The Educator's Guide to LGBT+ Inclusion. Kryss Shane
Читать онлайн книгу.
You may hear someone introduce themselves with their name, followed by the pronouns they use. For example, when a person introduces themselves and includes their pronouns, they may say, “Hi, I’m Rachel, she, her, hers.” That means that their name is Rachel and they identify using female pronouns. If you were to tell someone that this person agreed to go to the store, you would say, “Rachel said she can go to the store.” If you said, “Rachel said he can go to the store,” that would not feel right to them, and it would not be a fit with how they identify.
Some prefer to use a pronoun that is neither male nor female. The introduction to such a person would sound like, “Hi, I’m Melvin, they, them, theirs.” On many computer programs, this will be underlined as a mistake because “they” and “theirs” are known to have been plural, and you are using the pronoun for one individual person. This may require you to correct your word processing program. This is because the English language has not yet offered a singular non-binary gender pronoun, although this is common in many other languages. However, the Merriam-Webster dictionary now accepts they/them/their as singular pronouns too.
Homophobia: The intense fear and hatred of or discomfort with people who love and are attracted to members of the same gender.
Transphobia: The intense fear and hatred of or discomfort with people whose gender identity or gender expression does not match or conform to cultural gender norms.
Internalized homophobia or transphobia: When self-identification of societal stereotypes results in a person hating who they are, causing them to dislike or resent their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Medical options for transgender people: This is a conversation that is necessary because educators may see the results of some of these different actions and choices in the transgender population within their school, whether with a student, staff member, or parent in the school’s community.
Some mistakenly believe that medical options are easily acquired and happen quickly. In America, to be able to receive any medical intervention, the person must be consistently seen by a licensed mental health professional for many months or years, working in concert with a medical professional or team before any medical interventions can occur. In addition, health insurances do not typically cover any of these interventions, so many families spend years saving money to afford what is best for the individual. This means that although something may seem sudden to you, by the time you are aware of the change the family and individual have likely spent years being guided by multiple healthcare professionals. No one takes this lightly, and no medical interventions are offered or are an option until/unless multiple specifically trained gender professionals have done their work to ensure that this is the appropriate treatment for the person.
Not all transitions look the same.
For younger children, for example, long before puberty begins, transition may look like a child having a different haircut, wearing affirming clothing, and the teacher being asked to call the student by a different name. For example, this may mean that in kindergarten there was a little boy named Jason, who had short hair and wore blue clothing. That same child may attend the first grade with longer hair, wearing dresses, and the parents may ask the child to ask the teacher to call the child Alice. This is because very young children typically do not show gender characteristics other than the length of their hair, the style of their clothing, and their name. When this occurs, speak with your supervisor and make sure that there is a plan in place and a protocol for how to deal with children who identify as a gender they previously did not. By being mindful of this, and already having protocols in place, a lot of the confusion for the staff can be eliminated.
(This will come up again when having conversations later in this book about restrooms and other ways in which educators should be mindful so that transitioning children are not discriminated against intentionally or accidentally.)
At the middle-school level, the parents of a transgender child may be in the process of deciding if or when to begin puberty blockers. This is a type of medication that prevents the body from beginning adult puberty. This means that children assigned male at birth will not grow facial and body hair, their voice will not deepen, and their genitals will not grow. For a child assigned male at birth who identifies as female, this is vital. If not given puberty blockers, a person identifying as a girl would have to watch her body become increasingly more male in appearance. This can create extreme anxiety and depression. It may even result in suicide attempts. For children assigned female at birth, puberty blockers prevent the body shape from changing at a time when hips would become wider and breasts would begin to grow. This can make a person who identifies as male become incredibly uncomfortable and feel unsafe in a body that is growing increasingly dissimilar to their gender identity. It can be a very unsafe time for a transgender child if puberty blockers are not provided.
When high school begins, it is common that, in addition to blocking the puberty hormones that are not congruent with gender identity, hormones will begin to be introduced that encourage the body to develop in a way that aligns with the person’s identity. This means beginning testosterone for people assigned female at birth who identify as male. That testosterone will do what it does in cisgender male teenagers: it will cause the voice to deepen, facial and body hair to begin to grow, and all other male physical characteristics to begin to develop. For children assigned male at birth, the hormone introduced is estrogen, which allows for a more feminine shape, the raising of the voice pitch, and for breasts to begin to grow. In situations in which children identify as transgender before puberty and have affirming and supportive parents, the use of puberty blockers followed by gender-confirming hormones can result in a child that appears to the public to be the gender in which they identify, though their genitalia may not match. In situations in which the family is not affirming, these children may become increasingly unsafe and this can increase the risk of self-harm or suicidality. Some may attempt to remove genitalia, and others may seek out illegal hormone blockers or hormone replacements in hopes of preventing their body from changing due to their natural hormones. In situations in which parents are not affirming, while hormone blockers and new hormones cannot simply be provided by the school, it will be necessary that educators be very mindful of the mental health of these children and work with them to make plans in order to ensure their safety.
(Later, this book will guide you toward setting up a safer school system, as these students may struggle with being bullied by peers who are aware that they are transgender, even if the student presents as the gender in which they identify.)
Although it is common that people are interested in this type of hormonal impact on someone, it is never ever okay to ask a person to disclose what hormones, if any, they may be taking. The only reason for this to be asked/known is if the school nurse is inquiring specifically to meet an individual’s medical needs at school, or if the student chooses to volunteer this information. While it is normal and typical for educators to be interested, especially those who lack insight into this process, it is not the student’s role to educate their teachers. Instead, refer to this book and its resources to find out more without creating a situation in which the student feels obligated to disclose or unsafe. In addition, surgeries are probably not happening at the K–12 level for students. This is because their bodies are still changing and growing, and most surgeons are not likely to perform a surgical procedure of any sort on anyone under the age of 17. However, it is possible or even likely that among school staff, faculty, student’s parents, and other community leaders, there will be those who identify as transgender. They may have or may not have had any type of hormonal intervention or surgeries. This may include genital reconstruction surgery (typically referred to as gender confirmation surgery, though this terminology does change frequently); breast implants; the shaving down of an Adam’s apple; a brow lift and shaving of the brow bone, or another surgery to feminize the face of a person assigned male at birth; or fat injections, breast reduction or chest reconstruction, and other options for people to appear more masculine for those assigned female at birth. Some identify a part of their body as not being congruent with their identity and thus want to make changes as quickly as medically possible. Others simply do not connect those aspects of their body to being related to gender the way that many do. At no time is it ever appropriate to ask about which surgeries, if any, a person has had. The only people who need to know that information are the person and