Research Shows Lack of Support for Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Youth in U.S. School Systems
Inconsequential
America�s schools. Nobody knows how many there are, and very few
educators know what to do with them. Despite extensive advocacy efforts,
trans youth are subjected to bullying and harassment in the classroom;
diagnosed with nonexistent learning disabilities and psychological
problems; and generally misunderstood by their doctors, teachers, and
classmates. As a result, these students get lower grades than their
classmates and are less likely to pursue higher education. The lack of a
basic understanding of trans youth puts them at an extremely high risk
for failure and unsatisfactory performance in schools.
(Authors note: �Transgender� and �trans� are used interchangeably to
refer to transgender, transsexual and gender-nonconforming individuals.
The term �transgender� generally describes people whose physical sex
characteristics do not match their psychological gender identity.)
I spoke with Kim Pearson, the executive director of the national
advocacy organization TransYouth Family Allies, to learn more about the
struggles faced by transgender and gender-variant children in schools2.
The first thing she mentioned was transgender children being diagnosed
with nonexistent conditions: in her experience, trans students who have
not come out to themselves or those around them are often labeled as
�dull or difficult,� and diagnosed with a number of learning
disabilities because of their poor performance in school (81). In other
words, students get diagnosed simply because they are underachieving �
the school treats the symptoms of the problem rather than the cause.
While this can happen to other groups of students, transgender youth are
particularly vulnerable because so few people can recognize the cause of
their problems.