Being Transgender, Being in School

Being a transgender individual in school is problematic to say the least. The SBS show ‘Insight’ and The Atlantic’s article “Harvard’s Business School’s First Transgender Student Speaks Out” explores transgender experiences within education (Segran, 2013).

We live in a society that is bent on categorization and distinctions.  Trans people are immediately marginalized by society’s essential need to categorize and catalogue groups of people: black, white, Latino, Asian, middle-class, working-class, upper-middle, unskilled, semi-skilled, single, married, de facto, asylum seekers, detainees, illegals and so on. But social categories fundamentally fail when attempting to define a trans person. The status quo can only articulate gender hegemony and established social constructs through rhetoric and propaganda. Trans people challenge them all.

Because of the inability to define trans people, they are marginalised within the educational spectrum, and outside in greater society. Changing the negative stereotype of transgender people is difficult. Most people have not met a trans individual, let alone sharing and negotiating an environment with a trans person. As a result, trans acceptance has not ridden the wave of homosexuality tolerance; “transgender individuals have been largely left out of this growing openness to queer identities” (Segran, 2013, Transgender Student Speaks out). 

Brah argues society’s need for simplistic distinctions, and challenges these binaries with the concept of ‘intersectionality’. The concept 'intersectionality' emphasizes that "different dimensions of social life cannot be separated out into discrete and pure strands” (Brah, 2004, p. 76). Society takes the birth gender as a signifier of superiority. Brah’s intersectionality argues that individuals are not simplistic, are neither A nor B, but are complex and dynamic entities. This is furthermore permeated with trans people. Their sexual identity is complex and undefined, challenging conventional social constructs. The ambiguity fosters not only ignorance but stigma and social isolation due to “overwhelming false media stereotypes” (Segran, 2013, First Transfender Student). 

What can schools do to overcome trans bigotry? How do we challenge the simplistic binaries within the educational spectrum? The SBS network’s Insight portrayed the educational system positively with trans students often being accepted by staff: ““The school was good. They hadn’t dealt with this either” was stated by the parent of a trans child, due to the positive negotiations between student, parent and school. The positive rapport continues: “The school was very accepting. Called me by my chosen name straight-away [when I told them].”  Despite the positive feedback from staff , the negativities were evident in the relationships between trans children and their judgmental peers: “I dropped out of school in year 10.  I went to TAFE. They were more mature.”

Insight on Transgender

Although I do not have a definitive answer to overcome the issues of transgender acceptance within education, I do believe schools not only have a responsibility, but an opportunity to overcome the simplistic binaries of gender identity. Brah’s concept of intersectionality; of the fluidities of identity and sexual orientation, is the best way of facilitating acceptance for trans students. Fostering an atmosphere of acceptance is easy to write and say, but changing negative stereotypes takes generations to shift stigma and prejudices. I believe the educational institution must make acceptance more explicit, by policy and political discourse. We should love people for what they are, not for what we want them to be.

References:

Brah, A. (2004). Ain’t I a Woman? Revisiting Intersectionality. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 5 (3), 75 – 86. 

Segran, E. (2013, October 3). Harvard Business School’s First Transgender Student Speaks Out. The Atlantic. Retrieved from: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/10/harvard-business-schools-first-transgender-student-speaks-out/280228/

Filali, F. (Executive Producer).  (2013, 10 September). Insight. Sydney: SBS