The walls of the room are hung with posters promoting openness, self-esteem and sharing. In the center of the room, around fifteen pupils aged 12 to 16 are gathered around a large table. Everyone is part of the LGBTQ + community. And we will certainly not prevent them from existing …
“I’m bisexual, except my parents don’t accept it. I am bullied by my own family! Here, at least, I am free. ”
“I am told that at 12, I am too young to know anything about my sexuality, but it is not! It depends on each person and on the openness of the society in which we operate… ”
“I’d like to explain to my mom how I know I’m non-binary, but I can’t. I was born girl, but I don’t feel girl. Or guys. I feel… non-binary! ”
I will only spend an hour with the students of the LGBTQ + committee at the Pionniers high school in Trois-Rivières. Time for a cafeteria dinner engulfed between two bells. Yet I will leave the place with a plethora of testimonies that will only increase my admiration for queer youth today …
When I was their age, no one was openly gay in my cohort. Even less pansexual or aromantic… It was the beginning of the 2000s, it was also a small town. Difficult then to find the security and the space necessary to assert oneself. Fortunately, times have changed. Still, there are still few LGBTQ + committees in Quebec high schools. I was therefore curious to find out what was going on at the start of the school year in Trois-Rivières …
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Line Desgagné, animator, spiritual life and community involvement, at the Pionniers high school in Trois-Rivières
“I never thought I’d found an LGBTQ committee! », Line Desgagné confides to me, while we await the arrival of the group. The animator of spiritual life and community involvement tells me that four years ago, a student of 4e secondary asked him a hand: “He wanted to create a committee because he was homosexual and his coming out was done, but he knew people in questioning who felt isolated. About five students attended the first meetings… At the end of the year, there were 15! This year, we already have around 30 registrations and it has just started. A record! ”
Line tells me that most of the young people involved are bisexual, a few are gay, that there are also non-binary students, trans people and others questioning their gender. Not to mention the heterosexual allies, there to support their friends.
What strikes me most about young people in the LGBTQ community is both their openness and their loneliness. Many of those you will meet today do not talk about their situation with their families. It would not necessarily pass …
Line Desgagné
This is also why the students have asked me to preserve their anonymity in this column. I obviously nodded, trying to convey a lot of love to them with my gaze.
Inspire change
The committee has only been meeting for two weeks, but plans are already in motion: the students want to do awareness booths and class tours to show others that “they are normal”. That and inspire some changes, in their school …
“We don’t accept the fluidity of genres very well and honestly, that bothers me. Teachers should ask us which pronoun makes us comfortable. ”
“They could also ask which first name we prefer! ”
“Personally, I haven’t told any teacher that I was a non-binary person and it’s true that I find it hard to hear my birth name. I’m a little afraid to talk to them about it … Maybe they should come to the committee? ”
“They should also intervene more quickly when students insult others because they are different. Me, that happens to me often. ”
“Oh, and I wish teachers would stop saying things like, ‘All the girls who want to be a cheerleader, raise your hand!’ There may be guys who are tempted … ”
Line is delighted.
“I hear something that I have never heard in the previous years of the committee: you want us to raise awareness among teachers! ”
The group nods in unison. Suddenly, smiles appear.
Support
When she created the committee, Line Desgagné was able to count on the support of GRIS Mauricie – Center-du-Québec. The organization’s mission is to promote the emergence of LGBTQ + groups and to support schools in the deployment of concrete actions.
Sarah Lemay, worker in listening and support services at GRIS, explains to me in a telephone interview that pronouns are one of the issues often mentioned by young people: “I understand the directions of being a little mixed up. Unlike us, they are not immersed every day in the concerns of people of diversity! But GRAY can help them be more neutral. For example, rather than making teams of guys or girls, why not divide a group between students born from January to June and from July to December? ”
In the same spirit of neutrality, the issue of gender-neutral toilets is also a priority for many students, explains Sarah. Moreover, it is in question, during the dinner which I attend …
“I’ve known I’m a guy for a long time. But since I have a female sex, I still have to go to the girls’ bathroom …
– Me too ! However, it is quite easy to switch to a gender-neutral toilet! You just change the logo… No need to put on a boy or girl figure; it is a bathroom, anyone can use it. ”
Show off their pride
When I called her Sarah Lemay had just arrived from another high school where she was hoping to see a focus group. On the sheet she had left to collect entries, someone had crossed out “LGBT Committee” to write “Committee crisses de gais”.
“There is still a lot of work to be done,” she admitted with a sigh. And you have to talk to the people who get involved, because they might get disrespectful comments. On the other hand, if problematic situations arise, we are there for them. ”
This is what comes to mind as the workshop draws to a close. In fact, I see that these young people have found ways to support each other. Despite the insults, the discrimination, the sidelong glances, they and they have invested spaces to show their pride.
Around the table, there are 15 students who use specific words to define their emotions, such as their identity. They have learned these terms on the web, in discussion groups or with their families – because there are many who are fully open to the diversity that their child worthily embodies. These young people are talking.
It might start in this room, but it certainly doesn’t end beyond its walls.
Moreover, when I ask the pupils if there is a subject that should be tackled quickly, before the bell rings, a young boy answers me: “You can write that I cried when I learned that there was an LGBTQ committee in my school! ”
He will not specify under what effect, too eager to get to his next class, but if I had to bet, I would say it was for joy.
Or, of relief.