Creating Gender Inclusive Environments for Children
Insights
Support workers who work with transgender children find people who disagree with them in the treatments currently available which have not been out for long to be thoroughly assessed. However, without any intervention the transgender community have seen nearly half of their community go through suicidal thoughts, a risk which is too high to ignore (Sherer, 2016).
(Transgender people and suicide, n.d.)
With the growing number of attention in the media about the issues that transgender children face at school, including Ryland Whittington, a transgender child who was not being allowed to play on a boys’ sports team at school due to his natal sex (female at birth) and won a victory when the school was forced to allow him to play in the team of his choosing (Olson, Key, & Eaton, 2015). There are those who are skeptical and say that transgender children are confused, however a recent research showed the contrary and proved their responses to be “entirely typical and expected for children with their gender identity” (Olson et al., 2015).
The common response to transgender children, such as Ryland Whittington, a boy who transition in early childhood, is skepticism (Olson, Key, & Eaton, 2015, p. 467). Individuals claim the child is “confused”, they need therapy, they are delayed in their understanding of gender or that they are just labeling themselves as the opposite gender, in a similar manner that a child would refer to themselves as a princess or dinosaur (Olson, Key, & Eaton, 2015, p. 467).
In a study by Olson, Key and Eaton (2015), these skeptics assumptions were refuted (p. 473). Transgender children have responses to gender and identity that are indistinguishable from other cisgender children (Olson, Key, & Eaton, 2015, p. 473). They are not confused about gender and identity and understand what they are saying when they claim to identify as a specific gender
(TheWhittingtonFamily, 2014)
A support method used in helping transgender children suggest that assisting them to socially transition, which involves using a preferred name, wardrobe, hairstyle and pronoun that is in line with their gender identity, can help in reducing the associated stresses that have been observed (Sherer, 2016). Transgender children and youth have to deal with peer bullying and the stigma of having any emotional or behavioral issues blamed on their gender dysphoria (Alberse, Vries, Elzinga, & Steensma, 2019
(Bullying and School Climate, 2019).
A commonality amongst transgender adolescents is a feeling of being less socially accepted amongst their peers. With the help of therapies such us psychotherapy and psychomotor therapy which works with them in building their self-confidence and uses sports to deal with any negative body image that may come through social gatherings (Alberse et al., 2019).
Most importantly, a sense of family acceptance and support for transgender diverse youth have shown to have a “positive, physical and mental health [which in turn results to] better self-esteem and lower depression (Alberse et al., 2019). Given this information, it is important for early childhood educators to build an inclusive environment for transgender children and youth.
Most children will experience variance in their gender behaviours and identities all the way into adulthood (Boskey, 2014, p. 454). However, not all variance is as strong, consistent and persistent to lead to a cross-gender identity or social/medical transitioning (Boskey, 2014, p. 454). Those individuals will often identify themselves as queer, a nonbinary gender identity, more widely accepted in Western society (Boskey, 2014, p. 454).
(Bonker, 2015)
There has been very little progress for transgender issues due to the smaller population of transgender individuals (Elischberger, Glazier, Hill, & Verduzco-Baker, 2016, p. 197). Canada is missing critical data regarding the population of transgender individuals living in the country. However, in 2016 transgender individuals made up approximately 0.1% to 0.5% of U.S. Americans, compared to the 2.6% that identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual (Elischberger, Glazier, Hill, & Verduzco-Baker, 2016, p. 197). Transgender individuals remain the minority in the LGBTQ community.
This has led to a major gap in most of the research. Many studies on transgender individuals claim that a limitation for their research is the small sample size (Rae et al., 2019, p. 679). This often leads to a generalization to a whole group of people and does not accurately reflect the entire population (Rae et al., 2019, p. 679).
(Trans Rights, 2016)
A major controversy in the recent years regarding transgender issues in schools was whether transgender children should be allowed to use restrooms that oppose their assigned gender. In a national poll by CBS, “59 % of Americans thought transgender children should use the restroom and locker room of their birth sex, not their gender identity” (Elischberger, Glazier, Hill, & Verduzco-Baker, 2016, p. 198).
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In a study by Elischberger, Glazier, Hill and Verduzco-Baker (2016), the public controversy on transgender restroom use is largely attributed to individuals ignorance between gender and sex and between gender identity and sexual orientation (p. 212).
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This study confirmed the importance of transgender education not only for children, but for parents, families, teachers, staff, administration (Elischberger, Glazier, Hill, & Verduzco-Baker, 2016, p. 212).
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In Colorado, 6-year old Coy Mathis had the right to use the girl’s bathroom even though she was assigned with a male identity at birth (Olson, Key, & Eaton, 2015, p. 467).
(Hockley, 2018)