By Landon Hudson
The Bucs’ Blade
Grand Haven HS
1st Place
Division 1, News Writing
Human Interest Feature
It was the start of senior Tyler Billett’s sophomore year. He was at home in pajamas, about to get dressed for band practice when an intense feeling of discomfort entrapped him. He held his chest, upset with the way it looked. Gasping for air, he knew what was wrong. For the first
time, he was experiencing severe unhappiness with his body and gender.
Tyler was born in a body that feels wrong to him. Specifically, Billett is a transgender male.
When he was young, he knew he didn’t fit the female mold. Instead of skirts and dresses, he preferred more masculine clothing. He took pride in the tag, “tomboy”.
“I always felt uncomfortable with my body and my identity when I presented as a female,” Billett said, anxiously twitching his leg.
Billett attended Grand Haven Christian School (GHCS) through the eighth grade. He never had much exposure to different sexualities or genders and felt sheltered to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) issues.
“I had no idea about it,” Billett said. “I didn’t know it was a thing you could do, I don’t want to say ‘choose’, but that you could be a gender other than what you were assigned.”
Despite feeling like he was pretending to be something he wasn’t, Billett tried dressing more feminine for a while, hoping it might just be a phase.
“I was trying to dress and act more feminine and I’m not sure if it was because I wanted to or if I was trying to convince myself that this wasn’t a thing because I didn’t want it to happen,” Billett said. “So I was just kind of like, ‘Okay this is not really what I want to do’. So I completely started dressing more masculine and anything that I wore that was feminine I stopped wearing.”
It wasn’t until tenth grade when Billett started coming to terms with what he was feeling. As a junior, he began the long transition to present as male. He opted to cut his hair and now sports a short faded blue style.
One of the first big changes was Billett’s band concert uniform. He’s been in the marching band all throughout high school. Band has been a large part of his life since fifth grade when he began playing the clarinet.
“I talked to my band director and was like, ‘Okay, here’s what’s going on with my gender, can I not wear the female uniform, can I wear the male uniform instead?’. That wasn’t a problem. But he was like, ‘Okay, I can’t just do this, you have to talk to your parents about it’. And that’s when I came out to my parents.
Billett’s mother, Mary, shared she wasn’t very surprised when she found out, but wanted him to be open with her about what he was going through.
“I remember Tyler seemed like he wanted to tell me something, but was hesitant,” Mary said. “I just tried to be patient and kept assuring him there wasn’t anything he could tell me that would make me not love him. Eventually he found the words and he was comfortable enough to get the message across that he was not comfortable in his body.”