Children's Lighthouse Learning Center By Madeline Kirksey Essay

Mock, like other trans women of color, had to take steps to accomplish her goals that even compromised her integrity. In the early part of her journey when she first began to openly express [her] femininity a lot of help was received from her friend Wendi who helped her access the hormones that would help her become more fully herself until Mock was able to get her own prescription. Mock also reveals later on that even though she was a high school honor student, a class representative, and someone who wanted to do bigger, better things she ended up working as a prostitute to help pay for her surgery. “The procedure made me no longer feel as self-conscious about my body, which made me more confident and helped me to be more completely myself. Like hormones, it enabled me to more fully inhabit my most authentic self” (Mock). This quote proves transgender people will even resort to illegal measures to live their truth and seek reconciliation with ones

2. An academically and socially struggling 11-year-old female student, Irina, comes to speak with the school counselor, Mrs. Moon, about her increasing awareness of herself as lesbian. Irina’s parents are conservative Catholics and the culture of the school community is likewise politically conservative. She would like to meet in a group with other gay and lesbian students in the school. As a result of the school’s emphasis on the Common Core, group counseling has been eliminated this year. Using an ethical decision-making model, identify what ethical issues exist in this case that a school counselor needs to consider including how to respond to Irina’s request?

Transgender is the term used to describe an individual whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth. The documentary, “Growing up Trans”, is a sensitive clip to watch about young youths who attempt to navigate family, friends, gender, and the medical decisions they face at puberty. “Growing up Trans” focuses mainly on transitioned young youths. The transgender youth from the documentary links to many theories from chapter eight. Theories such as socialization, gender, sexuality, homophobia, transphobia, and microaggression are associated with “Growing up Trans”.

Growing up Trans is about this generation of children/teens who have gender dysphoria. That is they do not identify with the gender of their biological sex. (Knox p. 51) “Just a generation ago, it was adults, not children, who changed genders, usually late in life and often in shadows. But today as transgender adults gain wider acceptance, many children are transitioning...”(2:59-3:28)

This helped her parents to start to grasp her sexual orientation, but gender was another aspect. Her parents still felt that there was something missing from the story. After being introduced to the term “transgender”, Hunter told her parents she wanted to make the change. It took her telling them three times for the message to get through to Katy and Mac. It wasn’t that they didn’t accept her- they weren’t sure how to react. Katy told her daughter that “just because you’re an artist and just because you like pretty things, that doesn’t mean you’re transgender. It doesn’t mean you’re a girl." Hunter started using hormone therapy months later, to help block the male hormones. She is now able to pass as a cis-woman from a visual

Because of their relative invisibility in public life, many people have a poor grasp on what being transgender really is. To be fair, this is a complicated issue, encompassing its own subsection of the LGBT+ community with its own unique groups. To put it simply, a transgender person is somebody who identifies as a gender other than the one written on their birth certificate. This often means identifying as the opposite sex, but some transgender people live in between the gender binary or outside it altogether. Typically, transgender people live express their identity in different ways: dressing as their preferred gender, going through hormone therapy to alter their bodies, undergoing sex reassignment surgery to change their genitals, or a

“I opened my suitcase and put on a bra and some jeans and a blue knit top.” (pg.82) The biggest difficulty Boylan faces is herself. She had a hard time accepting the fact that she was transgender because she was aware of what society thought of it. She decides to go to a cliff and when she does the wind blew her backward. (pg. 82) “Are you all right, son? You’re going to be all right.” (Pg.82) This gave her comfort, even after years pass it still gives her comfort. Boylan also discusses how difficult it was to come out to her mother. She was worried because her mother was a religious woman. When she came out to her mother, her mother told her “I would never turn my back on my child.” (Transgender Lives.)

Suppose that a man is sitting in a McDonalds and his 8-year-old daughter needs to use the restroom. Assuming that she can handle herself he lets her go, as she is walking to the restroom a 40 something year old potbellied man in a pink dress also starts walking towards the female restroom. Now if he gets up to stop this man he could be fined and in certain instances be arrested. Because of Title IX (9), if someone ‘identifies’ as a certain gender they can use the restroom that they identify as. This has risen major concerns around the country. The laws protecting Trans-rights and Title IX should be disbarred. This should be mostly because it is leading kids to believe that if they think differently, they should get some-sort of special treatment,

Jazz is getting help from experts for things like fighting for her rights or getting diagnosed. Also, authority and permission is being shown for certain things by her parents. “Dr. Marilyn pulled put two stuffed dolls that looked like fake cabbage patch kids…” (Jennings, 11). “That was the first day I ever heard the word “transgender”.” (Jennings, 11). Jazz had her first appointment made by her parents to finalize the fact that she was transgender. Dr. Marilyn, a therapist who worked with both gender issues and kids, pulled out the two dolls, one boy and one girl. She asks Jazz what she is and she points to the boy. Then she asks Jazz what she wants to be and she points to the girl. That was when she diagnosed Jazz with GID (Gender Identity Disorder). Dr. Marilyn told her parents that she is definitely transgender. Jazz was so happy to finally find out why her identity was confusing her. She loved telling her friends and her teachers at school because she wasn't self conscience. The message behind this is to not be scared to tell people something unique about you and to be more open to others, not hide behind the real you. “... I got permission to start dressing the way I wanted at home…” (Jennings, 18). Jazz’s dad was not one-hundred percent on board with her being trans. She has many conversations with her dad on the situation, keeping in mind she is five at the time. Her dad gets very concerned about what the world might think of her. He knows that being a girl is what makes her happy and finally let her wear a dress for the first time. This shows the reader to never give up convincing their parents about who they are or what they want to wear because sooner or later, they will understand what makes their child

According to a November 28, 2014 opinion article written by Alex Paige within the Oregonian news, the Transgender Day of Remembrance occurs annually on November 20th. It is a day to remember transgender people who have been killed by acts of violence and discrimination towards the trans community. It also serves as a way to raise awareness of these crimes. The author, a transgender woman, writes her reflections of the day through discussion of the meaning, the history and the importance of it to her. Overall, her main idea of the article is to assert that the struggles against transphobia, hate, and acts of violence are still a huge issue today. Which emphasizes the importance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance

The gender reassignment surgery involved Bruce’s testes being removed- a vagina was not made at this time. Dr. Money advised his parents to raise him as a girl and never tell anyone about the surgery, not even Bruce. Bruce was then given the name Brenda. Brenda’s parents treated him and raised him as a girl. There was never any discussion made regarding the surgery Brenda received as a toddler. Brenda and Brian went to yearly therapy sessions to follow up with their therapy. In later years, Dr. Money wrote and published an article about man/boy raised as a woman/girl. He never mentioned Brenda’s name in his report, but the report was about him. He left out a lot of identifying information. During the yearly check up, Brenda was always required to get naked and look at sexually explicit images. The doctor would even make Brian stand behind Brenda checking for sexual arousal. During childhood Brenda lived as a girl but still had male tendencies. She fought like boys, did not like baby dolls, and she still walked like a boy. Brenda took estrogen until

Kathy Witterick and David Stoker gave birth to a baby named Storm on January 1st 2011, they shocked the world by deciding not to announce the gender of Storm. They thought of this as a tribute to freedom and to give baby Storm a choice instead of placing limits on their freedom. However, because of this, a huge controversy rose. The controversy in this case was that it was felt by many, that the parents were turning their child into a bizarre lab experiment. Furthermore, many thought it had to do with the parents and not the children and it was felt that the parents were being very selfish and not thinking about their children. Many critics believed that there could be many boundaries for children because if there are no boundaries placed they will just wander aimlessly. There are pros and cons regarding this event that has taken place. To start, the pros of doing what Storm’s parents did, are that they let the kids express themselves without restriction and without holding them back, they set an example for many parents who wanted to participate in the same event, but were too scared to, and Witterick, and Stoker, showed the world that we do not always have to conform to or follow gender norms set in place for us by society. The cons of their approach, were that after they came out in public and the article was published in 2011, they received backlash from all ends of the spectrum and many criticisms. They were also told that what they were doing

Everyone needs a support system that they can trust, especially students. If a student does not feel comfortable in their own home, how can we expect them to feel comfortable at school? Some teachers assume that the parents of a child are someone that the child can trust and talk to, but that is not always true. It is important for teachers to realize the role they play, as a support system for many students.

Transitioning from a killing machine to a civilian can be a difficult task for anyone, and transitioning from a man to a woman can be just as hard, and both can be traumatizing to the mind. Kristen Beck, a Navy SEAL veteran, has gone through both transitions and shares her story in the film Lady Valor. Kristen has gone through the horrifying events of war and has faced the hardships of being transgender, both of which have been tough on Kristen both physically and mentally. From a male war hero to a female veteran, Kristen has gone through several experiences that are all psychologically interesting.

Likewise, the film shows that transgenders are questioned for their existence. Some parents in the film indicated that they had hoped that “there would be another way” and that they did not understand why and how their children were gender-nonconforming. One of the parents portrayed a transgender life as “eternal death”. The film showed that even the closest people of these children complied to the concept of deviance and solidified the concept through their hostility towards the concept of transgender and their effort to bring their children back to the norm which in this case is gender conformation. It amazed me to see how strongly some parents felt about “preventing” their children from becoming the deviants. Burt Blanchard, father of John, was going to get divorced with his wife than to agree with her and approve his son to change his name legally from Giana to John. He was willing to give up his relationship with his family in order to have his child conform to gender normativity. His determination to not let his child change his gender made me think about how narrowly structured our concepts of “norm” is and