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Anna Vandergriff

New Policy for Gender Identity Support - 11 views

Gender GSA Redwood

started by Anna Vandergriff on 23 May 13
  • Anna Vandergriff
    #1 Anna Vandergriff on 23 May 13
     
    http://redwoodbark.org/2013/05/board-to-consider-new-policy-for-transgender-support/
    Do you think this will change things at school/Will this work? Are there any possible problems that might come up because of this?
  • Bella Levaggi
    #2 Bella Levaggi on 30 May 13
     
    I think that, to an extent, the question of "whether this will change things," is somewhat arbitrary. In a society that often labels itself as "Allies" but then sits back and justifies said title by telling LGBT youth that "It Gets Better," any action, especially for the vastly ignored transgender population, is to be commended. Might there be issues with cisgendered students crowding the lines for the bathrooms? Probably. Will there be stumbles to correctly implement preferred pronouns? Probably. But what matters is that something is being done to actually try and accommodate transgender students, and these changes will likely help build wider acceptance and understanding. Real action is better than no action.
  • Markita Schulman
    #3 Markita Schulman on 30 May 13
     
    I absolutely support this policy and would be interested to hear what the board's decision was. It seems more likely that inclusion of students' chosen pronouns, gender, and name would be accepted than gender-neutral bathrooms because the bathrooms could easily be seen as something that would cost money (if a bathroom currently being used for staff, teachers, etc. couldn't be re-purposed and new ones had to be built), but I also think that the bathrooms would have a more tangible effect. Of course calling a student by the proper name or pronoun is important but if necessary that could be changed on a student-to-student basis--though that should certainly not be necessary, and might open the system up to more direct discrimination if a teacher refused to change, didn't know, or made a mistake. The bathrooms, however, might open up more of a dialogue than a simple pronoun, and while administrations are rarely keen on controversy it would be a dialogue worth having. I like to think of Tam and Redwood as being fairly accepting of the LGBTQIA community, but it is in a passive manner and there is not often a high awareness of the issues this community faces, much less any active attempt to make day-to-day life at school less difficult for them.
  • Jordan B
    #4 Jordan B on 30 May 13
     
    This is an extremely interesting policy, and I believe the outcome of this is important. I think the point of the policy is to give people the freedom to choose their gender, but at the same time trying to keep social norms from changing. The policy does allow greater freedom, but even more than that, it means that LGBT people can have their status recognized by the school without actually having to make their status public at school. This poses an interesting problem, because I think that keeping it secret could lead to unfounded accusations by students of people they suspect of being *trans. I don't think this policy will immediately change anything, or anybody's point of view, but if it helps people feel safer and more secure at school as well as cutting down on bullying, I think that's a good thing.
  • Sarah Asch
    #5 Sarah Asch on 30 May 13
     
    I think this article is worth reading and discussing because the effort to include the needs of a minority population should be lead by that minority population. Who else knows what would be best for transgender students but the students themselves? It is in these cases where the GSA or a similar club can act as a spokesperson for minorities in the LGBTQ community. I think that the proposal by the Redwood GTSA is not a perfect solution and if such a change is implemented that there will be problems getting it off the ground but that it is extremely important that the efforts of the GTSA is not written off as unnecessary or over-accommodating. The quickest fix that the GTSA mentioned was the crack down on slurs directed towards those in the LGBTQ community. Getting teens to stop swearing is a lost cause but getting them to stop using harmful slurs should have happened a long time ago.

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