Hey y'all, As you may have seen on other social media sites, TransActive Gender Center has created a survey to learn about the experiences transgender and gender diverse folks are having in school - mainly around gendered facilities (locker rooms and restrooms), uniforms, and activities. This is a great opportunity to have your voice heard and help an advocacy organization steer their efforts in the right direction. The demographic they're currently looking at is K12 students (and recent graduates) in the US. It's open to the entire trans spectrum (including nonbinary and those who are still questioning), but they are currently having trouble getting enough responses from folks who were assigned male at birth. Please especially consider participating if you are AMAB! Here is the link. ---------- Post added 31st Jul 2016 at 06:49 PM ---------- Also, let's talk about some of these things here! For those of you who are still in school, how is your school environment in terms of restroom and locker room facilities? Are there activities or academics that are split up boys/girls (some say sex ed or choir) and, if so, are you able to participate as your identified gender? For those of us in the United States, the Obama administration has stated in no uncertain terms that Title IX protects transgender students. Unfortunately, many schools have not yet put into practice the policies necessary to be compliant. Let's raise our voices so activists and advocacy organizations know what needs fixing!
Not in the US so unfortunately couldn't answer the survey, but secondary (middle/high) school was brutal for me. I left last year to go to uni, and I really couldn't be happier. I wasn't fully out because the teachers insisted I shouldn't tell people even though I wanted to and was getting increasingly depressed, so only my friends and trusted teachers knew. I had to take PE and do sports with girls only and changed in the disabled bathroom, which I also used for bathroom reasons. When a new building was built that had new (gendered) bathrooms put in, I was told I couldn't use the disabled bathroom anymore, and had to use the female ones in the new building. I started refusing to do PE after that, and they at least listened to that - I did extra revision instead during that timeslot. I wasn't allowed to do PE with the boys, but I feel like the kids at my school would have been so cruel about it that I'm kind of glad I didn't. School trips were the same story. I sleep with the girls or I don't go. Most activities were done in mixed-gender groups though during school outings, so that part was okay. Teachers really liked to do "boys vs girls" for activities in the classroom. They never made us move seats or physically get into the teams, so I just stayed quiet the entire time. Grades in England aren't affected by participation, so I was able to get away with it haha. Don't think it would have been as easy in the US. The one glorious thing - girls were allowed to wear either the female uniform or the male uniform, so I was able to wear the male uniform with no issue. Likewise, at my prom there wasn't a strict dress code. I wore a shirt and bowtie and blazer, and one of the teachers there (who knew) said I looked very handsome. :eusa_danc
I have a particularly accepting school and I have the feeling that I will face a minimum amount of harassment about being genderfluid, but I do not feel confident wearing a binder in front of people I dont know that well in the future, especially because some of them go on about how there are two genders, and you are one or the other. I go to an all girl school, which is hard on some of my male days.
