Protect the Human Rights of Transgender Youth in Schools. - Please sign this!
change.org
Petitioning President Barack Obama: Protect the Human Rights of Transgender Youth
“Without laws in place, our youth will continue to be discriminated against because of their gender identity. Little children like my 7 year old, shouldn’t have to fight to use the girls’ bathroom. Please don’t allow this discrimination to continue. Make it illegal in the United States of America to:
• refuse to allow a student to attend school and related events and activities because that student is wearing clothes that are too “girlish” or “boyish.” This is true regard¬less of the gender identity or the assigned birth sex of the student.
• compel a student to shave or groom their hair to look more “feminine” or “mas¬• culine.”
• discriminate or harass on the basis of their gender identity.”
Examples of harassment include:
• Repeated, deliberate use of pronouns and names that are inconsistent with a student’s gender identity
• Denying appropriate academic support to a student because of their gender identity
• Inappropriate touching
• Insults or remarks about a student’s body parts or about a student’s behavior being too “masculine” or “feminine”
• Asking people inappropriate, unnecessary questions about their gender identity, anatomy, and / or any medical treatment that is related to their gender identity;
• Verbal, sexual, or physical assault because of one’s gender identity.
• called derogatory names at school, such as “dyke”, “faggot,”“it” and “he-she” by both other students • and faculty;
• prevented from using the restroom or locker room that corresponds to their gender identity
• being unable to use any restroom at school because of their gender identity
• beaten up because of their gender identity
• sexually assaulted due to their gender identity
• forced to fight to defend themselves resulting in suspension and/or expulsion
• forced to miss school because of suspensions or skip school because of fear resulting in missed learn¬ing opportunities
• forced to quit school because of their gender identity
• forced to attend psychiatric programs because of their gender identity
• ridiculed and / or punished by teachers for dressing and / or acting too “feminine” or “masculine”
• left with little or no academic support at school by faculty and administration
• left with little or no emotional support at school by faculty and administration;
• given no one they can reach out to for support about their gender identity at school
• made deathly afraid of being “outed” and skipping school as a result.
Our nation’s schools must do the following to educate their staff:
• Arrange for transgender awareness training for faculty, staff, and administrators from a qualified community-based trainer.
• Incorporate positive information about transgender issues into curricula.
• Create gender neutral restrooms
• If a student talks to you about their gender identity, listen in a respectful and non-judgmental way.
• Avoid perpetuating gender stereotypes
• Intervene and take action when students use gender-specific terminology to make fun of each other.
• Create gender-neutral and / or mixed gender spaces
• Always refer to transgender and gender nonconforming students appropriately
• Ensure that employment opportunities at your school are open to transgender and gender non conforming people.
• Listen to criticism from transgender, gender nonconforming, and questioning students
To:
President Barack Obama,
Protect the human rights of transgender youth!
Good news for trans youth in Massachusetts: "Massachusetts Education Department Accommodates Transgender Students"
huffingtonpost.comLast week, the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education mandated that transgender students be allowed to use bathrooms and play on the sports teams that coincide with their gender identification, reports The Boston Globe.
“These students, because of widespread misunderstanding and lack of knowledge about their lives, are at a higher risk for peer ostracism, victimization, and bullying,”… ”Some students may feel uncomfortable sharing those facilities, but this “discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender student.”
I don't understand this.
I’ve seen this documentary from what I believe is a show called Real Life revolving around transgendered children. At the beginning this pops up:
Why? Why misgender them? Everyone in-film refers to them by their gender, and the documentary gives no reason why you shouldn’t refer to them as so.
Cross-Sex Hormones for Transgender Youth
darlenetandogenderblog.comA topic that comes up often in my work is the question of whether or not to treat transgender youth with cross-sex hormones. [..]
In my opinion, treatment before the age of 16 is medically necessary to support the mental health of transgender youth. I suppose if more people sat across from transgender pre-teens and teenagers the way I do, more people would agree. I see a sadness and a desperation in their eyes I simply do not think has to be a part of this process.
Why 2010 Was Watershed Year for Transgender Community
Dr. Sherman Leis, founder of the Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery, lists the reasons why he believes that 2010 was a watershed year (A critical point that marks a division or a change of course; a turning point) for the transgender community.
The Philadelphia Center For Transgender Surgery, in suburban Bala Cynwyd, Penn., is recognized as one of the leading facilities in the world specializing in gender reassignment surgery, including specialists: surgeons, psychologists, endocrinologists, aestheticians, speech therapists, legal experts, and others.
h1) A growing number of female-to-male (FTM) transitions.
Once only thought to be the province of males transitioning to females (MTF), a recent study showed that the transitioned male and female populations will equal each other within the next five years.
2) Growing acceptance of Gender Identity Disorder (GID) as a credible medical condition, instead of mistaking it to be a psychological disorder or perversion.
3) More conventional healthcare insurance policies are including transgender surgery and health needs in coverage, regardless of whether Obamacare is implemented or not.
4) The transgender community is gaining momentum to stand on its own and getting out from under the umbrella of the gay and lesbian community, except when it comes to fighting for human rights and dignity.
5) The U.S. is becoming a world center for transgender surgery as more trans patients from around the world are coming here for surgery. Although Asia and Europe still perform more trans surgeries overall, the growth trend is in favor of the United States.
6) More seniors are having transgender surgery. As society becomes more accepting, more seniors are making the commitment to realize their lifelong dream.
7) The most commonly performed surgical procedure for Male-To-Female transgender patients continues to be genital reassignment, although facial feminization procedures are a close second.
8) The most commonly performed surgical procedure for Female-To-Male transgender patients is breast removal and masculinization of the chest.
9) New medical innovations, such as micro surgery, the harmonic scalpel, radio-wave surgery, improved flap techniques, and new bio-medical materials like cellular dermal matrix products, will continue to make transgender surgery safer, with more realistic and functional results.
10) Trans people are becoming more accepted into pop culture, ads, TV shows, music, politics etc.
Awesome! Hopefully 2011 will have even more turning points for the transgender community!
Pssst...sign this petition
change.orgWe are Kathryn and Jeremy Mathis, the parents of five children in Fountain, Colorado. One of our daughters, Coy, is six years old and in first grade. Just before Christmas, Coy’s school told us that after winter break, they would no longer allow her to use the girls’ bathroom, because she is transgender.
They gave Coy three options for where to go to the bathroom; the boys’ room, the staff bathroom with adults, or the nurse’s bathroom which is used by sick children.
Coy is not sick, she is not an adult, and she is not a boy.
Coy is a girl. She wears girls’ clothes, is addressed by everyone at the school using female pronouns, and has been accepted by her classmates and teachers as a girl. But if the school separates her from all her classmates to use the bathroom, they are singling her out for mistreatment, and teaching her classmates that it’s okay to discriminate.
We want our daughter to have the same educational opportunities as every other Colorado student.
We have filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division asking the school to treat Coy like any other girl, because that’s been the law in Colorado since 2007, when the state banned discrimination based on gender identity.
But we want our children’s school to treat our daughter equally because it’s the right thing to do, not because the law forces them to.
Please tell officials at Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 that teaching children to discriminate is wrong.——
p.s. You can also watch a video about Coy’s case here. If you’re on an iPad or similar device and don’t have flash player installed, you can watch a shorter, non-flash version on YouTube.
Seattle Times: ‘Boy or girl?’ Gender a new challenge for schools
seattletimes.comA growing number of medical experts no longer see anything wrong with children showing interest in doing opposite-gender things, testing limits in public places such as schools.
Simplified analysis: The Average Life of a Transperson is 23 years
Just thinking on a quote that said the average lifespan of a transperson is 23 years. I’m assuming this is a transperson in the United States, which is where most of these stats come from. The average lifespan in the US is 77 years.
So let’s assume for a second that all of these average transpeople would live 77 years if they were not trans.
This means the average transperson in the US lives only approximately 30% of their life.
To put this in perspective, imagine that you were born with a crinkle in your right ear. Society says this is wrong for whatever reason, but it doesn’t affect your health. Because crinkle-eared people are not welcomed in spaces for smooth-eared people, you cannot hold a job. Crinkle-eared people aren’t welcome in homeless shelters, so when you lose your home because you cannot hold a job, you have nowhere to turn. You end up on the streets. Because of this accident of birth that does not affect your ability to work, learn or love except because of social conditioning, you will die young. You will lose 70% of your life, unlived, simply because you have a crinkled ear.
And even if you manage to find an incredible plastic surgeon who can fix your ear and, in spite of your reduced earning power, you manage to afford that surgery, you still have to live every single day with the fact that if anyone ever finds out you used to be crinkle-eared, you will lose every single thing you have built for yourself. You will also never be able to forget the abuses showered upon you and the injustices you faced when you had your crinkly ear. You will hear those voices your entire life and, if you dare to speak up, show your accomplishments as a crinkle-eared person, you ALSO risk losing everything, so you can’t even help your fellow crinkle-eared people.
Because of this, your fellow crinkle-eared people kick you out of their community. They’re mad that you ‘went stealth’ and aren’t campaigning for rights anymore. So you’ve lost what little support you ever had.
You may survive, with that surgery, to your full 77 years, but you will be alone and in fear that whole time.
This is vastly simplified, but just think about this before you next make a ‘tranny’ joke or dismiss a news story of transpeople campaigning for rights.
Gender identities continue to expand and blur, especially among youth
Excerpt from a fascinating NYTimes article called “Generation LGBTQIA”:
He rattled off a list of gender identities: “We have our lesbians, our gays,” he said, before adding, “bisexual, transsexual, queer, homosexual, asexual.” He took a breath and continued. “Pansexual. Omnisexual. Trisexual. Agender. Bi-gender. Third gender. Transgender. Transvestite. Intersexual. Two-spirit. Hijra. Polyamorous.”
By now, the list had turned into free verse. He ended: “Undecided. Questioning. Other. Human.”
The room burst into applause.
Read more here.
Transphobic experience has happier ending
reddit.comA young trans girl in Colorado was initially turned down by their local Girl Scout leader when they wanted to join. The leader told the child and her mother that Girl Scouts wouldn’t allow the child to join, and the leader didn’t want to get in trouble with their supervisor. Not only was this leader being transphobic and discriminatory, but she was also WRONG.
Girl Scouts of Colorado came back and released this statement:
“Girl Scouts is an inclusive organization and we accept all girls in Kindergarten through 12th grade as members. If a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout. Our requests for support of transgender kids have grown, and Girl Scouts of Colorado is working to best support these children, their families and the volunteers who serve them. In this case, an associate delivering our program was not aware of our approach. She contacted her supervisor, who immediately began working with the family to get the child involved and supported in Girl Scouts. We are accelerating our support systems and training so that we’re better able to serve all girls, families and volunteers.”
Trans Media Action - Trans youth needed for interactions with media professionals
Trans Media Action is a project run by On Road - a not for profit that helps to improve media understanding and portrayal of misrepresented groups. They’ve been working closely with journalists, presenters and editors, engaging the top media movers and shakers in the UK with trans issues in creative ways.
From late April to July 2013, Trans Media Action will be holding 20 “interactions” (social meetings lasting no longer than 2 hours) between media professionals and groups of trans people. They need trans young people to carry out these interactions. Your time could help build understanding of trans experiences with media professionals in the UK.
Each one will be carefully planned out, depending on the interests of the journalist or producer. An interaction could include anything from dinner on the London Eye, a trip down the Thames to coffee around the corner. The aim is to build relationships and understanding that will lead to positive action – we’ve begun to see results from this approach in phase 1 of Trans Media Action (see www.transmediaaction.com).
If you’re interested in getting involved with the project and taking part in an interaction, please get in touch with Project Co-ordinator, Alana Avery: Alana@onroadmedia.org.uk and follow @TransMediaAct on Twitter..
