Bilal Baig and Sid Ryan Eilers are nurturing the next generation of trans artists

In a studio in downtown Toronto one evening last fall, a group of trans, non-binary and gender-nonconforming children waved delicate cloth squares in the air. As they danced —  some laughing, some in deep concentration — the kids created a swirling, free-form rainbow. 

This level of joy and camaraderie was more than modern dancer and choreographer Sid Ryan Eilers had hoped for when envisioning the class — called TRANScenDANCE — for gender-diverse children, aged five to 10. After decades dancing, the intersex, non-binary Eilers was frustrated with the strict gender binary of forms like ballet. 

"The space to be wild and free and express, without having to behave like a good girl or good boy, was really important," Eilers says.

While Eilers came to understand their own gender identity in adulthood, some generation Alpha children (those born from roughly 2010 to 2025) are living their trans and non-binary identities from a young age — and society has lagged in providing them with inclusive environments. Sports and gymnastics classes divided by boys and girls harm gender-diverse children, who may feel they don't belong or that they must conform to be included. 

"Gender-nonconforming spaces for young kids are not common," says Eilers, who is also a parent.

As an antidote, trans and non-binary artists are designing programming to support their youngest counterparts so gender-diverse kids can make art in affirming, welcoming environments. 

"We need a space where young trans kids can truly just be themselves," says Bilal Baig of Being Me, a writing class they facilitated last fall for the Toronto literacy non-profit Story Planet, with slightly older two-spirit, trans, non-binary and gender-questioning kids. 

"It was really important that the program functions both as a place where trans kids — specifically trans, non-binary, [gender-diverse] kids — can be creative, but also kill," says Baig, also the co-creator and star of the groundbreaking CBC show Sort Of. "Like, not have to speak about, if they don't want to, what they're feeling about the state of the world — a space where they can actually breathe." 

Both Baig and Eilers say they had to adapt their class plans once they started working with their students since the kids were so unique and creatively vibrant. 

"Because they're not experiencing oppression, because they're not being forced, in this moment they were just free," Eilers says, describing TRANScenDANCE's general mood as "euphoria." They were surprised by "just how bold every child was." 

"No one was apologizing for who they were," Eilers says. "No one showed up sorry for being themselves."

But outside the celebratory environments Eilers and Baig have created, life can feel unwelcoming and downright scary for 2SLGBTQ+ kids. Last year, Saskatchewan enacted Bill 137 (called the Parents' Bill of Rights, which requires parental consent for students under 16 years of age to use alternative names or pronouns at school), and in January, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced a slate of policies targeting trans youth. Across the border, over 540 anti-trans bills have been introduced in U.S. legislatures this year alone, and families have been fleeing states, such as Texas and Florida, that are inhospitable and dangerous for their children. 

"This time feels so intensely political," Baig says. "Trans people, in particular, are so incredibly vulnerable because adults are talking about [children's] bodies or what they think happens with [children's] bodies. It's inappropriate. It's really important and valuable when we allow children to be autonomous and have some agency around their own choices. To specifically watch young trans kids do that over and over again [in Being Me] is what felt really, really different."

Thanks to funding from grants, Baig's and Eilers's classes were free. And each included supports, like non-binary teacher's assistants for TRANScenDANCE and therapists joining Being Me's remote sessions. 

Parent Rachel DiSaia, whose child Dylan studies at Canada's National Ballet School, where TRANScenDANCE took place, says Eilers's classes "were really special — both of taking up queer space and, you know, queer families are really fun. 

"There was a joy to it that is very particular to queer joy. There's this buzz of 'I don't have to be self-conscious about this. I can explore it. I can be honest. I can talk about it openly. It's not that it goes away — it's that I get to fully live who I am.'"

These spaces are essential for gender-diverse kids who spend their lives in gendered environments at school and in their extracurricular activities. 

"Dylan is misgendered 95 per cent of the time in their life," DiSaia says. "Then they go into this space and their pronouns are respected and they get to be whatever weirdness that they want. I love seeing queer kids together. It's so amazing to watch them developing this language together that I didn't have the opportunity to even consider until I was an adult. It's like a different world that we didn't have access to. As a former weird child, it's like, 'Oh, I wish I had this. I wish I knew that it wasn't so binary.'"

As children, both Baig and Eilers felt that gender expectations the world had of them didn't match their reality, but Baig says they "just didn't have the language" to explain what they felt. 

"As I was facilitating [Being Me], every second, I was thinking about how cool would it have been if I had a program like this when I was growing up," Baig says. 

"I spent so many years of my life really holding back, like really reserving and compartmentalizing. So when you're released of that, how liberating! What gets unlocked when your time doesn't get wasted or isn't occupied with things that are hard to carry or are hurtful?"

Baig has grand hopes for trans and non-binary members of generation Alpha as they grow and develop as artists, while not having to mask who they really are. As for how Baig will support these young artists, for the next round of Being Me, they're working with Story Planet to reach gender-diverse kids without supportive families or even an understanding that they can live their true gender expression. Kids, Baig says, like they once were.