Blog #10

For this reading, I wanted to connect it to the picture above. For context, this picture is a popular saying in the queer/trans community. As this quote from the document says, “The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s survey including more than 10,000 youth entitled, Growing UP LGBT in America, found that 42% of gender nonconforming youth report frequently or often being called names and 40% reported being frequently or often excluded. Further, over half of gender nonconforming youth reported that they did not participate in activities offered by the school out of fear of discrimination. Additionally, the Journal of Adolescent Health (2015) reported that transgender youth were more likely to report: being diagnosed with depression compared with students who were not transgender (50.6% vs. 20.6%); suffering from anxiety (26.7% vs. 10% ); attempting suicide (17.2% vs. 6.1% ); and engaging in self-harm activities with lethal intentions (16.7% vs. 4.4%).” As a trans person these statistics break my heart, and protecting trans youth is something I’m very passionate about. I think it’s important to think about how teachers can help with these issues in trans youth. For example, making sure resources are known for trans youth. One resource is the Trevor Project, especially with their hotline number. (website: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/ hotline number: 212-695-8650) Not only that but making sure you’re a safe person for all kinds of people. Most often we see this in the ways of having a pride flag in the classroom, and of course, using preferred names and pronouns which are both great to start with. However, I believe there is more that could and should be done. In my opinion teaching trans stories like in the video we watched is also a great start. As I’m going to be a transgender English teacher I hope I get to see and teach stories like my own. Not only that but advocating against the banning of books on the biases of homosexuality and transgenderism. We can’t teach these stories if they’re seen as inappropriate.

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