I think the urge to poke fun at someone with a difference from me – as slight as a mild difference in accent, or as drastic as someone who lives with a completely different experience of gender than I do – is always there. I’m a kind person but I’m also a cynical person, a sarcastic person. (No-one is just one thing.)

It’s what you do in the moment you feel that urge that matters. You can think your snarky, funny thought (the actual funny-ness depending entirely on who is hearing it), and then you can also go, “Oh yeah, this is a real person, just like me. With feelings. Memories. Rights.”

And, “I can learn something about myself, from them.” Isn’t that amazing?

This is an interview done yesterday on CBC’s program Information Morning with two members of Cape Breton’s transgender community. Check it out, it’s good.