money This is what it was like for a trans kid in Leon County Schools before the LGBTQ+ guide
Trish Chanton graduated from Leon High School in 2006, nine years before the district's LGBTQ+ guide and 18 years before Benjamin is expected to walk across the stage with his high school diploma.
Chanton, a trans woman, knew her parents loved her unconditionally and grew up in an LGBTQ accepting household, but it was still hard for her to talk to them about how she felt.
"At the time, I didn’t have a crystalized view of my gender," Chanton, 33, said. "I knew that I didn’t relate to men and my peers. I felt very separate from everyone."
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The flute section in her high school band was her refuge. It was an inclusive group of girls who were fiercely protective of her, she said. It was one of the first times she felt like herself.
Looking back, she said it would have been helpful if an adult had validated her feelings and provided information about gender identity, too.
"Having it be more commonplace in discussion would have saved me a lot of heartache, confusion and self-loathing," she said. "Not having access to it didn’t make me less trans or less queer. I was still all those things, it just took me a lot longer to confront it and stop hating myself for it."
Chanton, who now works for an environmental consulting group in Portland, Oregon, said she was taunted in high school for being different. She was threatened and called slurs. She was never physically hurt, but the emotional trauma carried a lot of weight into her adulthood.
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After high school, Chanton got a BA in biochemistry from Earlham College and a masters degree in biology from Georgia Tech. She came out as a trans woman in 2019.
She worries about children in Leon County Schools, who, like her, had questions, had opinions and had needs.
She hopes the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill fails, so future trans kids can speak openly about who they are and receive the help they need without fear of getting a teacher or school administrator in trouble.
Looking back, she wishes someone had told her it was OK to be her.
Fully accepting her gender identity made her feel like she had something of value to add to the world for the first time.
“You don't need anyone’s permission to exist,” she said. “You have a right to take up space. You have a right to your emotions. You have a right to feel whatever you’re feeling. You have a right to authentically be you. You matter."
Contact Ana Goñi-Lessan at AGoniLessan@tallahassee.com and follow her on Twitter @goni_lessan.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: What it was like for a trans kid in Leon County before the LGBTQ+ guide
