Introductions - Kelly (she/her)

Hello, my name is Kelly.

I was lucky enough to have been assigned the name Kelly Schwab at birth in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Unfortunately, although the name fits my female gender perfectly, I was not given the gender assignment to match at the time. This was lost on me until about the age of four when it began to dawn on me that things were not the way they were supposed to be. 

 

Image by _Alicja_ from Pixabay 

In those early years, the world was very different in regards to being transgender. I was bullied in school for not conforming to the social standards of my assigned male gender and have struggled with it all my life. I did my best to fill the expectations of all those around me and be what they wanted me to be, but it was constantly a burden I carried in secret.

 

I am a huge Apple nerd; my first earrings were of the Apple Logo. After attending Sheridan College for graphic design, I sold Apple computers and trained designers on graphic design equipment. After spending time as a Systems Manager at a large design company, I headed off to start my own business in 2001, helping others to use Apple equipment effectively in their businesses, eventually developing that into a Media production business in 2009.

 

I married in 1985 and my wife and I built a life together, raising six children. All this time, being transgender never left me, and the pressure of denying and suppressing who I was continued to grow until I became suicidal and was clinically diagnosed with depression in 2010. On top of that, I became ill in 2016 with cancer, only adding more weight to my already difficult burden. But I am a survivor and eventually I beat the cancer. Unfortunately the gender issues continued to cause me difficulties and eventually resulted in the breakup of my marriage in 2019.

 

While recovering from the breakup and living with my parents for two years, I came to terms with my trans identity, and have begun to find peace about it. By the fall of 2020 I reached a point where I decided to transition full time. I found my own place to live and began HRT treatment, which was not well accepted by my parents initially.

 

Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay 

Since then, though I have lost many friends and even some family members who choose not to understand, I have found many new friends who can accept me for who I am, and support me, along with an incredibly loving brother who instantly accepted my transition.

 

Although I am still a "baby Trans" in many ways, I am finding that the community has been amazingly supportive and I want to give back. I am excited about the Trans Canada Project, and believe my background in Graphic Design and my organizational skills will help to make it a success. I look forward to telling the stories of Trans people from across our country so that others like myself can see that there are many more out there like us - living their lives, authentically and happy.

 

This is my life, and this is my story.

 

Hugs,

Kelly

What is the Trans Canada Project?

The Trans Canada Project was created as a voice to tell the stories of queer individuals across Canada, particularly stories from the Trans and Non-binary communities. We hope that by doing so, this otherwise misunderstood and misrepresented group of people will be seen as what we truly are - real people with real lives, just like everyone else. These are our lives and these are our stories.

For safety reasons many have remained hidden, tucked away, "stealth", fearful of what it might mean for the straight majority to see us, and because of that, much of the world does not really know who we are. We hope to change that.

As a seed idea, created by two relatively "young" trans individuals, the concept was birthed from our own journeys. Having struggled with what other people told us about the LGBTQ community, we denied our true identities, and although we have both led productive lives and have much to be proud of, we cannot help but wonder what our lives would have been like if our whole selves had been truly known.

As we tell the stories of others like us in the Trans community, we hope that those stories will be an encouragement to those who are just finding themselves and help them find the courage to stand up and be counted as who they really are, filled with hope that their future can be bright. We also hope that cis readers, listeners and viewers will begin to understand what it is like to be Trans, that we are real people, raising families, holding jobs and paying mortgages, and facing challenges just like everyone else.  

Join us on our journey as we discover each other together. We are happy to have you follow along. And if you would like to help us on our journey, we would love to hear from you! We can always use the help!

Follow us on our blog here to find out what we are up to next.

Contact us: contact@transcanadaproject.ca

or become a patron.

https://www.patreon.com/transcanadaproject

Introductions - Cary (they/them)

Hello! My name is Cary.

Image by lisa runnels from Pixabay 

I didn't always go by the name Cary. Not that my original name was horrible, just that because I am Trans (Trans* Non-Binary - they/them) it didn't really fit. I needed a name that was more neutral and fit better who I am. So here I am. Cary.

I am still on a journey of discovery of what that really means, and wow, has it been a journey. One that is not complete yet, and likely will never be. 

I was born in the mid 60's, growing up in a time and in a community that didn't understand what it meant to be queer. That community was (and still is to a large extent) hostile toward the very idea of being queer. That community taught me things that I have had to unlearn so that I could accept myself and who I am. So much so that I have lived my life the way I was told to, rather than a way that honoured who I really was. Underlying a generally positive, happy exterior, lay a piece of me locked away, ridiculed and beaten down. 

Occasionally that part of me would escape and try to express itself, but humiliation and hate were not far behind. Not having had the chance to mature, that feminine part did not understand itself well enough to assert itself and was quickly corralled back into it's cell of shame.

I have always been a person of faith, and about three years ago, at one of those moments where all of me was struggling to know what to do with that secluded little femme, I felt God's grace on my life telling me that they loved me and that the part of me I had tried to rid myself of was OK. In fact, God loved that part of me just as much as the rest. From that moment on, I began to let the queer part of me out more and more and as I have, I have come to understand that this part of me so long reviled is actually one of the most beautiful parts of who I am.

My life has not been a bad one. In fact, things have turned out pretty well, in spite of the conflict going on within me. I am now the proud parent to four children - three of them biological, and have a wonderful partner who is doing their best to learn to understand me. My journey has taken me through many experiences and careers that have also informed who I am as a person and have form my identity as much as the queerness I now claim proudly. I have been a church pastor, a network administrator, and now a photographer. I have enjoyed all three and although they may seem a very eclectic mix, they actually blend nicely. As a pastor, I learned to be and share with others. In IT, I learned skills useful to a digital world. And as a photographer, I have developed my creativity and means to express it.

Image by Dariusz Sankowski from Pixabay 

As the originator of the idea of the Trans Canada Project, I am proud to be a part of what it is becoming, and look forward to applying all of who I am to telling the stories of other queer folk who just want to be themselves. Much of the world still does not know who we are. We are still separate and alien to their experiences, and I hope that telling our stories will show that we too are human. Real people with real lives. 

I look forward to working with other queer, trans and non-binary people as we share our stories with each other and with the world at large.

This is my life, and this is my story.

Cary