Transgender teenager shares their story at Kelowna public forum

A B.C. transgender teen is sharing their experience to raise awareness about the challenges and issues facing the transgender community.

"I want to create change and I'm doing a lot to stir things,"  said Jeordin Trussler, a gender-fluid high school student who was a featured speaker at Wednesday's public forum at the Kelowna library.

"For me, I always knew who and what I was, it's just that I didn't realize it was different for a long time. I grew up in a family of people and a community that was fully open about that kind of thing," said Trussler, who prefers the pronoun they. "It took me a long time to actually realize I was different and to the people around here, it wasn't considered ok."

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"It was a little stressful just realizing that it was another thing they might have against me, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from being who I was because continuing to be me was the only thing that was going to keep me happy," said Trussler

Trussler's given name is Aurora, but after a year of deliberation decided to change it to Jeordin, because it made them feel more comfortable.

"This school year started and the first day of orientation I put Jeordin on my name tag and said 'This is who I am now,'" said Trussler. "I lost a couple of friends because of my decision because they chose not to go by my new name, but I thought it was worth being who I was then keep them as my friends."

Trussler hopes that by speaking at the forum, people will better understand theIr situation.

"I just want anyone that's open-minded enough to listen to come out. I don't care if i manage to change your views, but I want you to listen and know what's going on."

To hear the full interview with Jeordin Trussler, listen to the audio labelled Gender fluid student shares their story