On November 29, 2021, Bill C-4, a bill to amend the criminal code making it illegal to practice conversion therapy in Canada, was tabled. 

NL’s own Gemma Hickey was invited to Ottawa by the Minister of Justice to witness this pivotal moment in the House of Commons.  

We sit down with Hickey to talk Pride and the advances made towards ending prejudice for those in the LGBTQQIP2SAA community.

 How did it make you feel when you realized real change would be forthcoming?

I never thought I’d live to see this day. My life could’ve ended as a statistic. I attempted suicide as a teenager because I saw a conversion therapist and spent the start of my senior year of high school in hospital recovering. I spoke at the press conference following the tabling of the bill alongside Ministers David Lametti, Marci Ien, Randy Boissonnault, Pascale St-Onge, and Rob Oliphant MP and dedicated my speech to all the members of my community whose lives ended tragically by suicide. 

Following the presser, I met with fellow Newfoundlander and Labradorian Minister Seamus O’Regan to celebrate. 

What exactly is conversion therapy? Can you explain to those who don’t know? 

It’s a pseudo-medical practice of attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity to heterosexual or cisgender. Misleading marketing campaigns have promoted this view for years enabling countless vulnerable youth to be placed in harm’s way. 

Efforts to restrict and ban the practice have recently gained momentum due to the hard work of survivors like myself, who have shared our stories in the hopes that others will be spared. Together we formed a network and created the political will that converted a country. On December 2, 2021, through a rare occurrence of bi-partisan cooperation, conversion therapy became illegal in Canada. A bittersweet victory because of all the causalities my community endured.

It’s Pride season across the country. How far have we come? Are we getting to where we need to be? 

The activist in me was born the day I left that hospital. No one believed me that conversion therapy existed back then. I devoted the next three decades of my life to advocacy co-leading movements that fostered societal recognition, such as same-sex marriage, gender neutral identification, the removal of the gay blood ban, and so on. 

Locally, I became General Director of LBGT-MUN, co-chair of NGALE and chair of Pride until becoming more involved on the national scene as the Presidents of Egale Canada, PFLAG Canada and a founding member of Canadians for Equal Marriage. I’ve witnessed, and been a part of massive societal change, and although we’ve made great strides, we’re not there yet. 

We need accessible healthcare for transgender individuals, improved mental health supports for the LGBTQQIP2SAA community and representation within our education system. Also, if businesses and organizations are celebrating Pride and not updating their forms or computer systems to include gender-neutral options and the honorific Mx., they’re not practicing inclusivity. After I won my fight for gender-neutral identification I wrote airplanes, universities, insurance companies, etc. That fight continues to this day.

In July of 2015 you walked almost 1,000 kilometers across Newfoundland to raise funds and awareness for survivors of religious institutional abuse. The anniversary of your Hope Walk is coming up. Does the journey continue?

The journey never ends. I knew in 2013 when I founded the Pathways Foundation that we had only scratched the surface when it came to this issue. It’s been almost seven years since I ended my walk at the Mount Cashel Memorial in St. John’s. Since that time countless bodies of children have been discovered across the country at the former sites of residential schools and more allegations have surfaced against clergy all over the world. I formed a network with other Canadian survivors called ACTS Canada (Advocates for Clergy Trauma Survivors). 

We’ve been to Rome twice to lobby church officials to release church records, to the United Nations in Geneva to lobby against child torture and launched a national campaign to lobby the church to release the names of the credibly accused. Except for the UN, all other attempts remain futile, forcing survivors to litigate or remain in the shadows.

What is ‘On The Fringe’? can you expand this to fit two lines?

In my day job as Executive Director of Artforce (formerly For The Love Of Learning) I offer support to youth, many of whom are marginalized within society. They struggle with homelessness, addiction, mental health, etc. As an arts-based charity we offer creative projects in film, writing, photography, music, theatre, art, etc. We pair young people up with well-known artists from the community through workshops and mentorship programs and promote their work at festivals, exhibits, on stage or in a publication. On The Fringe is our latest production in partnership with Walsh Productions. It debuted on CBC Here & Now recently and highlights the challenges that sex workers faced during the pandemic. Some of our clients are sex workers and as a result couldn’t apply for government support during Covid-19. 

Do you have any bucket list items left to conquer? 

Always. I’ve got several projects ongoing now. I’m working on my second book and my first feature length documentary film. But I wouldn’t rule out politics or another long walk in my future. 

Every situation, good or bad, is an opportunity. My losses in life have turned me into a winner. 

While many see you as a leader and an advocate for all, do you see yourself as inspirational? 

I don’t really think about how others see me. I only think about how I see myself. When I look in the mirror now, I’m finally happy with the image staring back. I learned how to become the hero of my own story. I may not have faith in the institution of the church anymore, but I have faith in the people around me who inspire me every day. 

Described as “Shakespeare meets slam poetry and the fiddle meets soapbox rant” by its publishing company Breakwater Books, transVersing is possibly the first trans-authored, traditionally published book to come out of Newfoundland and Labrador. 

The collection is timely, as March 31st  was observed as a national Transgender Day of Visibility.

LOCAL TRANS YOUTH

An anthology of work by local trans youth, transVersing was published in late 2018 and features content from Violet Drake, Daze Jeffries, Fionn Shea, Perin Squires, Taylor Stocks and Dane Woodland.

transVersing began as a stage production by Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland and For the Love of Learning. The play premiered in March of 2017, selling out the Barbara Barrett Theatre in St. John’s.

Three of the six authors – Woodland, Drake, and Squires – spoke to The Herald in 2019, nearing the two-year anniversary of the play’s debut. Woodland recalled seeing a call for submissions for the book, but didn’t feel like he had the capacity to be involved.

Though experienced in public speaking, “the idea of expressing myself in an artful manner was intimidating and seemingly beyond my scope.”

GLOWING AS A WRITER

For The Love of Learning’s Gemma Hickey encouraged Dane to submit a monologue. 

“From there, I grew into myself as a writer through the interactions we had in our collective and creative space. Now I have written several poems and have ideas for even more,” Woodland said. “I attribute much of this growth to my experience with the cast and crew of the production.”

Perin Squires, based in Ontario, was working on Artistic Fraud’s tour of Colony of Unrequited Dreams in London, Ontario when they learned of the book. 

“Patrick Foran and Robert Chafe have been very supportive of me writing, even though I had doubts in my skills as a storyteller. I am forever grateful for their faith in me,” they shared.

Drake came to the transVersing family by way of the original director, Berni Stapleton, she explained. “She scouted me after hearing me speak at a local Trans Day of Remembrance event at the end of 2017. [Stapleton] introduced herself to me and believed that my voice was important and that I had the talent for a greater stage.”

‘OUR PERSPECTIVES’

The trio of writers recounted opening night. “One particular thought that played on a seemingly endless loop was this fear of being vulnerable and being misunderstood,” Woodland shared. 

“The pieces we have produced are deeply personal and provide an intimate look at our lived experience through our perspectives. As we know, much of the world is currently challenging those perspectives – in many places, those perspectives are being erased, pathologized, and mocked. I was so afraid that my words would be without impact, or that they would not serve myself and my peers in the way that I had hoped.”

Squires was still in Ontario, but appears as “a disembodied voice.” They hope to join the cast in their “corporeal form one day,” they joked.

“On one hand, it was a dream come true for me,” Drake said. “On the other hand, it was something I had no prior experience with. When I began writing at age 13, I never would have imagined that I would be doing theatrical poetry for a crowd of over a hundred. I always get nervous right before any performance, but it felt unreal the first time I stepped out on stage for transVersing. Exhilarating and nauseating, incredible and insecure, grateful and shocked all at once. I’ll never forget it.” 

‘HUGELY SURREAL’

“It felt surreal,” Drake said. This particular adjective would show up in each of the contributor’s responses, especially when asked about how it felt to finally hold a copy of the book.

“It is hugely surreal to see your name attached to something so physical. For myself, due to the dissonance I have with my body, I often live a lot inside of my head,” Squires said. 

“To see a story you have replayed within your mind or, pushed back to the darkest corner, to see it on a page, on a stage, or on a screen … It feels really good to have people interested in an aspect of your life that you had been previously shamed for, and encouraged to hide.”

“Given the historical erasure and subjugation of transgender authors in this province, it felt very strange when I finally held the book in my own hands for the first time,” Drake added.

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“The entire constellation of experiences this show has given me has allowed me to express myself in a way that I kept hidden as a child due to fears of inferiority. transVersing has given me the opportunity to take my creativity seriously and pushes me to grow in ways that were never possible for me prior to the show.”

“Attending the fall book launch for Breakwater Books was so surreal. I felt like a celebrity,” Woodland laughed. “It is incredible to consider that we have contributed to trans activism and history through this work,

“I had never imagined I’d end up becoming a published author as a result of this process. It’s amazing what can happen when you work at something you really believe in.”

TRANS ACTIVISM

When asked what they hope readers take away from this book, each writer had a similar yet unique response.“The sole takeaway I hope to send through this, and all of my trans activism, is that we are not THAT different from everyone else,” Woodland said. 

“Yes, we have different needs and a desire to be understood by a world that doesn’t accommodate our existence, that is indeed true. But, we are also people, and we share common human qualities like dreams/ambitions, a need to belong, love and loss, fear, joy, and success.”

“The truths we as a cast share are important and powerful,” Drake stated. 

Squires offered a directive: “Read more stories, see more plays, and watch more movies about people that are not like yourself. See and acknowledge the everyday humanity in people.”

Click here to get your own copy of transVersing. For more by Wendy Rose, click here!