Supporting Transgender Students
By Effective School Solutions
The current mental health crisis among our country’s young people is far reaching, affecting youth in all groups and at all socioeconomic levels. Yet certain populations are especially vulnerable. For instance, research shows that LGBTQ youth experience more mental health struggles than their heterosexual peers. And within this group, transgender young people are the most vulnerable of all. In addition to the challenges their non-transgender peers are grappling with, they experience a set of issues that are uniquely their own.
Survey data put out by the CDC suggests that 1.8% of high school students identify as transgender. It’s crucial for educators to understand the distinct issues these students face and to find ways to support transgender young people to help them thrive.
What Is Transgender?
The term transgender is used to describe people whose gender identity — their internal sense of being male, female, or something else — is at odds with the sex they were assumed to be at birth. A transgender girl experiences herself as a girl, even though she was thought to be male when she was born. A transgender boy identifies as and experiences himself as male despite being perceived as female at birth. The term cisgender was coined in the 1990s (cis being the opposite of trans in Latin) to describe the majority of people whose internal gender identity aligns with their sex at birth.
In recent years, the term transgender has sometimes been broadened to include people who identify as neither male nor female. There are also a number of other terms used to describe these young people and adults, such as non-binary, gender nonconforming, or genderqueer.
Understanding the Issues Transgender Young People Face
Being transgender is not a mental illness, but young people who identify as transgender experience unique challenges that may affect their mental health. This isn’t the case for all transgender youth. Some experience no mental health issues, and others may have mental health struggles that are unrelated to their gender identity. Yet for some trans young people, mental health challenges and gender identity are interrelated, a fact that frequently has less to do with their being transgender and more to do with the social stigma and lack of acceptance they experience — in their families, among their peers, and in the wider society.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, transgender youth are twice as likely as their non-transgender peers to experience depressive symptoms, seriously consider suicide, and actually attempt suicide.
Lack of Acceptance by Family
Ideally, being loved and accepted by one’s family is something a young person can count on, no matter what. But far from unconditional love, what many transgender youth experience within their families is rejection. While even the most accepting families may experience an initial period of adjustment in recognizing and affirming a transgender child, a great many parents and caregivers lovingly embrace and support their trans child’s gender identity. Some parents, however, are unable or unwilling to recognize and accept this facet of their child. They may become dismissive, rejecting, abusive, and even violent. Others may simply deny the child’s basic internal reality, which the child perceives as a fundamental rejection of who they are.
Several studies have shown that the lack of familial acceptance takes a powerful toll on the mental health of trans people of all ages. One 2016 study found that among more than 3,400 transgender or gender nonconforming adults, “42.3% reported a suicide attempt, and 26.3% reported misusing drugs or alcohol to cope with transgender-related discrimination. . . . Family rejection was associated with increased odds of both behaviors. Odds increased significantly with increasing levels of family rejection.” Other research has shown similar findings.
Bullying
We know that being bullied is a painful experience for many young people. But transgender youth are at an increased risk of being subjected to harassment, hostility, and violent behavior. Recent data collected by the CDC reveals that young trans people are much more likely to be bullied at school than their non-transgender peers. For example, 43% of transgender youth have been bullied on school property, compared to 18% of their non-trans peers. Further, 29% of transgender youth have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property, compared to 7% of their peers who are cisgender. And a survey conducted by GLSEN, a nonprofit established by teachers to support LGBTQ youth, found that more than 77% of transgender students had experienced episodes of discrimination, compared to 46% of their non-trans peers.
What’s more, transgender youth can be subject to harassment and abuse in non-school settings as well, including from transphobic strangers who react to them with antagonism and hostility.
Anti-Transgender Legislation
In recent years, conservative legislators have moved to enact anti-transgender legislation across the country, targeting transgender students. While initial efforts took aim at single-sex bathrooms, more than 100 bills have been introduced to limit transgender students’ participation in single-sex sports and extracurricular activities. There’s evidence that the national debates that have taken place on these issues is causing support for transgender students to erode, and research by EdWeek breaks this out.
In their survey conducted in October and November of 2021, “less than 41 percent of educators and school and district administrators told the EdWeek Research Center that transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom or locker room that aligns with the gender with which they identify, as opposed to the sex assigned at birth. That’s down from 51 percent of these key school staff members who said they supported transgender students” in a 2017 survey. This legislation is representative of society’s lack of acceptance of transgender people of all ages.
It’s clear that transgender individuals, young and old, face discrimination, rejection, and hostility on many levels. Yet as institutions dedicated to the education and well-being of young people, schools must be places of acceptance and safety for all students. Your classroom can be a place where transgender students are fully accepted and where their humanity is recognized, appreciated, and affirmed. Below are five steps teachers can take to help create a more inclusive classroom that will help trans students feel welcome.
Educate Yourself
You may not know a lot about transgender issues, and you may even have your own unexamined biases. However, the first step in creating a safe and supportive classroom for your students is to learn more about the transgender experience. Taking the time to familiarize yourself with the basics of transgender identities will help ensure you treat transgender students with the same respect as their cisgender peers. Visit some LGBTQ websites, read LGBTQ literature, talk to fellow teachers and friends. It’s best to avoid asking trans students themselves to educate you about their experience or to teach you about transgender issues. The more you take it upon yourself to learn about and understand transgender identities, the more supportive you can be.
Use Students’ Preferred Name and Pronoun
Our names are deeply intertwined with our identity and sense of ourselves, and in order to show trans students respect, it’s imperative to use the names and pronouns they themselves use. This is true even if their families are rejecting of their trans identity. Consistently using students’ preferred name and pronoun demonstrates your acceptance of students’ identity and models this acceptance for others in the classroom.
Research shows that the effects of affirming students’ identities in this way are far from trivial. According to a recent study by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, it can actually save lives. The study found that using trans youths’ chosen names at home, at school, at work, and with friends reduced depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behavior — and the results were significant. Usage of chosen names resulted in a 29% decrease in suicidal ideation and a 56% decrease in suicidal behavior.
If you inadvertently use the wrong pronoun or use a student’s birth name rather than their chosen name, simply apologize, correct yourself, and move on.
Strive to Be Gender Neutral in the Classroom
Become aware of the language you use and opt for gender-neutral terms that are inclusive. This is especially important for young people who may not feel identified with either gender and who feel left out when you say, for example, “Ladies and gentlemen.” Avoid phrases like “Boys and girls” and “Ladies and gentlemen” and instead use gender-neutral terms such as “Class,” “Students,” “Scholars,” or “Friends.” Similarly, avoid using gender as the basis for groupings or seating arrangements. To form groups, use numbering or other neutral methods.
Put a Stop to Bullying
If you witness or hear about episodes of anti-trans bullying or harassment inside or outside the classroom, step in immediately and put a stop to it. It’s up to teachers, administrators, and other school staff to promote a zero-tolerance stance to bullying of all kinds, making it clear that such behavior has no place at your school.
Incorporate Positive Representations of LGBTQ People in the Curriculum
For groups facing discrimination, it can be affirming and empowering to learn about others who have walked a similar path. One way to provide this for trans students is to include representations of LGBTQ people and topics. According to GLSEN, doing so can “improve transgender and nonbinary students’ school experiences by exposing them to positive representations of people who share their identity and by messaging to these students that their identities and experiences are important and valuable.” Moreover, exposing all students to these representations can help them to be more inclusive towards others who may differ from them in one or more ways.
Like all young people, transgender youth need the support and recognition of the adults in their lives, and that includes teachers. By providing a consistently respectful and accepting presence, you can become a powerful counterbalance to forces of prejudice and discrimination in our society that endanger the mental health and well-being of trans youth.
