Creating Schools Where Transgender and Non-Binary Students Thrive: Panel Recap
Isabella Liang
On May 2, PLP hosted a panel entitled, “Creating Schools Where Transgender and Non-Binary Students Thrive,” which focused on creating inclusive schools for transgender and non-binary students. Joining us were educator, artist, and activist Rebecca Kling (she/her), and author and advocate Vanessa Ford (she/her). They mainly discussed four principles of creating inclusive schools, which they identified as: Education, Affirm, Include, and Disrupt. These ideas are based on their upcoming book, The Advocate Educator’s Handbook: Creating Inclusive Schools with Transgender and Non-Binary Students Thrive. Our panelists also mentioned topics like why this is an urgent issue and what is an advocate educator.
Vanessa started the panel by explaining that it is urgent to create inclusive schools because “It has become the nation's talking point and our youth are at risk.” There were 469 anti-LGBTQ bills in the US at the time of the panel. Moreover, inclusive schools are beneficial to all students. Based on the data from GLSEN, Vanessa explained that “the more supportive staff at a school, the more feelings of safety students have, the less school they miss, and the fewer instances of feeling unsafe occur.” Therefore, we need educators to advocate for transgender and non-binary students. For example, one can be an advocate educator by identifying the needs of all students and working to ensure those needs are met. Being an advocate educator is not about being perfect. As Rebecca pointed out, “Sometimes, perfect is the enemy of the good...If you wait until all of your people are ready and trained … and all of the research has been done, by that point the work no longer needs to be done.”
The first element of the Four Principles is Educate. According to Rebecca, not enough people in education are learning about trans and nonbinary topics, so people need to educate themselves, allies, and the entire school staff and community, including teachers, bus drivers, and janitors, because staff members in different roles see different issues and situations (for example, a bus driver would know if certain children are being bullied on the bus). Rebecca also pointed out that educators should not rely on or assume that their trans and non-binary peers are going to take the lead in educating people about these topics. She said, “Some other things to think about for Educate is who is going to teach it, because we want to make sure that trans folks and trans students, in particular, are involved, but we also want to make sure that we're not assuming trans adults or trans students are going to want to do this work.”
The second element is Affirm, and the two main things are policy and practice. Vanessa explained that policy and practice work together: “We have policies in place that enumerate and support trans youth and inevitably with those policies people will start to build practices.” Local laws vary widely. Some states have inclusive curricular standards, while some have no curricular laws or have curricular laws in place. Vanessa added, “If you are in states that are banning this type of work like athletic bans, start thinking about who is leading the work at the district or school level. You might not have somebody who's specifically dedicated, but you can see who's leading the social-emotional work, who's leading the DE&I work. When in doubt, you can talk to the counselors who are doing that work and try to find your allies within your system.” People can also use Google to search for model policies to find best practices (e.g., GLSEN and National Center for Transgender Equality Model Policy).
The third element is Include, as in how we include all LGBTQ+ identities, families, and topics in curriculum, community, and school spaces. Rebecca explained that “Gay-Straight Alliances increase a sense of connectedness in school communities both for LGBTQ students and for students who don't identify as LGBTQ. Showing that inclusivity has a positive impact on school communities, whether or not there are trans kids in your class.” There are also other ways to bring inclusivity into schools, such as “Using books and lesson materials with trans characters, authors, historical figures,” “Incorporate diversity into lesson plans, e.g., using population percentages and ratios in math class,” and “Remember trans-inclusive health and sex education, extracurriculars, and student athletics.” Some resources for trans-inclusive sex education are GLSEN, Advocates for Youth, and Gender Inclusive Biology.
The fourth element is Disrupt, which is about disrupting youth bullying, parents who are not supporting their children, and colleagues. For example, according to Vanessa, when disrupting student bullying, “Make sure to always fall back on things like your classroom norms, your classroom expectations, and the school policies for how we treat one another with respect.” When disrupting parents and community, “You need to decide, a) where you want to have these conversations, but also b) what you can do in these situations…Look for the local organizations, the grassroots organizations, and the national organizations to find out who's doing the work. Contact them and get them to help you through whatever the situation is.” Vanessa also mentioned some ways to respond to concerns from parents, which are “Slow things down,” “Validate the questions or concern,” “Learn what’s underneath the question,” “Focus on shared beliefs,” “Provide resources,” and “Ask for time.” Educators can also rely on others to help support as they respond to these concerns.
Thank you again to our amazing panelists Rebecca Kling and Vanessa Ford for such an informative panel, and thank you to all of our supporters who participated in this event.
