Susan's Place Logo

News:

Based on internal web log processing I show 3,417,511 Users made 5,324,115 Visits Accounting for 199,729,420 pageviews and 8.954.49 TB of data transfer for 2017, all on a little over $2,000 per month.

Help support this website by Donating or Subscribing! (Updated)

Main Menu

Talking at Juvenile Detention Center: Transgender, Bullying: What would you say

Started by JLT1, August 03, 2015, 06:21:59 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

JLT1

Hi,

I was asked what I would say to individuals placed in a juvenile detention center about "bullying and transgender education". Tell me what you think they should know.

Hugs,

Jen   
To move forward is to leave behind that which has become dear. It is a call into the wild, into becoming someone currently unknown to us. For most, it is a call too frightening and too challenging to heed. For some, it is a call to be more than we were capable of being, both now and in the future.
  •  

Rachel

Hi Jen,

I think a lot of younger people do not have an understanding of the basics of what being trans means. There is a lot of ignorance. Many think it is sexual and a choice when it is how the brain is formed and trans is gender not sexuality. So I would outline something like this:

Vocabulary terms (cis and trans)

Transgender brain differences compared to Cisgender

How gender and secondary sexual characteristics do not align with trans and with cis gender is transparent to secondary sex characterizes. 

Pronouns and preferred name and why it is important

MTF and FTM transition and what it involves

Suicide, physical abuse and sexual abuse rates

Comparison between ethnic groups and the above (refer to Injustice at Every Turn)

What is bullying and how you can stop bullying by just one person standing up and being an ally
HRT  5-28-2013
FT   11-13-2015
FFS   9-16-2016 -Spiegel
GCS 11-15-2016 - McGinn
Hair Grafts 3-20-2017 - Cooley
Voice therapy start 3-2017 - Reene Blaker
Labiaplasty 5-15-2017 - McGinn
BA 7-12-2017 - McGinn
Hair grafts 9-25-2017 Dr.Cooley
Sataloff Cricothyroid subluxation and trachea shave12-11-2017
Dr. McGinn labiaplasty, hood repair, scar removal, graph repair and bottom of  vagina finished. urethra repositioned. 4-4-2018
Dr. Sataloff Glottoplasty 5-14-2018
Dr. McGinn vaginal in office procedure 10-22-2018
Dr. McGinn vaginal revision 2 4-3-2019 Bottom of vagina closed off, fat injected into the labia and urethra repositioned.
Dr. Thomas in 2020 FEMLAR
  • skype:Rachel?call
  •  

suzifrommd

I would explain that being trans is something that we're born with. I'd go into how serious dysphoria can be, and that trans people aren't doing it for the thrills or to be different, but because of the dysphoria. If you can talk of some of your experience with dysphoria it might help.

The idea is to make sure they know that this isn't something people are choosing to do. We have to do it.
Have you read my short story The Eve of Triumph?
  •  

LizK

I will jump in here and say a couple of things...making sure they understand that if they don't deal with their feeling now they will have to at some point because if they are trans it won't simply "go away" ever!! It has outlasted me

The other has already been mentioned but ensuring they understand what it would be like for them...kind of role reversal...try and get them to see that the dysphoria will wreck your life as sure as any other disease they care to mention, dysphoria acts on the heart and the soul of the person and can bring not only emotional turmoil but physical manifestations and finally getting them to understand that being trans in not a lifestyle choice but for many a matter of life and death.
Transition Begun 25 September 2015
HRT since 17 May 2016,
Fulltime from 8 March 2017,
GCS 4 December 2018
Voice Surgery 01 February 2019
  •  

Stevi

I think that most people think that everyone that is not cis has in some way managed to make a choice to be trans.  It would be good to impress upon them that it is not a choice.  While each of us makes choices on how we behave with respect to our natal sexual anatomy, sexual preference or gender identity, none of us actually chooses our natal sexual anatomy, our sexual preference or our gender identity.  Challenge them to name the time and place they made the "choice" to be whatever it is that they bullying about before deriding someone else for the "choice" they didn't make either.

Stephanie
  •  

JLT1

Thank you all for your thoughts.  I'm working out my notes so that I don't miss anything. 

I have no idea how I get into these things.  but it's nice to know that you all are there to help.

Hugs,

Jen
To move forward is to leave behind that which has become dear. It is a call into the wild, into becoming someone currently unknown to us. For most, it is a call too frightening and too challenging to heed. For some, it is a call to be more than we were capable of being, both now and in the future.
  •  

Ms Grace

It's a tough call. I did research for an educational resource in a Juvenile detention centre some 20 years ago, spoke to a group of boys and gosh it was an environment I'm glad I was never trapped in. For me, one of biggest fears about being trans was that I could be imprisoned with men as a man. That fear was stronger before I transitioned but it is still there.

Anyway, my impression of the detention centre was that every kid was acting tough because they needed to present that front, in a group of more than four or five that tough act became a line of defence. The more of them the worse it became. So that's what you are up against in a room full of them. So if you're trying to tell a bunch of kids, some of whom have had very little respect shown towards them by adults, family and peers - and some who have done quite violent things - the chance of getting through a message around bullying, especially of trans people, seems to me a tough call indeed.

Good luck though, I hope you have a lot of success!
Grace
----------------------------------------------
Transition 1.0 (Julie): HRT 1989-91
Self-denial: 1991-2013
Transition 2.0 (Grace): HRT June 24 2013
Full-time: March 24, 2014 :D
  •  

JLT1

To move forward is to leave behind that which has become dear. It is a call into the wild, into becoming someone currently unknown to us. For most, it is a call too frightening and too challenging to heed. For some, it is a call to be more than we were capable of being, both now and in the future.
  •