A question about the trans community
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Anonymous
| I am asking this not to start an argument but because I want to understand and figure out how I can be an ally: What is it, exactly, that the trans community wants? Is there a list of action items or something I can see that will help me figure out how to focus my efforts? I mean not being killed and discriminated against is a given and since I don't do either I am wondering if there are some other ways I can help. |
Anonymous
| Just be accepting. They’re human and have had years of struggling. Be especially mindful if trans children and fight for their rights in school. |
Anonymous
What rights are they looking for in public school that they don’t have? |
Anonymous
Being permitted to use their gender and preferred name even if it doesn’t align with what is on their paperwork. Gender neutral bathrooms. Being allowed to participate in groups or activities according to their gender identity rather than birth sex. |
Anonymous
Where is this not allowed? It’s no longer an issue at any of the schools in our area. |
Anonymous
| The problem is that the trans community doesn't have an agenda any more than the gay community does. Our (speaking as a nontrans member of the queer community) big idea is to live our lives without being harassed. So don't harass (and encourage the other people in your life to not harass), respect pronouns, and generally listen to each individual trans person you interact with to better understand what they would find most supportive. |
Anonymous
| It's pretty obvious what they want: to be treated exactly as who they are, and that means in every way. Apply that standard to every situation, and there's your answer. It's really not complicated. |
Anonymous
| For a teen trip (think travel camp with overnights)- if there is no adult in the hotel room, 3 kids to a room- do they room with the gender they identify with or the gender they were born as. 14-15 year olds. Asking because I’m organizing such a trip |
Anonymous
My trans niece would have really wanted to be with the gender she identified as BUT the important part is ensuring that the two kids she was sharing with were comfortable sharing with her (and their parents were too). Are you insisting on segregating kids by gender? As a bi adult I've always found that retroactively strange. The kids who are uncomfortable with mixed gender sleeping arrangements will voluntarily room with their own gender and the ones who want to get up to mischief (straight or otherwise) will probably manage to do so. |
Anonymous
| I’m not insisting on anything and Im guessing the kids will be more accepting than parents. Im thinking about safety. To me the least safe combo would be a trans girl having to room with two guys who are not accepting |
Anonymous
I don't care if you're "bi" or whatever but your response is ridiculous. No, you don't ask the kids and parents of other other students "hey, is it ok if on this trip we treat student X as a girl even though biologically she isn't?" NO. You simply treat her as a girl because that it how she identifies. END OF STORY. The other kids and parents don't get veto power, for pete's sake. |
Anonymous
Yeah, putting a trans girl in a room with two cis boys who were not accepting would definitely be unsafe and even with accepting boys could be dysphoric. Shared spaces like this can be pretty fraught if you're trans. |
Anonymous
| How do summer camps handle it? |
Anonymous
I imagine that if there was a problem, like transphobic boys in a room with a trans boy, the camp would deal with it like they deal with every other bad situation that can happen at camp. |
Anonymous
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It's a little odd to me that you think transgirls are the least safe.
If gender is truly a construct and a spectrum you put matching genitals with other matching genitals. Why? To avoid pregnancy and issues of coercion and consent. Do none of you remember being teens? Things like pressure? Experimentation? Poor decision-making? |