Prefix Trans means Across

Last night, I decided to make my way downtown to the inner part of Toronto. I wanted to lend my time to an outreach program called Sanctuary. Sanctuary ministers to the homeless in Toronto. What an experience!

The first thing I learned was the difference between transexual and transgender (our tour guide was using real people we met as examples). Transgender is someone who decides to go against the norms our society has dictated as gender. It can range from a tomboy to a transvestite. A transexual is someone who believes they were born the wrong gender, and often will use surgery and hormone replacement to fix their identity issues. This occurred in Cawthraw Park which is the second largest homosexual and transexual population in North America.

Our second stop was to "Boys' Town." This is a place where customers can pick up boys from ages 11 to 30 for a fee. Our tour guide had actually been one of the boys on the street. He was telling us that sometimes customers would just pick up a boy just to chat because they were lonely, other times....that wasn't the case. He himself had been raped as a child and felt power having the choice to give himself instead of being forced. Other boys are there because they themselves are looking for companionship and couldn't find it at home.

In Toronto, my tour guide explained, there are 10, 000 homeless youth (ages 16 to 24). Although, it's said that it's probably 1.5 to 2 times larger. That does not include those younger than 16.

It was a real eye opening and distrubing experience. Our guide was telling us that at shelters and food places it is illegal to help out someone who is younger than 16 (cause apparently it's illegal to be homeless if you are younger than 16). These kids are often forced into prostitution as an only means for survival. I wish those passing laws would get themselves out on the streets and experience the consequences of their decisions.

Sometimes there would be silences in our conversation as the information and facts were absorbed. What words do we have to express?