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TransActive Supports
Imagine a school
where you can be you...
On this page...
STAR Training
"That's So Gay" Is Not About Being Gay
The Oregon Safe Schools Act
Isn't This A Private Matter?
Breaking Down Stereotypes
TransActive offers a wide range of gender identity/gender expression focused, sliding-scale fee based educational & support services through our "Supporting Trans Awareness & Respect" (STAR) training program.
These interactive workshops and training offerings are engaging, accessible and innovative. They include display, hard copy and participatory components designed to inform, inspire and yes, even entertain those who attend.
Whether you choose a 90 minute introductory workshop or a full-day in-service training, TransActive STAR can provide you, your family or your organization with up-to-date, experienced, fact-based and compassionate information regarding child and youth gender non-conformity and transgender identity.
For more information about STAR Training for your school or district, please contact us.
The most common basis for student-on-student bullying is physical appearance.
The second most common reason (and one could argue they are related) is gender non-conformity and/or real or perceived sexual orientation.
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health and Boston Children's Hospital have found that a key factor in post traumatic stress disorder is bullying and violence related to childhood gender non-conforming behavior.
Feminine or androgynous appearing/behaving boys are the most common target - followed by masculine or androgynous appearing girls.
Whether a student is actually gay or straight may be irrelevant in a bullying scenario. We know this because:
So-called "straight acting" (gender conforming) students are, for the most part, not subject to the same degree of social marginalization and verbal/physical harassment and violence as their more "gay acting" (gender non-conforming) classmates.
Bullying & harassment (by both children & adults) based upon gender non-conformity begins at the early elementary school stage - years before "sexual orientation" becomes pertinent or relevant.
Our culture tolerates a considerable wider range of gender expression from female bodied children than it does from male bodied children - which generally means that gender non-conformity in boys is seen, unfairly, as more problematic and even alarming that it is for girls.
As an educator, you are in a position to play a key role in modeling for your students acceptance, understanding and appreciation for those children who may not experience or express their gender identity in a way that conforms with the "M" or "F" that appears next to their name in school records.
As of the 2009 school year, all Oregon school districts (public and charter) must comply with the law as stated within the Oregon Safe Schools Act and have anti-bullying policies in place that specifically cover transgender and other gender non-conforming students.
Combined with our STAR Training program, TransActive's "How-To Guide for Oregon Public and Charter Schools" will provide your school district with not only the facts on what is required but tips on how to implement supportive and inclusive policies.
Yes... and no. Transgender and gender non-conforming students can be deeply affected by societal attitudes and rejection. This includes overt and covert pressure to conform to gender stereotypes.
The pervasive expectation of gender conformity is invisible to the majority of cisgender people. And most people are cisgender. For students who experience or express their gender in non-stereotypical ways, daily life can be a constant reminder that they are different from their peers.
For more than forty-years the general public has gotten bits and pieces of information about the lives of some transgender and gender non-conforming people from television and radio talk shows, tabloid newspapers, autobiographies and dramatic, farcical theatrical portrayals. And because the media is first and foremost in the business of entertainment and ratings, they have focused the majority of that coverage on individuals and situations deemed to be at the 'fringes' of mainstream culture.
These media representations result in marginalized and sensationalized perceptions of what it means to experience and/or express your gender in non-traditional ways - and no segment of the population has been more negatively impacted by these stereotypes than children and youth who are, or who are perceived to be, gender non-conforming.
Rejecting sensationalized, hyper-sexualized and marginalized expectations of who transgender children and youth are, or who they will grow to be is the first and most important step an educator, mentor, advisor or caregiver can take in providing a safer, more respectful and more nurturing learning environment.
1. The opposite of transgender; someone who is cisgender has a gender identity that is congruent with their socially recognized sex.
