Hey, it's Josh, and I'm back with another video
and SoCIAL LITE Vodka
is the official vodka soda
of Vancouver Pride.
And one of the organizations
that Vancouver Pride Society supports is
the LOUD Foundation who give out
scholarships to our future leaders.
And there are three awards this year
for the Pride Youth Scholarship.
And I happen to have one
of the recipients with me.
Meet Anton.
Hi!
Hi!
How are you?
I'm doing good.
Have you Josh?
Great.
Thanks for being here with me.
Thank you for having me.
So I noticed your shirt
says all genders die.
What do you mean by that?
I mean that every gender does.
It isn't just male and female.
And someone can be trans and they're
going gonna die at the end of their life.
So why does this matter?
It matters to me
and to a lot of the community that there's
trans representation at death because
there isn't very many trans resources out there
for people who are gender
nonconforming or trans and are dying.
So what kind of issues are there
for trans people around death?
There's issues with maybe not being
memorialized as the person
they are. Being memorialized as
their dead name or the person
they were before their transition.
And there's also the issue with
medical health care that not all
of the health care represents
and knows about how to deal with trans
people at the end of their life.
So you are studying to become a
funeral director and embalmer, right?
That is correct.
So what drew you to that?
What drew me was watching my grandmother
die and wondering what the heck happens afterwards
because we didn't
have a funeral for her.
And I ended up searching up how to become
a funeral director and then
decided to search up if there is any
trans funeral directors in the industry
and all that I saw is one article
that was a really sad one.
It was about a trans woman who got kicked
out and was fired for being trans
and coming out as trans when she
was working with the funeral home.
And that kind of made me want to start
bringing more representation and put
a trans face out there that there are
people in this industry
and they're actually thriving.
OK.
And so how have you been
going about doing that?
Through an Instagram page called
Trans Death Care,
which I advocate for trans rights during
death and also just kind of bring
and build that community
of allyship as well
within North America.
So why do you think you
got this scholarship?
I think I got this scholarship because
I have a dream
to represent and just keep on going with
activism about trans rights at death.
And not many people go to school
to be a funeral director and embalmer.
So I think that also had a little
bit to do with it too.
So what will you use the scholarship for?
I'm going to use the scholarship to go
towards my second year of funeral directing
as well as I'm going to use
it to take my doula certification.
So I actually become a death dula.
Wow.
OK!
And so what would your big goal be when it
comes to the whole trans death care issue?
I want it to not be an issue.
I want it to be an open conversation
and something that there isn't any
barriers for people when they go and they
want to plan their loved ones last step.
Like they want to celebrate their loved one
that they have the option without
it just being male or female boxes.
Right.
Yeah.
Sounds simple and fair.
Yup.
So I hope you get there.
So if people want to find out more
information, where can they go?
They can go to Instagram and search up
Trans Death Care or they
can go to Facebook as well.
I have a Facebook page.
Great.
And you are 21.
I am 21.
Yes.
You're doing well.
And you've got a long way ahead of you.
Yes, I do.
Well, congrats!
So thank you for watching my video.
Thank you, Anton, for being here.
And thank you to SoCIAL LITE Vodka
for supporting the Vancouver Pride Society
who support the LGBT community.
Bye!
