CALGARY—Alberta’s trans youth aren’t hiding anymore.

That’s the loud-and-clear message founders of the Skipping Stone Foundation are hoping the public can come away with as they launch the second-annual Trans Youth Awareness week.

As the foundation grows its founders believe they’ve helped change the conversation about trans youth and the trans community’s issues with the health and education systems.

In an interview, co-founder Lindsay Peace said the foundation is fighting less and doing more as it solidifies its place in provincial discussions.

Caden Croucher, 18, the foundation’s first intern, said trans youth like himself can often feel alone and without support systems. He moved to Calgary days before the awareness week launched and quickly found community and support he couldn’t find in Fort McMurray.

“It’s an opportunity to come together and feel included … To connect with others who are going through similar experiences is liberating,” Croucher said. “Just having a week dedicated to that is a really good thing.”

Peace said when people saw her son Ace, their perception about trans people changed, and that was part of what spurred launch of the foundation and the inaugural Trans Youth Awareness Week.

“When it’s a kid and people see this is real, and this is who we’re talking about, it’s super different,” she said. “That’s how we’ve seen the change.”

Peace said the movement and conversation have grown so much since the foundation’s first year.

The foundation has connected with families and kids in Taber, Medicine Hat, Fort McMurray; they’ve connected with doctors and educators and are doing gender diversity training with groups like the YWCA Calgary and Alberta’s teachers’ association.

“There’s so much conversation just in the last year, I went to the college of physicians and surgeons, and I sat in the room while they (spoke) about trans health care, and those conversations weren’t happening before,” Peace said.

She said the foundation is really figuring out and navigating the pathways in the medical system and is turning its focus to helping the groups they approach and work with their existing resources.

This year, the awareness week is a celebration for youth and a unique opportunity to further the conversation about gender diversity in the education system, queer faith and Alberta’s healthcare system.

Croucher said more needs to be done to make healthcare accessible to the trans community.

“It’s not where it should be and healthcare is just really inaccessible for us,” he said. “It’s hard being a trans young adult, it’s difficult, but I think we’re slowly getting there.”

Transitioning medically in Alberta still has barriers and can be a lengthy process with long waiting lists. The steps include being assessed by a Gender Specialist of which the province only has a handful. And final-stage gender reassignment surgeries are performed in Montreal.

There are options to support Albertans who wish to transition.

In 2014, The Metta Clinic in Calgary was launched as a pilot program to give trans youth-targeted healthcare. The clinic offers access to mental health and peer support services along with hormone replacement therapy and puberty suppressing drugs. But it was only able to operate one day a month due to funding. According to Skipping Stone, the waiting list was more than three years in 2017.

Now, a modest increase in funding means the clinic has more hours but is still slammed with a multi-year waiting list.

In February 2018, the University of Alberta launched the Gender Program. It’s being described as a multidisciplinary approach to diagnosing and managing Gender Dysphoria. The program has a psychiatrist, nurse, rotating practicum students, social work and therapist input.

When Bill 24, the Alberta Government’s act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA) was introduced at Legislature in 2017, Peace’s son Ace spoke about why it was important to him, and other trans youth, have unimpeded access to a GSA if they want it.

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And Peace believes despite some bad eggs the provincial conversation is shifting.

“It has to change, it’s not even an option,” Peace said in an interview on Saturday, May 5. “These kids are here, and they’re not hiding anymore.”

Trans Youth Awareness Week runs from May 3 until May 12 and more information on specific events can be found on the Skipping Stone Foundation’s website.

Helen Pike is a Calgary-based reporter covering social justice, democracy and immigration. Follow her on Twitter: @Metropike

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