My Word: District shouldn't cancel Edison gender discussion
By Rebecca Gudeman
Posted: 05/26/2011 01:39:49 PM PDT
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_18147304 (http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_18147304)
In every Alameda school, there are children who don't fit into traditional gender stereotypes. There are boys whose favorite color is pink, girls with short hair, and there are boys and girls who are transgender. We have all heard the horrors that some kids go through in school when they don't fit traditional norms. The intolerance of a few can make life a living hell for anyone who is different.
My friends are the parents of a fabulous child at Edison -- a child who is transgender. But as their child puts it, "No one at my school even knows what that is."
So my friends' child has hidden this true self at Edison due to fears of intolerance, rejection and bullying.