<p>So Smith will allow males to attend Smith, if their birth certificate says " females", but they won’t allow females to attend if their birth certificate says" male".</p>
<p>Since the actual surgery is complicated & expensive, I expect many college age students will be waiting to have the surgery, but also IMO, whether to have the surgery seems a separate issue to how they are being identified.</p>
<p>Smith is a private college and can do what they want obviously.
Wong will probably be happier at a school that is more inclusive.</p>
<p>Barnard allows the transitioning students to remain but after they transition they are housed in Columbia dorms.</p>
<p>The issue of sports was raised in the seventies. Renee Richard, who had been a man was more more successive as a female professional tennis player than she was as a man. She was allowed to play, but there were complaints stating that she still had the skeleton of a man, i. e. heavier shoulders, longer arms, narrower pelvis(running?)</p>
<p>I think the only real issue for most students and parents is privacy. The MA rules seem to accommodate the desires of the transgendered student at the expense of the non-transgendered ones.
Note there is no similar accommodation on behalf of the non-transgendered kids. I would be willing to bet that most non-trasngendered students do not want to be in the same locker or restroom as a transgendered member of the opposite sex. The MA rules ignores them.
</p>
<p>There was a transgendered girl (to male) at my son’s HS. She insisted on being treated like one of the boys, including using the men’s room. The boys were not happy about this.</p>
<p>I have no problems with 90% of the accommodations that MA wants to make for transgendered kids, but I think that allowing invasions of privacy of non-transgendered kids for the sake of political correctness is too much.</p>
<p>There was a story recently on the CNN website about a 6-year old boy who decided to be a female. So she was declared a girl, changed name, etc. The school made all the accommodations except not allowing her to use girls’ bathrooms. The unisex bathrooms and the nurse’s bathroom were made available. The parents pulled the child out of school and sued. They also took the story to the media and allowed the child’s photograph to be displayed. </p>
<p>Now, I wish all transgender people to have the same rights as anyone and be respected. But if I had little girls in that school, I would side with the administration. Why the rights of one kid should trump the rights to privacy of many other kids? Also, as a woman I would feel uncomfortable being in a restroom with someone who looks like a man, even though this person considers herself a female. Don’t know the answers to these dilemmas.</p>
<p>^I read that case as well, but had a different take. Maybe I’m not understanding but I’m not clear how this child’s use of a girls’ restroom would invade the other childrens’ privacy? Especially boy to girl transgender, as girls’ restrooms have private stalls. </p>
<p>In the case of adults, the person transitioning would begin to look like the new gender, so less discomfort than you might imagine. I have done training in the workplace to help transgender employees make the transition and to educate coworkers. There’s often fear based on the unknown, which can be addressed with open minds and empathy for the person transitioning as people realize that is the person going through the most upheaval.</p>
I currently have female student who is obviously taking pains to look like a boy. She uses a nickname of her given name that could be male or female (in fact more often male). I have no idea whether she is transgendered or planning to be or whether this is some kind of phase akin to unusual piercings, tattoos, and goth clothing. I don’t feel inclined to ask. Sometimes these situations are not as black and white as they might seem.</p>
<p>By definition, he could as long as there aren’t specific instructions on whatever form he’s filling out. Not everyone looks like what their “race” is (or what others THINK they should look like). My mom is from Spain (Hispanic) and has light skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. </p>
<p>This is completely different from sex/gender. </p>
<p>There is a VERY important passage in here that some are clearly missing: </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Contrary to what many have stated/assumed, you cannot just wake up one day and go “Oh, today I’m a boy!” and expect to be catered to. That’s not how this works.</p>
<p>One doesn’t wake up one day believing they’re a different gender, AND this feeling absolutely can therefore happen to children. My eyes were opened by a patient (I’m a pediatrician) who was in my care since her birth. As soon as she could, she dressed like a boy, would only tolerate short hair. She had a very pretty feminine mom and several sisters. We saw this easily by three years of age. This was a small town. I’d go to the store (where her grandma worked) and the grandma would say to me, “You have to tell [H] to wear a dress! We keep telling [H’s mom] to make her wear dresses!” She just kept telling her mom she was a boy. It was quite clear she felt it to her core, even at a young age.</p>
<p>It really opened my eyes and more so our staff, all women who grew up small town girls in rural America. Luckily this little girl’s mom was her champion. I’m not sure what her future holds, but I hope she finds continued support.</p>
<p>I am appalled by the way this title sensationalized a very real issue. I have reported the original post and hope others will follow suit as a reminder to CC admins that disrespect to the LGBT community is not acceptable. Wow. Absolutely appalled.</p>
<p>Sylvan, I’m sorry if I was being unclear. Of course you shouldn’t ask or make an assumption in a situation like that! It sounds like you’re being considerate and respectful.</p>
<p>What I am referring to is a student who actually starts the transition process during high school, has the parents meet with the school, and teachers are informed that John is now Jane. Teachers are unable to put their own attitudes aside, are uncomfortable with the situation, and repeatedly slip up with the name and the pronouns. If the student is new to the school (and students often do change schools over a situation like this if possible due to bullying) the student really just wants to be known as Jane to her classmates, and teachers doing this actually ruins the chance of that, opening the student up to ostracizing and and bullying. I realize that this can be new for people to deal with and everyone makes mistakes, but there are teachers that do this on purpose.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I bet that if those kids wanted to use a private bathroom in the nurse’s office to change, they could as well. I mean this with all due respect, because many people don’t have familiarity with transgender issues, but the way that your post is written makes it seem like you don’t understand quite what transgender means. The issue is not a girl wanting to be treated like one of the boys and ogle them while they’re changing.</p>
<p>"Are parents the ones filing college aps? "</p>
<p>The article is about rules for elementary and secondary education. </p>
<p>So the question is a legal one for elementary, middle, and high schools. Can a 10 year old show up in school and ask for a change in sex when the parents object to such a thing?</p>
<p>^ It is not considered parental abuse for social services to be involved. They are not breaking a law. The education board has made up a policy for themselves which may or may not be legal.</p>
<p>I promise you that you won’t get anywhere. Look who authored the original post. I realized years ago that anti-trans comments here are allowed to pass unchallenged, and are thereby effectively encouraged, as long as the awful things people say are directed against trans people as a whole rather than naming any individual person who’s a member here. The LGBT community is not a major constituency here, and being respectful to the “T” part of that community is hardly a high priority. I’m not criticizing the policy, since they can do whatever they want (after all, CC is neither an employer nor a place of public accommodation!); just stating a fact. Some of the most respected commenters here – people with otherwise consistent reputations for being “progressive”* – say the most staggeringly ignorant things about trans people, including consistently misgendering them and promulgating entirely fictitious scare stories, and I don’t even bother arguing with them anymore. Life is too short.</p>
<p>Donna</p>
<p>*Bigotry against trans people does not correlate much with political views, in my experience. There are plenty of conservatives, like Zoosermom, who are very trans-friendly, and plenty of so-called liberals who are not. If there’s any way of predicting, it’s that male commenters – wherever they fall on the political spectrum – have tended to be the most ignorant, and the most unpleasant, towards trans people.</p>
<p>wow, i just noticed that the person who started this thread is a ‘senior advisor’ for this site? many of the threads he starts are nutty. i always assumed he was a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>You are not allowed to make comments about the moderators. I got “dinged” for this when I first joined. (Please don’t ding me again - I’m just trying to be informative! ) That is why certain comments will be removed. This is a privately owned site, afterall, so we must follow the rules if we want to participate.</p>
) That is why certain comments will be removed. This is a privately owned site, afterall, so we must follow the rules if we want to participate.</p>