AGENT OF CHANGE ROOM
In a sweeping overhaul, Hockey Canada will bring transgender inclusiveness to its dressing rooms. It might never have happened if Jesse Thompson hadn’t gone public with his humiliating ordeal
Halfway through Grade 9, Jesse Thompson moved to a new school in a new city and faced a slew of disorienting new problems: how to make friends, how to succeed in school, how to fit in.
It was stressful — but it was also a welcome fresh start. Thompson, who is trans, was born a girl but had transitioned to a boy. No one from his new school or community in Oshawa would know him as anything other than a sports-loving teenage guy.
Eager to find a sense of belonging, Thompson signed on to play hockey, his longtime safe haven.
“Hockey for me was a way to escape what was actually going on — school, personal stuff,” Thompson, now 19, told the Star in an interview Wednesday. “Then that started causing me more problems, too.”
What began as his amateur hockey league’s staunch refusal to let Thompson change in the boys’ room prompted a complaint to Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal to challenge long-held dressing-room policies within Ontario’s minor hockey league — rules Thompson says ultimately outed him to his teammates and exposed him to harassment.
Thompson’s complaint culminated this week in the Ontario branches of Hockey Canada posting transgender-inclusive policies for the upcoming hockey season, including a rule stating players identifying as trans can use the dressing room corresponding to their gender identity.
“I’m feeling really good,” said Thompson. “It’s going to take a while to see that change is actually happening, but eventually it’s going to get to the point that transgender kids are going to be playing sports more, because a lot of us quit because we start to feel uncomfortable and not accepted anymore.”
“Hockey . . . was a way to escape what was actually going on — school, personal stuff. Then that started causing me more problems, too.” JESSE THOMPSON