MARGOT FINK, 23:
‘I’M
people who were accepted by their
families, who were out at school, who
had the life I wanted to have, it was
like, Oh my gosh, I can do this.
The worst thing that’s ever been
said to me, in terms of transphobia,
came from people online. I used to
do a lot of campaign videos and a lot
of advocacy work where I’d be quite
visible, and there I saw comments
that were vulgar, sexually aggressive
and hostile. I’ve worked for a lot of
LGBTQI organisations and charities
and dealt with dozens of young people
who’ve had to deal with being turned
down for jobs, discrimination at school,
not being able to wear the clothes they want
or use the name they want, even if it’s their
legal name, and I don’t think people realise
how hurtful that can be, how much damage
that can do. In my case, when I was born, a
doctor looked at my body and said, “That’s
a boy”, and I was assigned that gender and
essentially made to live it out. But for me
there was this innate sense of tension. I don’t
see it as “I was born a boy and I’m now a
girl”; it’s more that I was always a girl but
I’ve been labelled incorrectly. The biggest
thing for people reading this, especially for
cisgender allies, is to try to give every trans
person their own platform. We come in all
shapes and sizes, we’re all different, so really
listen to what each of us has to say and
support us on our own terms. Let us be the
drivers of our own change. If you’re a trans
person reading this, know that you’re not
alone and who you are is valid. No one can
take that away from you.’ >‘WHEN I WAS YOUNG, I didn’t know
exactly that I was a girl – I don’t think I
had the language to describe that – but I
definitely had this really strong, enduring
sense of not being a boy. It was really hard
having all these builtup, bottledup feelings
that I didn’t understand because my family,
my parents, the people around me, teachers,
friends, everyone I cared about called me
a boy – said I was this thing that I just felt
I wasn’t and I didn’t know how to correct
that. I came out as transgender two and a
half years ago. It was on National Coming
Out Day, so I wrote a big Facebook status
and announced it. I’d spoken to my parents
a few days before – I took them for Yum
Cha and gave them a letter I’d written.
Writing all my thoughts down clearly and
giving them something they could read
and reread and sit with before we spoke
was good to take the intensity of emotion
out of it. The initial response was shock,
but they came around and were supportive.
My dad walked up to me and gave me a big,
awkward hug and said, “I don’t get any of
this, but I love you and want to support you.”
I first met other transpeople through
Ygender and Minus18; they’re organisations
where trans and samesexattracted people
can meet and socialise. I was super nervous
going for the first time, but encountering
real transpeople really helped break down
all of those horrible stereotypes I’d built up
in my head. I had this sense that I didn’t
have a future, I couldn’t have a relationship,
couldn’t have a career, all these misguided
things that I’d been shown because I hadn’t
seen anything else, and when I met transTRANSGENDER’
Margot came out as trans-
gender when she was 21COSMO
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