Lulu’s second film, As the Moment Passes, is now up. In it, Lulu is up front and clear about where is she coming from and where she wants to be headed: she has struggled with addiction and was homeless for a period; at the time of filming this latest video, she was clean 11 months, had an apartment and was back in school.
Her path hasn’t been an easy one, as her latest piece shows her struggle to find community and support as she moved off drugs and dealt with her HIV-positive status. Lulu is from the Nisga’a First Nation now living in Vancouver, and is also transgender; as she related in her previous film, Lulu had just begun hormone therapy as Playing It Safe began.
Her route, like each of us, is a personal one. But she also faces a shared reality with many trans people, who can face stigmatisation that often leads to isolation, substance abuse, depression, and transphobic harassment and/or violence. This is particularly clear among youth. A recent study by Egale Canada found that, at school:
- Nine out of ten transgender students were verbally harassed, and almost two in five reported being physically harassed, because of their expression of gender.
- Three-quarters of LGBTQ students and 95% of transgender students felt unsafe at school, compared to one-fifth of straight students.
- Transgender students (over a third) were twice as likely as LGB students to strongly agree that they sometimes feel very depressed about their school that they do not belong there, and four times as likely as straight students.
Outside of school, trans-phobia and related violence are as great a concern. Nov. 20th is the annual Transgender Day of Rememberance for victims of transphobic violence, which is still rarely discussed. Numbers are hard to come by in Canada because hate crime studies ask for sexual orientation or gender, but do not specifically explore transphobic related violence. And to date only the Northwest Territories explicitly lists gender identity in their charter of rights. A recent report, though, warns violence against transpeople around the world may be on the rise.
This violence and stigmatisation has clear impacts, putting transpeople at greater risks in other areas. One study (PDF) found 18 per cent of trans youth in Chicago were homeless. An article in the Spring 2008 issue of The Positive Side found there’s growing recoginition and resources of transgendered people dealing with HIV positive status and AIDS. The piece presents an extensive list of resources across the country, including many for trans youth like Vancouver’s The Centre, AlbertaTrans.org, Toronto’s 519 Church Stree Community Centre, Montreal’s Project 10 and Halifax’s The Youth Project.
Lulu has found her own support through YouthCo in Vancouver, and is now studying to upgrade her coursework so she can become a Pharmaceutical Technician. You can watch all of Lulu’s films here.
