4th of December 2020
by Beatriz Gomes
Elliot Page photographed by Wynne Neilly for Time Magazine
Elliot Page came out recently and the media had to cover it. LGBT+ rights have just recently been openly discussed in the media, therefore certain do’s and don’ts are still being learnt.
Elliot Page is a 34-year-old Canadian actor, mostly known by his roles in Juno and The Umbrella Academy. Page came out publicly on Instagram as transgender on the 1st of December “Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot”.
Several newspapers and magazines covered Elliot’s coming out by referring to Elliot by his old name -deadname- and pronouns. But why is that bad?
Coming out is by itself extremely hard, especially for a public figure, such as Elliot. Page had a lot of courage in coming out publicly. He might be risking future roles and compromising his mental health. Transgender people still suffer a lot of discrimination, even inside the LGBT community. Several trans people are bullied and not accepted when they come out. They may face other types of more serious discriminations, such as not receiving good medical care. These issues might even lead an individual not to transition. Adding this to the usual pain that comes with a life of feeling gender dysphoria, trans people face severe emotional distress.
Elliot has been known as someone else for so long that it is understandable why journalists would be tempted to use his old name, it was the easiest way to identify who the article was about. Nonetheless, using a trans person’s deadname or referring to them by using the wrong pronouns or gendered language (misgender) adds to the idea that transgender person will never be perceived for how they want to be. It invalidates their identity and disregards their efforts to become who they are.
“It’s like having your left shoe in your right foot.” says Luka, 18, about being what he felt before he transitioned “Even though I came out, no one took me seriously because I didn’t look like a man. I felt so alone and depressed.” He adds “We suffer everyday just for being us. I didn’t ask to be born in the wrong body.”
Being misgendered and deadnamed not only has a mental impact on transgender people but it also affects their security. According to Monica Roberts, transgender rights advocate, “it makes it harder for the community to identify the victim, but it also makes police appear untrustworthy”. As it happened in the Orlando attack in 2016, where the sheriff’s office referred to one of the victims, Sasha Garden, as “a man in a wig, dressed as a woman” in a press release.
Misgendering a transgender person removes their presentation and identity, it’s a way to try to invalidate that person’s real gender identity, it’s a verbal offence. “Many years ago when I was contemplating suicide, I was planning to have a note in my pocket at the time of my death (…) which would state my name, preferred gender pronouns (…)” stated Laverne Cox, transgender actress, in 2018 on her twitter account “Being misgendered and deadnamed in my death felt like it would be the ultimate insult to the psychological and emotional injuries I was experiencing daily as a black trans woman in New York City (…)”.
LGBT+ lives are constantly endangered and at risk. More public figures coming out as LGBT+ and openly talking about it, teaches youth there is more to life than what they have been taught. Elliot Page’s coming out is just a step further into acceptance and equality in our world. “No matter the challenges and difficult moments of this, nothing amounts to getting to feel how I feel now” says Paige about coming out in interview with Time Magazine.
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