not democracy.”

Tessa Vikander is a Vancouver-based reporter covering identity and inequality. Follow her on Twitter: @tessavikander

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