Transgendered Students

[lizbendalin]

Hi, my name is Liz, and this is my first post here. Before I get to the point, a bit about me: 32, married to an understanding incredibly supportive wife - she's Liz's biggest fan. I'm a life-long crossdresser, and am active as a speaker and volunteer in the GLBT community. I am not officially out, but a great many people do know about Liz.

Now to the question, I have been asked to speak this weekend at a statewide conference for GLBT students. One of the issues I have been asked to reflect on is ways in which a greater inclusion of transgender persons can be achieved at both the high school and undergraduate level. I have been thinking about this for a while, and keep running into barriers of one kind or another. Does anyone here have any ideas or suggestions? The audience for the conference is educators and students who are involved with the GLBT community.

Thanks for your help.

Liz

[babe4life]

Hi Liz, welcome to our little forum.

During high school and university, I would have loved the chance to actually be able to speak to someone about the feelings I had and to know that it was OK, wouldn't go on any permanent records and they were trained to be able to deal with the situation.

More than being able to dress as myself, that would have been at the top of my wish list.

Have a lovely day,
Vicky

[Jill]

I guess I don't fully understand what it is that you are asking here. I would like to help, but I am not sure what you are asking. By the way, are you going to do this while dressed? Just curious.

[babe4life]

Reading what I wrote, I still wanted to add this:

Inclusion is a bit of a funny thing. Acceptance is far better. Maybe it is just semantics about the meaning. I don't know how, but education is definitely key here!

Love,
Vicky

[lizbendalin]

thanks for the responses. I apologize for not being clearer in my query. This coming Sunday I am a keynote speaker at the Queer Iowa Student Conference. I am doing a presentation on T-issues and means of great inclusion. The focus of my question here is: are there any particular ways that you can think of that a GSA (Gay/Strat Alliance) in a high school or a GLBT group in a university can ensure that they appear as welcoming organizations to t-persons of all varieties. I have come to the basic conclusion that for the most part it is not possible to have t-people represented fully in these organizations. The reality is that there are fewer transsexuals (percentage wise in the population) than CD's, and the majority of CD's have a HUGE problem with coming out of the closet even in friendly and welcoming environs. Additionally, the strong sexual component that is present with most CD's, adds to the difficulty of greater numbers being willing to be part of such organizations.

I guess, what I am looking for is: what sort of things would have been helpful to you as you were/are in school that would help you to feel more comfortable in your own skin, and more accepted and embraced for who you are within a community of living breathing people (not that the internet is not an incredible aid).

Hope this helps.

Liz

[AmyCarter]

I guess what you're asking is: 'what support group do we wish was available to us while in school?'
My greatest personal challenge was at the home; which prevented me from searching elsewhere. So anything that the school offered, if it had offered anything, would have been irrelevant, unfortunately. There needs to be more acceptance of the issues and that will happen but only after the baby boomer generation loses its force and gen x takes over the issues at hand. That's why it's called the generation gap. It's always been like that and it likely always will be until people stop changing their ideas and morals every 15 years. Acceptance will happen, we just have to be patient.
Tell the Iowa students how to communicate openly with their parents in a non-threatening, comprimising way.

[samanthajay]

i think they should just be eather one groop or a gay groope a lespian groop a ts groop and a cd groop. then have a few session in those grops that cross with the others so that two or more groops are in the same sesssion and descusion.thats how i see the only way to work if not every one is confertable with just one.