Discrimination Against Transgender Students

The overall experience of the LGBTQ community in America has been a horrific experience for the past 300 plus years. Individuals who share same sex interest were oppressed, discriminated, brutalized, experimented on, and killed due to their alternative lifestyle(s). Elze (2006) confirms these allegations by mentioning...

Janet Mock gives the world a piece of refreshing honesty in her novel, Redefining Realness, relaying her experiences of growing up young, multiracial, poor, and transgender in America. This literary work provides insight to the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of a marginalized and misunderstood population. The American and even LGBT community (lesbian/gay/bisexual) often disregard the struggles of transgender women and men. As a result they are not treated as an equal people; their preferred gender pronouns are conveniently dropped in favor of forms of misidentification, they become subject to imposing interrogations about categories of sex organs and sex practice instead of appreciating questions discussing gender expression experienced by transgender individuals, and they become the topic of jokes and victims of violence. These terrors prove we live in a hegemonic culture

LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual) youth homelessness makes up only 5 to 7 percent of the general youth population, yet up to 40 percent of youth experiencing homelessness. Many LGBTQ youth face harassment, victimization, violence, social stigma, rejection, and discrimination in their families, schools, employment, and social settings. LGBTQ identified youth ages 13 to 17, provides important information regarding how LGBTQ young people experience life in their communities.

Stereotypes in media have been around since the earliest cartoons were drawn. The media gives supposedly identifying traits with images of the stingy Jewish man, the single Hispanic woman cleaning homes to raise her three children, and the “butch” lesbian falling for the beautiful blonde who just happens to glance at her every day in the hallway. These portrayals make up general knowledge about minorities for a lot of people, but their accuracy is questionable at best. While production companies have been making strides towards the better, insufficient representation in the media tends to portray minorities as their negative stereotypes rather than as people.

Over 90% of students who identify themselves as LGBTQ hear discriminating comments on a daily basis at school. People who are from this community have a bigger probability of being victims of hate crimes than any other minority group. This violence is made up of hatred and aggression towards the queer community. Despite personal opinions, everyone deserves to feel safe.

Physical and sexual abuse, whether it is reported or not, is a problem that many prisoners face, however, transgender prisoners are key victims of this violence. Transgender inmates are 13 times more likely to be a victim of sexual assault/rape than non-transgender inmates (Brown 2014). Allen J. Beck (2014) reports an alarming result of 39.3 percent of sexual victimisation among transgender inmates in state & federal prisons, along with, 26.8 percent in local jails throughout America. For transgender women, most of them are incarcerated in male prisons based on their gender at birth. This raises significant risks of sexual assault/rape from the other male inmates as they present as a woman with feminie characteristics and demeanour. The Tasmanian Council for Sex and Gender Diverse People (Australian Human Rights Commission 2011) argued that trans people should not be forced into incarceration on the basis of their gender at birth or put into isolation for their protection.

In “Boys Here, Girls There: Sure, If Equality’s the Goal”, Karen Stabiner writes an essay about same sex schools. In the first paragraph Stabiner opens the essay by saying, “Many parents may be wondering what the fuss was this past week, when the Bush administration endorsed single-sex public schools and classes.” (325) Stabiner is simply saying that many parents were probably surprised that the bush administration was for same sex schools. Stabiner then gives us her view on the topic by saying, “What I’ve learned is this: Single sex education matters, and it matters most to the students who historically have been denied access to it.” (326) Stabiner gives several examples and statistics in her essay to try and support her stand for same sex

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24 (CDC). Students who fall into the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning identity groups report being five times as more likely to miss school because they feel unsafe after being bullied because of their sexual orientation. LGB youth are 4 times more likely, and questioning youth are 3 times more likely, to attempt suicide as their straight peers (CDC). Nearly half of young transgender people have seriously thought about taking their lives, and one quarter report having made a suicide attempt (Grossman and D’Augelli). It is impossible to know the exact suicide rate of LGBTQ youth because sexuality and gender minorities

African Americans have had a long history of oppression. They were forced to be slaved and kept under the white man’s control. They were segregated so that Blacks and Whites do not mix. Today, police brutality on the African American community led to the “Black Lives Matter” movement. The LGBTQ community has also been oppressed. They were described as ‘sinners’ by dominant groups. They were stereotyped to more likely molest and rape heterosexuals. There was also a devastating shooting in an Orlando LGBT night club, killing 49 individuals and injuring countless. Homosexual African Americans are denied access to resources due to their sexual orientation. Resources such as housing, employment, fostering, and other services. They also experience

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

In October 12, 2010, Joel Burns made a public message towards the GLBT teens by sharing a personal story. He delivered an amazing message by sharing also those who’ve been victims of being portrayed as gay, bullying, and suicides. Inspiring the young GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender) teens that life does not end by the words of others who have an oppose mentality. Life does get better once you graduate high school, adventure throughout your adult life, finding someone you may last a lifetime, and building a foundation just like those individuals who singled you out for having different interest. “...that the things would get easier, please stick around, society will change, please live long enough to see it…” (Joel Burns, 2010)

the right to use the restroom he identifies with would be in violation of Title IX. Title IX bans the discrimination on the basis of sex in schools. Transgender would be included as a sex even though it isn’t traditional. The school cannot discriminate against G.G. for being an untraditional or nonconforming sex. This means Title IX prevents the school from denying G.G. the ability to use the restroom he identifies with since other students are allowed to use the restroom consistent with their identified gender (for example how as female uses the girls restroom which she identifies with). To keep the educational opportunities equal for all sexes, including transgender, schools must allow transgender students to use the restroom they identify with. Doing otherwise would create a stigma attached to transgender students (since students could be initially unaware that the individual is transgender) causing their learning environment to become uncomfortable, hurting their studies. Under Title IX, the school isn’t allowed to treat G.G. differently because of his sex,

This case involves Gavin Grimm, a male student at Gloucester High School who will begin his junior year this fall. He is 16 years old student at Gloucester High School located in Gloucester County, Virginia. A transgender male student sue his school board on discrimination ground because it banned him from the boys’ bathroom. He demanded the district allow her to use the boys’ restroom because she identifies as a male. School officials, though, denied the request in December, 2015.

Did you know that LGBTQ youth are twice as likely as their peers to be kicked, shoved, and physically assaulted? On top of that, 92% of LGBTQ youth hear negative messages about having a different sexuality. They feel unsafe and are physically harmed. This happens to people all over the world, and as horrible as it is, many, many people suffer from it every single day of their lives! I want to bring this to light and tell you about what LGBTQ people have been subjected to throughout time, and what they have to deal with on a day to day basis. I also want to tell you about the people who have had to put up with this and ended up pushing up daisies, another thing I want you to hear is how we can help these people who have to suffer every day.

People are different. People all around the world are different. Why do we as different people categorize others based on their skin color or their gender identity. We should all understand what it means to be different. We all have our rights so the LGBTQ community should also have their rights. They should have their freedom.