My daughter started high school last month.
The other night she told my wife and me that there's a transgender girl in her homeroom. During the summer orientation session, this student attended as "Gabe" and now identifies as "Heather."
I was fascinated by this. She told us about Heather in a very matter of fact way.
I asked if people were nice to Heather. Our daughter said her homeroom is fairly large and she doesn't know Heather very well but it seemed like people were nice to her.
I don't think she wanted to talk about Heather too much because 1) my daughter is 14 and doesn't want to talk to us about anything too much (except, of course, when she really, really wants to talk to us - often at about 10 PM on a Tuesday night) 2) she and her group are very aware of treating people as people and it would be incredibly uncool for someone to tease or make fun of someone who's transgender.
My daughter and I were in the car the next day. I told her I thought it was great that people were nice to Heather because life is often difficult for transgender kids. She said it was no big deal.
I hope people really are nice to Heather and respect her for who she is and that things are changing.
I cherish every bit of good news like this.
ReplyDeleteOur generation became too locked in to appreciate this. There was no way for us to be anything other than our male selves for decades. Now our salad days are in our rear view mirrors and while we ourselves may not be too set in our ways to contemplate changes those that rely on us or have us as focal points in their lives are so set in their ways that change from us will upset their psychic apple carts.
I guess it can depend on administrators, as a few years ago when my daughter graduated, they had one transgendered person that was allowed to use the girls bathroom, attend prom as a girl, etc .. but heard that this year, another girl is having issues with being bullied, not allowed to wear skirts, etc .. My daughter is upset because they worked hard (gay/straight/gender alliance) to make all the accommodations necessary for future students and I guess the current teaches/admin are not honoring what had been written up.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it is usually one or two bullys and those that enable them that are really at fault, and most kids don't really care, as they have enough issues of their own to worry about others.