Death By Love (WattPride)

Help Will Come To Those Who Ask

Slam

The sound of the locker door closing echoed up and down the hall, causing a few curious students to turn their heads toward the source of the noise.

Upon seeing that it was just ‘the Colemann kid’, most merely rolled their eyes and resumed what they were doing.

For them it was just another day at school, and unfortunately, it was the same for him.

His name was Trent. It was his chosen name; the one he signed documents with, the one that showed up on the school register. But still his given name came back to haunt him. It was like a leech; you try as hard as you can to pull it off, only to find that when you do, you’ve left the teeth.

It didn’t help that the kids at his school had found out. They took it upon themselves to make Trent’s life hell and his old name was their favourite ammo.

Take that morning for example. Trent had walked into the school, receiving the usual jeers and catcalls. He kept his head down and continued toward his locker, when the insults turned into snickers. Taking no notice of this, Trent strode up to the lock and put in his combination, swinging it open. He was met with a pile of papers cascaded out onto the floor. Bending down, the boy picked up a few and unfolded them. Hate notes. All of them. Addressed to an Erica Colemann.

This was when Trent had slammed his locker shut, drawing the curious stares.

You see, Trent wasn’t born a boy. His given name had been Erica. He had always known that something was off about him, that something wasn’t quite right. It took him until he was eleven to figure out what that was. He was a boy, in a girl’s body. This realization came with absolute certainty, and he had gone to see a specialist as soon as he could. They had gone through the preliminaries fast and soon Trent began his transition. This of course, wasn’t taken well at his school, so he was homeschooled until he looked more like a boy on the outside. Just before his grade nine year, his family had moved so that he could start with a whole new peer group, one that didn’t know his secret.  

He didn’t know how everyone had found out, nor did he want to, but they did, and they didn’t like it. They saw him as a hideous thing, something that wasn’t human, and as such, wasn’t to be treated like one. Trent actually had to go home to use the washroom as he felt uncomfortable using either one at school. Though he was mentally a boy, he was still physically a girl, and the other kids made sure that he never forgot it. The girls insulted him, the boys beat him, and try as he might, he couldn’t always hold in the tears, which only led to more insults.

This morning was going to be different however. As Trent sat in front of his locker, a teacher happened upon him. Concerned, she asked him if he was alright, to which he replied with a faint ‘no’.

Over the course of the day, Trent spoke with the principal and his guidance councillor, all mediated by the teacher who had first noticed him.

He told them about how he was being treated, about the difficulties and struggles he underwent on a daily basis.

By the end of the day, Trent was able to see a brighter future both for himself and for any other, not only transgender individuals, but any of the other identities that the school may see. The principal had decided that the school would start a GSA or Gay-Straight Alliance, which was a club where anyone in the LGBT community could meet with other people like themselves and allies, straight individuals who were LGBT positive. It would be a safe space where they could be themselves and not worry about being judged. He had also made a plan to put in gender-neutral washrooms, which were a way that Trent could get around his washroom problem as anyone could use them.

One of the things that Trent realized as he stared out of the window of his mom’s car on the way home was that it was okay to ask for help and that, more often than not, it will be given. So when His mom asked him how his day had gone, Trent smiled and said, truthfully for the first time in a long time, ‘Great’.