Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Trans 101 series! All right today, I'm talking to you about Gatekeeping
This is the 31st video in a row that I posted for a Trans 101
I'm super excited to finish it and to talk to you about this and
This Topic was actually supposed to be how to be a good ally
honestly
and I decided to change it to gatekeeping because why didn't I think about this sooner gatekeeping is so important and so important for
Allies and people who are supporting acquaintances, family, friends, even trans people to understand?
What gatekeeping is and how it keeps up and prevents us from?
Transitioning and being ourselves so how to be a good ally I've made a video in the past
I'll put that link in the description below
It is the video that I will explore later on in a different trans on one one on one series
but for now let's focus on this video and let's talk a little about gatekeeping. So gatekeeping in the trans community is a
huge
Huge issue, all right, and if you don't know what I'm talking about
It is basically the people who have authority over our transitions and our bodies
So the doctors and therapists the surgeons and the social workers anyone really who?
even parents can be gatekeepers where
They have power over you and your transition
So an example that I will give you all right when I was eighteen I knew I was trans
I want the transition it's been a while. I went to a program at the hospital Montreal to transition
I had an interview with a panel of five or so doctors and who assessed me and
Assessed my life, and how I talked about being trans
They then came to the conclusion that because I said that I feel like I am 70% male and the rest
I don't know
I am not trans enough all right, and they told me that I will not be able to transition in this program
And I won't be able to get into this program because I'm not trans enough
These are gatekeepers
All right
These are the people who tell you that you're not trans even if you tell them that you're trans and you're ready to transition
I wanted this, I wanted therapy
I wanted to talk to someone about being trans
and I wanted to eventually go on a hormone these are the people who prevented me from doing that and
It is a big problem because none of them are trans none of them
Know the trans experience and know what it's like to have someone say hey, you're not trans enough
I'm not going to let you transition this happens a lot in this community and can happen if you're in theapy a good therapist
You're having a good time. You're like. You know what I'm ready to start hormones
Can you please give me a letter stating that I have Gender dysphoria?
And that testosterone is the next level in my transition and in order for me to get testosterone well
Some therapists will say no, I don't do that or no. I don't do that because of religious or
Emotional, or personal views or no I don't know enough about that to do it .Some of these surgeons
Actually say on their website and tell you that they are trans friendly
being trans friendly and then saying I'm not going to give you a letter or hormones or surgery is not being trans friendly your
Gatekeeper and that sucks.
I believe it is also a method of gatekeeping the fact that you absolutely need a therapist letter in order to get hormones
There are programs and different places and centers in the world now
especially in America and Canada where you go into the office you talk to a doctor and
You talk about the risks of testosterone and the benefits of testosterone the changes of the testosterone
And you kind of talk about why you want testosterone and then they give you a form you sign it
And then they give you your hormones, and if you sign it, they usually give it to you. This is not gatekeeping
It's fantastic
And it's really great. The issue is that for example in montreal the wait list is two years to get
This type of hormone without a therapist letter very problematic because what are you going to do?
What are you going to do? You have to wait on this list and this is gatekeeping and I know that
It's not anyone's fault that there's a two-year waiting list, but really why is there two-year waiting list? Why is there no?
additional funding from the government of Quebec to fund other
Doctors and other programs that would also offer this so Quebec has a lot of gatekeeping okay, and I know they come back
so that's why I'm using this as an example in the past you needed to have bottom surgery or a
Hysterectomy in order to change your gender marker that is gatekeeping and that is a huge problem
I actually was able to convince the government to change my gender marker to male after only having top surgery
I don't know how I did it
But I managed to do it thankfully the laws change you no longer need any type of surgery to change your gender marker
But that form of gatekeeping
Isolated a lot of trans people because they were not able to either
Go out of the country to their papers weren't changed or applied to jobs
Or do anything because their even go to the doctor because they'd rather
Deal with the illness that they have and some people do decide to just deal with it and some die
because they don't want to deal with the humiliation, and the
attitude, and the discrimination, that they will and my face it will
might and will face at the hospital or clinic because they're you know gender marker said female or male and they don't present that way and
Everything is just confusing. Now the other issue with gatekeeping in Quebec that is happening right now
is that trans migrants who come here and are either refugees or
immigrated here are not able to change their name or gender marker you have to be a citizen of or a
Resident of Quebec in order to do that every other province in Canada lets you do it except Quebec
And this is like a running joke if you're from Quebec or like even from Canada and you notice what's going on here
All the contests that I've ever seen in my entire life especially when I was younger is like
Oh my God that looks so cool
I'm going to enter it's like LA-LA-LA-LA
And then the last little line of the rule except Quebec which literally applies to these trans rights.
Except Quebec, Quebec has this rule that you are not able to do that, and that is just a huge form of gatekeeping. Now
gatekeeping can also take form in little things where your parents?
Refuse to let you transition
and they're like I'm going to pay for your education if you don't transition. That is abusive and manipulative and some people choose to
completely you know disassociate themselves and
And go away from their parents, and you know transition themselves and other people
Have such a tie with their parents
And they feel guilty that they will stay and they will get their education paid for and not transition.
And that is gatekeeping. Your parents your own blood is gatekeeping you and that is just so
problematic and so hard to deal with. Anyway these are just examples of
Gatekeeping not the best video to end this series with I know kind of sad.
But I think that I want to open up this discussion to talk about what can we do to,
To not be so gatekept? Because this is our life. This is not their life, right?
We know what we want for our own bodies. Yeah, we should go to therapy. We should like talk about our life
It shouldn't have to be mandatory
We should be able to choose
That we want therapy and the reason ,why we want therapy, and the reason why we want hormones is and the reason why we want
Surgery we know it inside if you know that you're ready you know that you're ready
you should be able to go and get it another form of gatekeeping by the way is money, because transition is really expensive and
Another issue of gatekeeping is race and ethnicity. We can't I cannot talk about it yet, and white I'm privileged
I'm able to afford transitioning because I was able to
You know put on my credit card and raise money, but that's me all right. There's also the issue of race and ethnicity
Within this community and the gatekeeping that could also happen there within their families and within the medical providers and stuff like that
where it can even be worse than the things that I have experienced, and that is horrible
and it's it's
It's something that is not talked about enough in this community and as somebody who has you know all this privilege
I want to make sure to talk about the voices that aren't heard enough in this community so talking about race and ethnicities and different
Minorities in this community is super super important, and I don't know the experience. I can't talk about this experience
I'm not every trans person. I am not black obviously I can talk about the experiences of like a black trans man
I can't do that
But I can say that I have seen some really horrible things happen in this community regarding gatekeeping to people who are
people of color in this community
and it's just
The trans people of colour and it's just absolutely horrible and something needs to be done
And we need to do something, and I mean I did give the example of trans immigrants in Quebec
And that is a huge issue of trans people of color being denied a service that everyone else
everyone else
Gets access to so that's a huge problem, and that needs to be talked about as well
Oh, and of course you can't not about people who are not able body. You can't you can't we have to talk about that because
It that's just that's just it's a huge issue as well and people aren't taken seriously
And it's just so sad especially with people with learning disabilities
There's a big big stigma with you know. We don't believe you because you're not your you know you're not trans
You don't really know what's going on listen to people and they know what they're talking about, and yeah, there are some
Medical conditions that can happen where somebody like oh, I think I'm trans the next day
They're not trans and that can happen yes, but someone is so sure and of telling you. I want to transition
Listen to them that's all that matters. That's all for this video. Thank you so much for joining me
I hope you enjoyed the videos in this series and
Playlist if you have any questions any suggestions on other types of Trans 101 videos that can make please let me know
I look forward to hearing from you and
Yeah, let's talk about all the things that I talked about in this video in the description super important to talk about especially this. Have
A great day have a great week, and thank you so much for joining me how great day again. I love you. Okay, whatever bye!