️⚧️ Hasn’t had surgery or HRT (or never wants to)
️⚧️ Doesn’t feel like their true self yet
We see you, it gets better, it’s YOUR day too. ✨
Check out our resource list specifically for trans and gender non-confirming youth here, and join us to celebrate live with some trans joy on Twitch and TikTok!
Twitch: Join us at 7:30pm EST/4:30 PST on March 31 for a chat with our Ambassadors, Youth Voices, and streamers about what visibility means to them, recent anti-trans legislation, and of course, self care and and queer joy. Streaming from our Twitch channel: twitch.tv/itgetsbetter.
TikTok: Watch our It Gets Better TikTok Creator Somaya perform original music live and share a little bit of their LGBTQ+ journey! Happening March 31 at 9:15pm EST/6:15 PST! Follow using the link in our bio or on TikTok @ itgetsbetter.
But to dig deeper, Olson and her team focused on more than 300 children who had undergone a social transition.
About two-thirds were transgender boys, meaning boys who had been assigned a female gender at birth; about one-third were transgender girls.
Solely on the social transition front, Olson. noted that over five years only about 7% of the children transitioned back at least once.
By the end of the study period, 94% of the kids continued to identify as the gender they had embraced when first socially transitioning. (That figure includes the just over 1% who had at one point re transitioned back to their birth gender, before then returning back again to the gender to which they had initially transitioned.)
Of the 6% who did not stick with their initial transition, a little more than 3% described themselves as non-binary by the end of the study period, while just under 3% said they identified with their birth gender. (Identifying with one’s birth gender was notably more common among kids who had socially transitioned before the age of 6.)
“Interestingly, we are not finding that the youth who re-transitioned in our study are experiencing that as traumatic,” Olson noted. “We’ve been finding that when youth are in supportive environments — supportive in the sense of being OK with the exploration of gender - both the initial transition and a later re-transition are fine.”
Indeed, “socially transitioning youth are [simply] making the same ‘decisions’ that cisgender children are making, in that they are seeking clothes, hairstyles, names, accessories, activities and playmates that reflect their gender identity and the resources in their community,” said Matt Goldenberg, a psychologist in adolescent medicine with the Seattle Children’s Gender Clinic.
It’s almost here! ⚡Trans-Affirming Magical Care is a trans themed Harry Potter fanzine featuring fanart, fanfiction, poetry, comics, personal essays, and op-eds by trans fans and allies. ⚡Specs: 60 pages, full color, perfect bound, manga-size ⚡Price goes up to $20 once pre-orders close on March 31st (trans day of visibility) ⚡Profits to benefit trans kids in the UK! ⚡Order: https://gum.co/transHPzine
be a better activist and learn your rights, make sure your friends know. So much cool info here. Be ready! Open the discussion with your parents. Look for hints what to do if police stop you. If trans, carry matching ID if you have it, and know if you can’t march then find other ways to help.Hand out water, sandwiches, make encouraging posts. etc etc
be informed, take the time to link and read. help your friends know their rights when protesting.Especially when trans!www.transyouthequality.org/protest
SUMMARY OF SUPPORTIVE FEDERAL LAWS AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOR TRANSGENDER STUDENTS
First Amendment
The First Amendment protects both freedom of speech and expression.
Schools may not restrain student speech unless it will reasonably substantially disrupt the
school environment or harm others.1
Schools cannot prevent students from expressing their identity or discussing same-sex
families.
Based on a Supreme Court decision, the First Amendment prevents school districts from
censoring or removing books from school libraries “because they dislike the ideas contained in [the] books.”2
Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
This clause guarantees every citizen equal protection under the law.
This clause is frequently used to protect LGBTQ youth in schools who have faced unfair
or discriminatory school actions.3
This clause was also used in Brown vs. the Board of Education to strike down state-
sponsored racial segregation in schools.4
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
Title IX prohibits schools that receive federal financial assistance from limiting or denying a student’s participation in any school program on the basis of sex.
Based on court cases, this can be understood to prohibit discrimination, including sexual harassment, based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation and gender identity or transgender status.
For example, courts in Kansas, Connecticut, and New York have ruled that Title IX applies to gender identity.5
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student educational records.
FERPA specifically prohibits the improper disclosure of personally identifiable information (PII) from students’ records.
With regard to LGBTQ students, information relating to gender identity or sexual orientation may constitute personally identifiable information (PII) as an indirect identifier.6 Therefore, school officials should use caution and follow FERPA disclosure guidelines when considering the release of such information.
Disclosure by school staff has the potential to create a hostile environment at school and can negatively impact a student’s life at home if the family is not supportive.
️⚧️ Hasn’t had surgery or HRT (or never wants to)
️⚧️ Doesn’t feel like their true self yet
We see you, it gets better, it’s YOUR day too. ✨
Check out our resource list specifically for trans and gender non-confirming youth here, and join us to celebrate live with some trans joy on Twitch and TikTok!
Twitch: Join us at 7:30pm EST/4:30 PST on March 31 for a chat with our Ambassadors, Youth Voices, and streamers about what visibility means to them, recent anti-trans legislation, and of course, self care and and queer joy. Streaming from our Twitch channel: twitch.tv/itgetsbetter.
TikTok: Watch our It Gets Better TikTok Creator Somaya perform original music live and share a little bit of their LGBTQ+ journey! Happening March 31 at 9:15pm EST/6:15 PST! Follow using the link in our bio or on TikTok @ itgetsbetter.
