CARIMAC Times 2016: The JREAM Edition Journalists Reviving Awareness of what Matters | Page 95

“When society is telling you that you’re wrong,
then you battle with yourself ... you’re trying to
be something else because society states that
it’s a choice,” she said, “You have to act like a
man, so they start putting these lists of things
that you need to do, and I tried to facilitate it
for my own safety, and for acceptance as well.
So it was a battle.”
Blurred identity

“A transgender person is living in a body that
they see as opposite to their gender identity;
so the genitals they have — penis or vagina —
do not match with what’s going on with their
head. When they get up in the morning and
look at themselves in the mirror, they don’t
see the first thing that they contain in their
head. It’s like having someone who’s black, get
up every morning and say ‘Why am I black? I
thought I was white’.”

Burton said her family still sees her as a gay
man, but she stressed that there is a difference.

Burton explained that transgender had a multitude
of psychological and physical challenges.

“It’s very hard for a trans [person] to just be
themselves. It’s way harder than just being
gay,” she said.

“It’s mental, bathroom, public facilities. You wake
up in the morning, you have a penis and you
don’t want to see the penis. Some transgender
would not even look at it. They don’t even take
care of it,” she said.

Executive director of the Jamaica Forum for
Lesbians, All Sexuals and Gays ( J-FLAG), Dane
Lewis, echoed Burton’s sentiments. He said the
concept of being transgender is still not well
understood, even by members of the LGBTQ
community.
“Trans identity is not as simple as saying [it is]
a man who puts on a dress,” he said.
This is a fact Dr. Karen Carpenter knows as
well, after working as a sexologist for 25 years.
“Being transgender is entirely different from
being same-sex attracted,” she explained.
Carpenter describes the word “transgender”
as an umbrella term, under which several
identities exist, such as transvestite, transsexual,
intersex, among others. But being transgender
in itself, she stressed, is a psychological
condition, not a mental illness.

Traversing homelessness
Burton had many challenges throughout school.
She had few friends, but many abusers. Her
grades suffered, but it was the emotional toll
that was worse.
When most high school children were preparing
for their Caribbean Secondary Education
Certificate examinations, Burton’s life took an
abrupt turn at the age of 16.
“One day I went to school and came home late
and [my mother] said, she can’t take it no more.
She said, ‘You can’t stay; you need to leave.’ I
turned to her and said, ‘The stone that the
builder refuse shall be the head cornerstone.’ ”
Burton left her home and walked to the Kingston
Waterfront. With the sky as her roof and the

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