In a time where transgender individuals are seeing a change in support south of the border, one transgender woman is sharing her story in finding allies.

Adrianna has recently started her journey to becoming a Wildfire Air Tanker Loader technician. She spent time at the Penticton air base before heading to Abbostford for further training this spring.

Both her parents worked in the aviation industry while she was growing up, flying smoke jumpers.

Coming out has not been easy for Adrianna, but it has improved since joining the Foundry Penticton, which is a youth organization offering a safe group for members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community aged 12 to 24, along with allies and friends to gather.

She also connected with people over Discord, an online community chat server, and found support there.

Adrianna said the company she's training with has been accepting of her, agreeing to go by her chosen name and even offering support through the mental health resources they have available.

Adrianna headed down to Abbotsford for training at the start of April and said she had a good experience.

“I immediately hit it off with two other people, they weren't transgender, but they are friends,” she said, adding that nobody asked her questions regarding her identity, but she would’ve been happy to answer them.

She proudly displays a pin of the trans flag on her jacket while working.

Soon, she’ll be starting up her work fighting wildfires, and she said she feels ready to go.

The hope is for the welcoming environment she’s experienced so far to continue.

Worry grows down south

When changes started being made down south, concern grew for those in the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities and whether the progress made in Canada could deteriorate.

U.S. President Donald Trump, on the day he took office, issued an executive order banning the use of the “X” marker as well as the changing of gender markers on passports. The order said a person is male or female, and it rejects the idea that someone can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender.

Several actions Trump has taken since returning to office could stifle rights and legal recognition of transgender, intersex and nonbinary people.

Trump’s order includes transgender women in prison be housed in men’s facilities, moving transgender service members out of the military, barring the use of federal taxpayer money to provide gender-affirming care to transgender people under 19 and keeping transgender girls and women out of girls and women’s sports competitions.

Some federal judges in the states have blocked enforcement of Trump’s order.

Concern of transgender individual's treatment even led the association that represents academic staff at Canadian universities to warn its members against non-essential travel to the United States on Tuesday, particularly targeted to academics who identify as transgender.

If things were to change drastically here like they have in the U.S., Adrianna said she’d consider moving to another country.

“I've been watching that closely with my dual citizenship for Switzerland. I can always just pack up and go across the pond if I want,” she added.

Local support doesn’t dwindle

Adding his voice to the conversation is Penticton local Kyler Sahlmark, a producer and lead subject of a six-part documentary released last year, which followed his transition from female to male.

Sahlmark said it is scary watching what’s happening south of the border, and sees two conversations pop up on social media.

“I see a lot of more messaging coming from our allies, actually. Globally, they’re saying, 'Hey, we see you. Hey, we're still with you,' and reminding us that the states is only one country,” he explained.

“Then I also am watching the other side of how it's getting kind of worse. I think this is actually a really great example of how the rainbow community can be an example of how to hold that love space in the face of hatred and still keep shining, which is what we need to do nowadays.”

Since sharing his story, Sahlmark said he’s currently creating a curriculum to go to the United Church that delves into further conversation from his docu-series.

“I've had the school board, I've had Naramata Center and the ombudsman of B.C. approach me to share those episodes with their staff,” he said.

“It's really nice to see that there's just as much light showing up right now in the dark…We may not all agree with our genders, our sexuality and our race, but we all disagree with what's going on down there, and we don't want that kind of hate up here. I love seeing Canada starting to bond together and differentiate ourselves from that persona.”

The South Okanagan Similkameen Pride Society, which is a non-profit organization that connects communities across the 2SLGBTQIA+ gender spectrum to provide support, awareness, education and social events, is also seeing more community members want to learn how to be better allies.

Not changing minds, empowering others

The SOS Pride Society recently hosted a brunch event for International Transgender Day of Visibility, which also acted as an information session for both newly transitioned people and allies.

“I don't think you're changing people's minds—the people who have horrible feelings about trans people—I think it's very difficult to, with a conversation, change what they believe. So we feel that informing our allies so that they're more able to speak to these questions and concerns, just more information is just better for everyone involved,” Claire McMillan Millar, who is a transgender female and the president of SOS Pride, said.

“For instance, someone says, 'Oh they're doing surgery on six year olds'. Our allies are able to say, 'No, they're not. The most they're doing is affirming, maybe a name change, fashion and hairstyle.'”

She said in her personal experience, she’s being addressed by her preferred pronouns and, at the very least, is getting tolerance and respect.

“I've been out and proud for seven, eight years now, and have had very, very few open issues of transphobia. A couple of people where they were actively ignorant to my face out of the blue and maybe threw a slur at me or just said something really mean,” Millar said.

The general concern from all three individuals is that with Canada’s upcoming election, the right-leaning parties could introduce anti-trans rhetoric similar to the U.S.

“As an organization, we're very worried about that. We're scared for our trans brethren, our siblings who are south of the border, and what's going to happen to them,” Millar said.

Adriana presses forward in her career—with goals of gaining her Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME) license and travelling to Australia to help with their wildfire season— there’s hope that the local branches will continue to support trans rights.

The young woman said that since she’s lived through seeing wildfires fought in her hometown, she is looking forward to helping tackle them.

From sharing her story, Adriana hopes others find supportive, safe spaces to tell their own.