Including the right to use the restroom of my choice.
I found this out from a teacher of mine who had checked in as to what she should do with regard to my name and whatnot, and if there was anything she should know.
She said the reply she got was that the school was fully supportive of me, and that "Sara has the right to use whichever restroom she chooses".
Wow.
What a relief.
I had had a teacher the first day of class last week say "Oh, ok, you just have to let me know when you are going to the bathroom so that I can know..." In response to my mentioning to her the use of pronouns and Trans. status.
I was not quite sure how to take that, and it left me feeling very uncomfortable.
After talking about it with the Director of student Afairs (also a personal favorite former professor) we talked and I decided it might be best to wait until the next class to be sure that there was some predjudice involved.
After talking to my Legal class teacher today, I feel much relieved, as much of my stress was due to being unsure of what my rights were.
As far as the school is concerned, it seems, they support me fully, and I have the right to use whatever restroom I please.
Which means I don't nessicarily have to let my teacher know when I am going to use the restroom as she so implied.
This changes my stance as it means if I choose to accomodate her request, I am doing so out of my own free will and out of politeness for her.
Not because I have to. Which is a big deal to me.
This is great. Apparently I am not the first student they've run across regarding this.
As Nichole W. would say "I do so love my battles that never start".
This is great.
If you want to go to a comercial art school, AI seems the place to go.
Wow.
I feel so much better.
I hate stress. I have been freaking out about this the last couple of days.
Sorry.
Sara
wow.. that is really good news... im very happy for you :D
Thanks Renate! Thanks Beth!
yeah, once again, I am proved that 90 percent of it was in my head.
Nothing to be an issue over!
Yay!
ALRIGHT SARAH!!!!! CONGRATS!!!!!!!
Thank you, :angel: Funny!
I'm so happy for you Sara! :D Seems this is the week for trans students. ;)
Hope things continue to go smoothly for you. :D
You too!
Thank you so much!
What a great day for trans students!
That is awesome that you're school is so supportive!
I know that the University of Calgary is supportive too (I'm planing on going there, after SRS, etc, and possibly going into the psych program... but I trying to decide between being a psychologist or a psychiatrist, which are to very different programs).
Actually, one of the professors at the University of Calgary is trans, and I had the opportunity to hear her story at a little get together at the Mount Royal College (Calgary) during their Positive Space forum on transgender needs. It's good to hear that schools are opening up. In her experience, the University was very welcoming, and accommodating. She never had one complaint from the staff, and none of her students have ever complained, and in fact, she had piles of positive emails from them! The only complaint she got was from one student's parent... that's it! Which is amazing, out of thousands of people, only one parent complained. She teaches business classes.
Now, I've heard of some places that are nasty. The woman who runs PFLAG is a mother of a trans girl (and sometimes mothers to us all -- she's the most awesomest mom ever), is constantly fighting with the school that her daughter is going to in Montreal (Concordia University). I've heard the stories, and some of the teachers are pretty mean, going to the point of calling her an "it" and one teacher refused to have her attend class, and the University just shurged its shoulders and did nothing until she really complained, and she even had to get a lawyer involved! And Concordia is supposed to be a good University, and very difficult to get in! It's really sad that some Universities are ignorant still, especially ones that sit and boast about how good they are, etc. But it's great to hear that several of them have opened up and are welcoming.
The University of Calgary has several good programs, and it also has a psychologist on site that specializes in GID (among other things), and I believe they actually have a part of the program where you can specialize in treating GID paitents (there's another psychologist in town, who's gay, and he took the program there, and works there as well as in his own practice, and he helps GID paitents as well as gay/lesbian/bi, etc). (In Alberta, the clinical term is GID and I have yet to see any doctor use the term Transexual, which they consider out-dated. They also call it transgendered, but define transgender as someone with GID, but do not include cross-dressing and being a drag queen as being transgendered. I know that in the world it's different, but it's interesting to see how they define things differently and medically up here. They also call SRS, GRS or corrective surgery. I got a little kit with all of this information, and again, people argue the usage of words, etc, and where you are the definition could be different.)
Which is why I'm considering going into that field. I've always loved psychology (I took some courses in it), and it would be cool if I could one day help other trans people make the transformation.
But, Congrats, again, it's good to hear that your school is supportive!
--natalie :)
Quote from: Sarah on January 15, 2008, 10:18:20 PM
Thanks Renate! Thanks Beth!
yeah, once again, I am proved that 90 percent of it was in my head.
Nothing to be an issue over!
Yay!
Congratulations, Sarah! Good show!
You're quite right about what goes on in our heads. 90% of it never happens and the other 10% isn't as bad as we feared. I'm glad to see that was your case.
My stats are likely off but I post them because whatever one does, they should undertake it with a firm belief that they will get what they came for, stairways to Heaven not included. If one starts a project fearing failure, it will fail. If one goes in with a winning attitude, they will likely win.
As they say on Broadway, "Break a leg!"
Wing Walker
A Tilt of The Wings to You!
Looks like your fears, although they may have been well founded, everything turned out to be ok. It's the gathering of the guts prior to actually coming out full time is the scariest part, afterwards it just gets better, well it did for me. the next biggest step you will also have to build up the guts for is the surgery, which is also not the easiest thing to go through. Just don't worry or think about the surgery until it is time to do so.
Cindy
Posted on: January 18, 2008, 02:37:17 AM
Wow! I'm happy for you for the decision of going to school for a course in psychology Natalie. Well I think I'm a little bit to old to think about going back to school, but then I have twenty years of experience as a social worker I am also looking into doing some type of support work with TS's. Another nice thing is that is all TS people here govern their own agenda's and run their own support system and meetings.
I will send a prayer for your success.
Cindy