Imagine going to school and getting thrown through doors and into trash cans, just for being yourself.
That is the reality 16-year-old Adam McMaster faced a couple of years ago when he started high school, determined the rest of the world would see him the way he did.
McMaster was born with the appearance of a girl, but knew early on he was a boy.
“I mean, if you want to go and tell the 4-year-old me that was drawing pictures of me with short hair and was playing with trucks and climbing trees that I was a girl than you know… go try and do that. But my testosterone levels are through the roof for what they should be so that’s pretty insane,” he told Global News.
McMaster wants people to understand what growing up transgender is like in the wake of a controversial tweet by TDSB Trustee Sam Sotiropoulos, which reads: “Until I see scientific proof that transgenderism exists and is not simply a mental illness, I reserve the right not to believe in it.”
“It’s really offensive and really insulting because he’s basically saying that I’m faking it and I’ve been struggling with this my entire life to depths that I know for a fact he would never understand in his worst nightmare,” said McMaster.
He and various activists in the LGBTTQ community would like to see Sotiroplous removed from his post as trustee, but Sotiropolous is an elected official so it is up to voters in his ward to determine whether he stays or goes.
In a recent interview Sotiropoulos maintained he has a right to his opinion and a right to form an opinion after doing some more research on his own.
McMaster wonders what research Sotiropoulos is talking about.
“There doesn’t need to be a doctor’s note to say what your gender is. Your gender is what you tell people to call you and what you feel inside. I don’t know how else to prove that it is real. I don’t think I really need to prove myself. I know in my head that I am a boy and that’s all that matters to me, it’s just really funny that this guy thinks he knows.”
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