On Saturday, Nov. 22 a group of 10 Jasper teens travelled to Edmonton, to attend the third annual Alberta Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Conference at the University of Alberta.
With keynote speakers such as Const. Tad Milmine and award winning author Ivan Coyote, the conference was an opportunity for students to connect with and learn from GSA’s across Alberta.
Jasper has had a GSA since 2012. It was formed to provide a supportive and inclusive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in town.
One of the main keynote speakers at the conference, Tad Milmine, gave a “Bullying Ends Here” presentation, about his struggles as a child. He told the story of why he started these presentations.
“I am very open when I discuss the challenges I had growing up in a broken home full of addictions, confined to the basement for many years and being bullied all through school,” he states on his website, Bullying Ends Here. “I speak about my dream as a child to become a police officer and how I persevered to achieve that dream.”
Later on in the presentation, Milmine spoke of a boy named Jamie Hubley, a boy who was bullied and eventually committed suicide.
“I share with you what he felt like, how he reacted and exactly what the bullies did.
“I speak about Jamie as though he is still with us and how he was such a positive person. I tell Jamie’s story up to his death on Oct. 15th, 2011.”
With his presentation, Milmine sets out to “not only change lives, but save them.”
The second of the two keynote speakers was Ivan Coyote, an award winning author, who co-wrote the book Gender Failure with musician and writer Rae Spoon. The book is a collection of autobiographical essays, lyrics and images that document both Coyote and Spoon’s “personal journeys from gender failure to gender self-assurance.”
In his keynote address, Coyote talked about his struggle being a trans-gendered youth in the Yukon in the 70s and 80s, and how he and many other people often feel uncomfortable or even unsafe in public or school washrooms.
“Using a public washroom is a very last resort for me,” he writes in his book. “I try to use the wheelchair-accessible, gender-neutral facilities whenever possible, always after a thorough search of the area to make sure no one in an actual wheelchair or with mobility issues is en route. I always hold my breath a little on the way out though, hoping there isn’t an angry person leaning on crutches waiting there when I exit. This has never happened yet, but I still worry.”
Coytote goes on to say how in high schools the most dangerous places for youth are bathrooms and changing rooms.
“It starts very early. I know a little girl, the daughter of a friend, who is a self-identified tomboy. Cowboy boots and caterpillar yellow toy trucks. One time I asked her what her favourite colour was and she told me camouflage.
“She came home last October in tears from her half-day at preschool with soggy pants because the other kids were harassing her when she used the girls’ room at school and the teacher had instructed her to stay out of the boys’ room. She had drunk two glasses of juice at the Halloween party and couldn’t hold her pee any longer. She and her peers were four years old, they knew she was a girl, yet already they felt empowered enough in their own bigotries to police her use of the so-called public washrooms.”
Coyote goes on to talk about the much needed existence of non-gendered bathrooms. It’s an issue that not a lot of people think about, but through his presentation, Coyote had us all agreeing with the logic behind it.
All in all the third annual GSA conference was a touching event for youth and adults.
Gabrielle Guignard
Special to the Fitzhugh
