I work at an Aquarium where we teach marine biology to thousands of students each year. Part of our presentation is to talk about sex change in fish. Quite a few fish species change sex at some stage in their lives, e.g. Nemo, our Disney clown fish, would have become a girl at around 4 years of age. We had a school group in recently led by an obviously transgender teacher, and our instructor chose to leave out the part of our presentation on sex change, as she thought it might make the transgender teacher uncomfortable.
My take on this is that our trans teacher would have benefitted from the students learning that sex change is not only part of nature, but quite common.
What do you think?
Allie
I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately some people handle us with kid gloves, more out of fear of doing something wrong I am sure but there are times when it does us a disservice. Familiarity is the single most thing that I can see in gaining us acceptance, the second is education. Seems like a wasted opportunity if you ask me.
Quote from: Nightfall on March 30, 2019, 07:29:24 PM
I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately some people handle us with kid gloves, more out of fear of doing something wrong I am sure but there are times when it does us a disservice. Familiarity is the single most thing that I can see in gaining us acceptance, the second is education. Seems like a wasted opportunity if you ask me.
I agree!
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Yes, I agree that's a very cool feature in nature and might help some people understand us. A trans teacher must be pretty tough already.
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I am a transgender teacher and I have to say I have no issues with who I am. That being the case I would expect such a presentation to be complete for the education of my class! If they drew parallels to my experience and asked questions I would answer them. It is after all, nature, and nature makes us all just the way we are.
Thank you all for your answers. I will talk about this at our next staff meeting, (I'm not out at work) as I believe our staff are operating under the belief the trans people are very easily offended. I think our lesson plan is suitable for everyone, including trans community. As Randy said, a non passing trans teacher at high school would have to be tough!
Allie
Quote from: Nightfall on March 30, 2019, 07:29:24 PM
I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately some people handle us with kid gloves, more out of fear of doing something wrong I am sure but there are times when it does us a disservice. Familiarity is the single most thing that I can see in gaining us acceptance, the second is education. Seems like a wasted opportunity if you ask me.
Hello Nightfall
I agree that sometimes we receive the "kid gloves" approach either because the other person may be embarrassed or for fear of doing something wrong.
Absolutely YES. Familiarity and Education are the 2 most significant aspects to breed acceptance of us.
Hugs
Pamela
Quote from: Allie Jayne on March 31, 2019, 03:12:04 AM
I believe our staff are operating under the belief the trans people are very easily offended. I think our lesson plan is suitable for everyone, including trans community.
Allie
Hello again Allie
I also encounter this misapprehension that some members of the general public think we are easily offended. I think this is based on the small minority of us that may be so and demonstrate publicly that they are.
I am sure you would agree that most of us are not easily offended and usually we take offence only if we are either insulted or purposefully misgendered.
Hugs
Pamela
Hi again Pamela! You are right, many of us are possibly sensitive or embarrassed as we perceive our lives to be odd, or very different. Teaching people that nature has provided sex change as a normal life function of many animals make our lives more normal, and shows that we should be more comfortable with our path. I feel if the masses had this knowledge, gender change would be way more accepted as a normal part of life for some people. I will keep going, one student class at a time, and see if it can make a difference!!
Allie