International Transgender Day of Visibility is drifting through the Pacific today and Rex Anthony Paget briefly reflects on what greater Māori and Pasifika transgender visibility means for him as a 24-year-old Samoan man pushing the boat out on his transitioning journey in Aotearoa. 
“At this point, I wanna live really visibly and openly in my transition because, OMG, if I had a Māori Pasifika visible trans person when I was little this might have happened a little sooner for me!”.
Rex is currently planning to share a video diary that will follow the ups and downs of his journey with help from fellow BOX Oceania whanau.
“I love the idea of giving insight on what the process is like because you never really know ’til you’re in it. Most people have no idea on how long and how much internal struggles there are during the waiting and I’d love to help educate our communities. The few convos I’ve had with people at work, who aren’t surrounded by trans or queer people a lot, they’ve been shocked at how much is involved. I just want to help build a platform for greater insight”.
Rex is counting the “small victories” today noting that he just found out he is finally booked to see an endocrinologist on May 23.
He’s not exactly sure what to expect.
“I think they’ll go over the risks of hormones? Just sort of make sure I know what I’m doing and am mentally sound to make that decision which is fucked cos who are they first of all?” he laughs.
“I’m not sure they have ever struggled with gender identity and so may not have a clue on how bad that messes with someone’s mental health. The delayed process doesn’t help”.
BOX Oceania 