Posted by Maddie on July 3, 2014 at 9:00am PDT

I recently heard CeCe McDonald speak, and the youngest person in the room stood to ask a question. This small human was probably nine or ten, and asked CeCe what other transgender women she looked up to. CeCe named Janet Mock and Marsha P. Johnson, among others, and the moment elicited a collective awwwww from the several hundred people in the room. I thought about how important it is for young humans to learn about the leaders in our multi-faceted struggle for justice.

More: http://www.autostraddle.com/lgbtq-students-need-representation-in-textbooks-and-a-whole-lot-more-243859/

I agree with this. There are a lot of role models for LGB kids. There are openly gay legislators, entertainers, scientists, authors, actors, etc.

There is a HUGE need for transgender role models. The world is full of accomplished, intelligent, hardworking trans people who make great contributions. But the average closeted trans kid who is terrified to come out be cause he/she is a freak doesn't hear about them.

I'm actually working on a way to include Lynn Conway in the history of computer science unit I teach.

This is part of why I don't know when or when not to be stealth, and why I fight to be known as something more than a "->-bleeped-<-got" or "->-bleeped-<-" when I interface with public school kids. Lots of them are even okay with what they call ->-bleeped-<-got or ->-bleeped-<-, but don't seem to have a real understanding of any part of lgbtq identities. I imagine actual trans kids must face a hard road in figuring themselves out.