Wondering what you can do to support students, teachers, and other people who identify as queer? I’ll keep expanding the following list of actions you can take. Feel free to post your own ideas as comments!
1. Get Equal Protection for Trans People
If you are a Canadian citizen, ask your MP to support equal protection for trans people from discrimination by adding gender identity and expression to the Canada Human Rights Act and the hate crimes provisions of the Criminal Code. Visit: http://www.ndp.qc.ca/lgbtt/c389/ to learn more and print a letter for your MP.
2. Educate Yourself about Trans People and Gender Differences
This website is a useful starting point: http://web.mit.edu/trans/alliestoolkit.html.
3. Plan to Attend the Trans Day of Remembrance
Day of Remembrance events are held all over the world every November 20th to memorialize the people lost to hate-motivated violence against the transgender community.
4. Use People’s Preferred Language for Talking about their Identity
It’s pretty simple. Rather than relying on your assumptions of who someone is, reflect the language they use about their identity back to them. So if a lesbian woman says she is a lesbian, don’t tell her she is gay. Or if a trans person tells you they are trans, don’t tell them they are female. If a man tells you he is a man, don’t tell him he is a woman. If you’re not sure of how someone identifies, and it’s getting in the way of communication, ask. We are taught that finding someone’s gender identity to be hard to read is offensive, but why is that? It’s much worse to assume and be wrong.
5. Celebrate the Day of Pink in your school or workplace. Go to www.dayofpink.org for posters and ideas for how to celebrate on April 14.
Dear James,
I heard about your site via FB friends who work for the Vancouver School Board. I was moved by the change in attitude among your cohort. I’ve been trying to lead a GayStraight Alliance at a conservative highschool in East Vancouver. The board has a boilerplate diversity policy, which doesn’t mean much when the diversity consultant’s position was cut in half. But a simple change in forms to offer a ‘third gender’ option along with male and female wouldn’t cost much and would put that commitment front and centre.
I look forward to seeing you if you’ve been accepted on the VSB TOC list. Good luck and keep me in the loop if you can!