This trans teen comedian from Belle River has some advice for Elliot Page
Belle River teen comedian Louis Brady says Elliot Page, a Canadian actor who recently came out as transgender, shouldn't focus on other people's opinions because "they're not you and they're not transitioning."
The gay, transgender 17-year-old said that he wasn't surprised to hear Page, a Halifax-born actor, share that he is transgender because, to him, it's like any other trans person coming out.
Page, who is known for his Oscar-nominated role in Juno, addressed his social media followers Tuesday with a lengthy Instagram post, in which he shared that he is trans and that he uses the pronouns he or they.
"I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life. I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey," wrote Page, who also starred in Inception and most recently The Umbrella Academy.
"I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer. And the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive."
When Brady heard the news, he said while it's important, he "didn't really think about it."
"In my personal opinion actors are just people with cooler jobs. So I thought it might be harder for him because he is such a big name and because he is obviously going to get a lot more attention from the media whereas if someone like me comes out it's not going to be such a big deal ... so I felt for him in that way but in the idea of him being an actor I don't see it being any different for me doing it than for him doing it."
But Page's announcement does give attention to transgender men — a spotlight that Brady said is often focused on transgender women.
"Transgender men don't get as much media attention and although I would never want to take away any representation for transgender women, because they are just as fully important as us, I think it also is important to talk about both sides of the spectrum and to give opportunity to everyone in an equal platform," he said.
Brady said these moments also serve to educate people.
"I feel that it's important that we educate people on this because I feel like it makes it a lot easier for people like me to come out and to live as ourselves if everyone around us is aware because it's really hard when you are constantly being asked who you are and what you are and feeling as though you have to prove yourself to everybody and you have to constantly explain who you are — it's really exhausting."
Being trans himself, Brady shared some advice for Page.
"Don't feel bad correcting people because it's important to you and it's always a good idea to be understanding of other people not understanding because it is a newer thing in our world but I also think it's important that we don't let people off on oh whatever it doesn't matter because it does matter," he said, adding that he still gets mis-gendered.
Brady continued to say that Page should avoid reading the comments on articles about himself.
