Cory Oskam looks like your typical teenage goaltender. His broad, fleshy frame fills a net and even in the gym for ball hockey, he positions his five-foot-eleven body to stop shots as if hes wearing voluminous padding. His movements are deliberate and calm. When his teammates score the deciding goal after the school bell has rung, the boys scream, fist-pump and pile on each other to celebrate their heroics. Oskam, composed, looks on.
He plays midget house in Maple Ridge but two seasons ago, Oskam was a goaltender for the Vancouver Angels, the citys only hockey association for girls. Two seasons ago, Cory was Anneke, a girl not comfortable in her body because she felt like a boy.
I was stealth, he said. No one knew I was trans. My teammates didnt know until they still dont know, probably.
Oksam came out a week before Christmas 2011. He stayed home from school for two days while his classmates at Britannia secondary learned about gender non-conformity, transitioning and transgendered people. They were told the girl they knew would return to school a boy.
He had the support of Britannias staff, teachers and the Vancouver school district. Students with questions were encouraged to approach a counsellor.
He said he hasnt experienced any discrimination. Ive been treated the way I want to be treated as a male. I dont think anyone has treated me differently because Im trans or because Im transitioning, Oskam said.
There was one little song that was a bit transphobic, but we cleared that up.
He was asked few questions, but one kept coming up: Whats going to happen in the locker room?
Oskam said the answer was simple. Hes male and hell be in the male locker room.
When jock talk is mindlessly punctuated with homosexual insults and the word gay drops into conversation as an insult, Oskam speaks up. His friends and some classmates do the same when given the opportunity.
All my friends are girls and I was more outgoing and I kind of led the conversation, whereas in the boys locker room, I just sit there and change, he said. Theyre funny enough that I laugh but theyre also just kind of stupid sometimes.
He doesnt shower but instead heads home after games before completely undressing. He behaved differently among girls than he does with boys, who are boisterous, familiar and not generally as mature as Oskam, who has become a self-possessed and articulate advocate courageous enough to speak publicly about his experience.
He has delivered workshops and spoken at different events. He will deliver the key-note address Friday morning at the ninth annual International Day Against Homophobia, hosted by QMUNITY, B.C.s queer resource centre.
For the occasion, hell buy his first suit. And hell shave, he said. I need to before Friday otherwise I look like Sidney Crosby a couple years back.
Organized sport is also making a transition. NBA veteran Jason Collins became the first active professional male athlete to announce he is gay, and the NHL supports You Can Play, a campaign to eliminate homophobia from hockey.
Next month Oskam will attend an LGBT sports summit in Portland sponsored by Nike.
And the association that governs high school sport in B.C. made it possible for gender-variant athletes to play on the team of their choice. B.C. School Sport bylaws now states, A student-athlete may participate with the opposite sex in a sex-segregated sport on the basis that doing so would be consistent with his or her gender identity.
Oskam said this latest development may open the door for him to play a sport he previously shied away from, like basketball or badminton. He delayed announcing his transition because he worried being transgendered might prevented him from doing what he loved.
The one thing that was stopping me from transitioning was hockey. When I wanted to transition, when I wanted testosterone, I wanted to play girls hockey. I wanted to be male, use male pronouns, but play girls hockey, he said. My friends were there. I was really good at girls hockey. I played rep. I was up in the top.
Gay role models like Collins defy the stereotype that hold back young athletes like Oskam. Indeed, Oskam is also an inspiration to others.
At age 9, he started taking hormone blockers, which are practically like a pause button to give you time to think about who you want to be and which gave me time to think about who I wanted to be and I definitely didnt want to be female.
When his family moved to Vancouver from Ontario, his mother Nicole Sequin, a midwife, sought a community that would accept her gender-fluid child, one who chafed at dresses and pleaded for superhero-patterned underwear. They moved to Commercial Drive. Oskam was always attracted to girls and preferred male pronouns. His gender and sexual identity are fluid, he said.
Theres the spectrum of genders, male and female, and I flow between those two, said Oskam.
He began taking testosterone before his 15th birthday and never wanted to develop the secondary sex characteristics of a woman.
He would like to return to the Angels and play alongside his childhood friends. Regardless, competing at an elite or international level becomes complicated for Oskam because testosterone is a banned androgenic agent.
He has freckles and a narrow nose, deep brown eyes and wavy hair he wears like a 1960s Beatle circa She Loves You. At the Britannia rink, where he trains in the schools hockey academy, he sat down for our interview still sweating from that game of ball hockey and wearing a Britannia Bruins t-shirt. His mellow voice deepened further with testosterone.
Oskam met one of his idols on his 16th birthday when he stood beside Cory Schneider to sing the national anthem before the Vancouver Canucks met the Calgary Flames at Rogers Arena Jan. 23.
He stood beside the Canucks goalkeeper, who is also Oskams namesake.
The teen considered prototypical male names like William and Matthew, but chose Cory at the suggestion of his mom. Now when Oskam laces up the Vaughn goalie pads he wears, he has a very personal connection to the hockey gear formerly worn by Schneider. The pads are signed by No. 35, whishing Oskam a happy birthday and, Great name!
Schneider once wrote motivational messages to himself, which he taped to his pads where only he could read them. Oskam will soon trade in Schneiders retired pads for a pair of custom Brian pads, which hell brand with his own motto.
Its a quote I like, he said, be yourself, change the world.
mstewart@vancourier.com
Twitter.com/MHStewart
