How to Make Things Better For Trans People

[Taka]

I'm loving this all as an idea, no sarcasm included, but I bet parents would be the biggest obstacle here. Especially on the "let's let boys dress up as princesses and girls as princes/knights" part, considering some parents get worried and whatnot if their child dresses up as the opposite sex at home even when it's just a part of their play. Seems to be the case especially with boys (and it's usually the father who gets worried, like "is my son gay" or something like that).

Idk, just saying that from a Finn perspective because parents would be a huge opposition here. I mean, this is still the only Nordic country that doesn't allow gay marriage (not to talk about some laws concerning trans people that pretty much break human rights...).

if teachers and child psychologists agree that it's not harmful for boys to play with girl toys, just like girls never were harmed by playing with boy toys, i think you could get quite a number of parents with you on an equality project. like letting kids have fun instead of denying them the right to just be kids and curious about the world.

if you want the norwegian perspective, there have been cases where parents or teachers figured that it's really unfair for the kids to only let one dress as lucia on that festival, so in some classes or kindergardens, even boys could be lucia. we don't celebrate any male saints the same ways, so all kids should have an equal opportunity to be a star for one day/night.

But, I think if you word things correctly, and do not make things seem like "an assault on traditional values" that it might slip under the radar a bit. You also don't need to make a specific lesson geared towards it, but do something more subtle through your day-to-day interactions with the young students.

i'm also thinking subtle is better. it's about how adults help the kids play in a good manner, what kinds of ideas they give the kids, how they speak about certain subjects. gender equality is supposed to be the new big thing in western societies, would be nice if teachers lived up to it by not saying things like "boys can't" or "girls should". it should only be about "those who want to". and another thing is sexual education or biology, where it's possible to teach youths about intersex, transgender, sexuality and other things that are a part of the real world (people who believe there are only two sexes truly live in a fantasy world). it's possible to do that in a neutral manner where nothing is bashed or glorified. teachers should educate children, not lie to them because of their own prejudice.

[aleon515]

I'm not the most typical people of any gender, but I think that knowing a trans person can really help people. For one thing you don't quite know who might actually be trans themselves. So that you might be helping someone you don't even know that you're helping by being yourself. Another thing is that social attitudes are affected by people knowing people of a certain group. Decline in hatred of gay people has a lot to do with people knowing gay people. I think the same goes for us.

Oh yeah I agree there are other kinds of hatred of trans people that isn't based on misogyny. There is fear of the unknown for instance. Changing something like this is taking something that in some generations is sort of not allowed to be questioned (by society) and questioning it. That's a threatening concept!

--Jay