September 21, 2012
Back-to-School Voices: Ashton Rose
Student
Milford, Ohio
http://blog.glsen.org/back-to-school-voices-ashton-rose/Last year I entered my first year at Milford High School as a trans-identified student. I had left my other school because of bullying so severe I had to be withdrawn from my classes. As a transgender guy, I use male pronouns. But my Milford teachers did not respect my identity and referred to me as "she" and "her." They also did not call me Ashton and instead used the name that I do not like but is still attached to my legal documentation. I initially thought most of the teachers were transphobic and probably just hated me until I realized that most of the school staff didn't even know what the word transgender meant. I came to the conclusion that I needed to give Milford educators a presentation to help them better understand transgender and gender non-conforming issues; by educating them I'm preventing teachers at my school from unknowingly hurting other students like me in the future.
One incident at school that really struck me was when I was in math class; it was the second week of school and I did not know all my teachers that well. My math teacher was young leading me to believe he would likely be more accepting than most of my other teachers. I was sitting in class and went to raise my hand to answer a question when he pointed at me and said, "Yes sir?" I was about to answer but a student shouted out, "That's a girl." He looked somewhat uncomfortable, maybe even embarrassed and responded, "Whatever it is." I was shocked and terribly hurt at his use of the word "it" and the way he handled the situation.
