Transgender Teachers Growing In Numbers

[Kate Thomas]

by The Associated Press

November 23, 2006 - 12:01 am ET
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/11/112206teachers.htm

About 20 transgender teachers are working in classrooms across the country, but more are in the process of ``transitioning,'' experts estimate. That opens up a host of issues the teachers - and their employers and students - have to deal with.

``The question often arises: Are transgender people competent to be employees, and those questions can come from co-workers, management or students,'' said Chris Daley, director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco. ``A lot of that is because there is a lack of information about who transgender people are.''

---------------------------------------------------

For some who have made the transition, what's at issue goes beyond an identity change.

``This is about how we treat people in the workplace in a civil society,'' said Jillian Todd Weiss, an assistant professor of law and society at Ramapo College in New Jersey, who transitioned in 1998, about five years before she began teaching. ``It's not about acceptance, although that would be nice. It's about law and policy, which states that it's illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of gender.''

Daley said the same rules apply to transgender teachers as anyone else.

``Just treat them like you would any other employee,'' he said. ``Give them a supportive, comfortable work environment, and you won't have any problems.''