Page 18 | Autumn 2022 Talking about gender and sexual diversity in education continued
In grad school my supervisor , Rob Simon , encouraged me to copy him on any email about any transphobic issues I encountered . All through grad school I would continue to encounter systems with the wrong name , or the wrong honourific , or refusals to print my actual name on my diploma . These are the kind of things that suck your time and energy away from your actual work . I would copy Rob , and he would first respond to the email expressing his concern and then phone the person who was responsible for that area and make them fix it . Knowing that I did not have to fight these battles on my own made a huge difference . It would have been so much better if the university had fixed it ' s systems , but it hadn ' t and Rob Simon used his institutional power to address them .
What are some examples of unsupportive behaviours demonstrated by teachers or professors ?
j wallace skelton : When I first started doing this work , I had a high school principal , who asked me " Why should I let you , a young gay man have access to children ."
When I was advocating for a trans high school athlete , his principal physically assaulted me , throwing me against a concrete wall . She said this was so I would understand what would happen to him if he was in the boy ' s changeroom .
I ' ve encountered principals who have told me it is not possible for them to have an all-gender bathroom at their school , or who have designed processes so onerous that students leave the building to access the bathroom . I ' ve seen teachers send students to the office when they don ' t believe the student is who they say they are , because they have decided the sex marker on the attendance is more authoritative than the student . Teachers who are homophobic , who harass students , who blame students for homophobic or transphobic violence they encounter , who don ' t stop students who are engaging in homophobia or transphobia — An unspeakable amount of casual , thoughtless heterosexism and cissexism exists and gender stereotyping is endemic .
Jacq : Throughout the work that I ' ve done to support parents and students in Saskatchewan , I ' ve heard all kinds of stories from them about what they ' ve experienced . Parents have told me that they were told by openly gay educators , in response to their complaint that their kids were experiencing transphobia at school , that " transphobia doesn ' t happen at this school ," as if being queer means it ' s impossible to perpetuate transphobia . Students have told me about teachers refusing www2 . uregina . ca / education / news