Deck stacked against Winnipeg trans youth
TRANS YOUTH / Activists chipping away at multiple barriers
Vivian Belik / Xtra.ca / Monday, May 05, 2008
http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=1&STORY_ID=4721&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2 (http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=1&STORY_ID=4721&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2)
Before coming out as transgendered, 14-year-old Mackenzie Sawatzky walked six hours from her town of Stonewall. She spent three nights writing and sleeping on the streets of Winnipeg to find reprieve from a community that did not understand who she was or what she was going through. Two years later, Sawatzky goes by the name Reid Spence and confidently speaks about transitioning from female to male in a town, where until recently, such a thing was unheard of.