On Nov. 20, the gender-diverse community remembers those lost, but it’s about more than grief
Allison Taylor had her nails done for the first time this summer, part of a transformative season for her.
Coming to Fredericton from a small, conservative town in Nova Scotia, she’s been going to protests — and counter-protests — dancing at Monarch Night Club and walking down the street with ease.
From her room at Grace House, a shelter for women overcoming homelessness, Taylor writes to her two pen pals,elderly people in the LGBTQ community who are seeking to connect, just as she is.
And this summer, she walked into the Little Hair Shoppe on Regent Street where employees were giving people haircuts to help them feel gender euphoria, described by the National Institutes of Health as “the powerfully positive emotions that can come from one’s gender/sex.”
When it turned out that Taylor’s hair would be too difficult to start and finish that day, the store offered to do her nails instead.
“It turned out so beautiful, and I just felt so great,” she said.
On November 20, Transgender Day of Remembrance, it’s this sense of community that Taylor is thinking about — she’s remembering what she’s fighting for.
R&I – TP
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