Cancer, Human Rights and Community: How Things Go Right.
I recently wrote about my experience of visiting the BC Cancer Centres website and finding my cancer listed under the category “Women’s Cancer.” I attended an online meeting with Trans Care BC and the B.C. Cancer Centre where we explored finding non-gendered terms for the cancers that were listed under “Men’s” and “Women’s Cancers.”
During the meeting it became clear to me that there are many people within the Cancer Centre who are working to change the out-dated systems that are being used. Often their are hidden groups of people in…
I Can’t Separate My Non-Binary Gender From My Body That Has Cancer
The gynaecologist cited the “Do no harm” concept in the BC Cancer Centre protocols for treatments. How can I quantify the harm of misgendering to someone who isn’t aware of it? I can’t separate my non-binary gender from my body that has cancer. I am both at once. I have no choice, but to carry all of myself through whatever comes next.
I walked up to the BC Cancer Centre building in Victoria for the first time. The temperature was finally above the ten degrees Celsius of winter…
The morning after I was diagnosed with cervical cancer, I rushed to change the sex on my provincial health ID and driver’s licence to an X. My birth certificate has an X on it and I had been procrastinating because of some personal upheaval over the past months. I couldn’t help but feel like I was in some sort of Mad Max alternate universe. It was me (cervix and all) verses all of the gendering in the universe. Idling at a stoplight, I pictured myself jumping the Johnson Street bridge as it lifted up to let ships through. …
Non-Binary Performer Gets Cervical Cancer Diagnosis During COVID-19 Epidemic
I got home from a tour that was supposed to go for another week on March 16, 2020. I was falling asleep next to my partner and my step cat and I said “Everything is changing. I’m ready. I don’t know what the future of performing for a living is. I’m happy to learn how to do urban farming, keep bees and provide mutual aid to people in our community. I sing, but I’m not owed performances. I will adapt however I need to.” My partner smiled, kissed me on the…
Rae Spoon
Non-binary musician, COAX Records person and author who lives on the unceded, ancestral territory of the Lekwungen speaking peoples. www.raespoon.com
