transgender – C-VILLE Weekly

With an array of Pride flags, masks, and posters on display, dozens of families gathered in front of the Albemarle County Office Building on a hot August Thursday to show their support for the school division’s proposed policy outlining the rights of transgender and gender-expansive students. A handful of cars sporting colorful decorations honked their horns in support while circling the building. The rally was hosted by the Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County.

Under the new policy, transgender and gender-expansive students (an all-encompassing term for people whose gender does not fit a traditional male-female binary) may use the bathroom and locker room that align with their gender identity. Teachers and staff must address all students by their preferred name and pronouns, and complete training on preventing bullying and discrimination and fostering a safe and inclusive environment. Transgender students have been allowed to participate in Virginia High School League sports since 2014.

“All students should have the right to safety and comfort in their education,” says Ollie Nacey, a ninth-grader at Western Albemarle High School, who attended the rally. “It’s an important thing to fight for because right now it’s not automatic that everybody has that—we have to make it so that it’s a given.”

The change comes after a period of debate at both the local and state levels. This year, a new state law required all Virginia school districts to adopt policies regarding the treatment of transgender and gender-expansive students before the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Many school districts, including Charlottesville, signed off on the state-mandated policies over the summer. Others, like Albemarle, chose to pursue individualized policies after hearing from constituents in the district. And a few districts, particularly in conservative areas, have pushed back against the requirement entirely.

According to The Trevor Project’s 2021 national survey, more than 50 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth have seriously considered suicide within the past year.

If a student comes out as transgender or gender-expansive at school, a teacher or staff member will work with them and their family to develop a plan regarding their transition in school. However, the school must prioritize the wellness and safety of students who may face violence or punishment, or get kicked out of their homes if their families find out about their gender identity.

“In some cases, gender-expansive students may not want their parents to know about their gender-expansive or transitioning status,” reads the policy. “These situations must be addressed on a case-by-case basis and will require schools to balance the goal of supporting the student with the requirement that parents be kept informed about their children.”

Over the past month, some parents registered their disapproval of the policy, claiming that it allows schools to hide information from parents and puts cisgender students in danger.

According to Learning for Justice, allowing transgender and gender-expansive students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity has not increased sexual assaults or violent crimes. (Single-stall, gender-neutral bathrooms are also available to ACPS students.)

Nacey reminds the school board that the fight to protect transgender and gender-expansive students is far from over.

“We have to keep on seeing what’s working and what’s still needed,” she says. “The school board must talk to trans students who are experiencing it and how it’s affected them, and keep working at it to make it the best policy possible.”

Critical critiques

Albemarle schools recently found itself on the end of conservative ire of a different kind—the fight over critical race theory, a graduate-school level legal scholarship framework that conservatives have wrongly claimed is being used to turn primary school students into cultural progressives.

This year, a group of county parents alleged that anti-bias lessons piloted at Henley Middle School were based on critical race theory. The school board and Superintendent Dr. Matt Haas denied the claims and emphasized their commitment to the division’s anti-racism policy, which was adopted in 2019, as well as culturally responsive teaching.

Republican Philip Andrew Hamilton, who is currently running for the 57th House of Delegates District, planned to hold a rally in front of the County Office Building on August 12, calling for the school board to not implement critical race theory, but later canceled the event.

“The audacity of a political candidate to use [the Unite the Right rally anniversary] as the backdrop to his anti-CRT rhetoric is unconscionable,” says Amanda Moxham of Hate-Free Schools. “Anti-CRT movement is rooted in anti-Blackness and transphobia while being used to build up white nationalists.”

Moxham hopes that as the school year gets underway, ACPS will develop accountability and transparency strategies for anti-racism and anti-discrimination work in schools. She also calls on the district to recruit and retain more teachers of color.

“While policy is important, no policy can make a difference if the real work is not started, sustained, and nurtured as part of a healthy school culture,” she says.

Beyond bathrooms: Transgender symposium to educate health care providers

Amid the firestorm North Carolina ignited March 23 with its bathroom laws and a Virginia court case that will determine which restroom a Gloucester teen can use, a daylong transgender symposium to provide education for health care providers will take place in Charlottesville April 27.

“It’s the first event of its kind in Virginia that I’m aware of,” says Ted Heck, who works for the Virginia Department of Health in HIV prevention and who helped organize the symposium. “Its real focus is providers,” he says, “and it was organized by community members.”

One of those is Karen Barker. She is with the Transgender Health Alliance of Central Virginia and she’s the parent of a transgender teen. She says her son’s primary care physician had no experience with that, and she was surprised to learn UVA did not have a transgender teen clinic. UVA opened a Transgender Health Clinic in March 2015.

“Access to care was really critical for me,” she says. “First for my son, but it’s an issue for a lot of people.”

“It’s a really new field,” says Heck. “There’s very little training in medical schools, and very little medical literature. Even people with expertise don’t have a lot of data to back them up.”

Regardless of socio-economic status, transgender people face significant health care disparities, according to a 2011 National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force survey of 6,450 people. Nineteen percent reported being refused medical care, a number that’s even higher for people of color.

Survey participants reported four times the national average for HIV infection, and much higher rates of suicide attempts, smoking and drug and alcohol use than the general population.

Whether trying to get care for transitioning or HIV or even basic health care, “It’s all pretty challenging for trans folks,” says Heck.

Heck knows. He moved to Virginia in 1999 and knew he was going to be transitioning. He was unable to find an endocrinologist in the Richmond area willing to prescribe hormones, and finally found a provider in the Washington area who worked with his primary care physician.

Sometimes the information a provider has is outdated. “Before, they used to require that you live in that [gender] role for a year before you can access hormones,” says Heck. “That can be incredibly challenging, especially if you live in a rural area.”

At one time, UVA was a pioneer in sexual assignment surgery. Dr. Milton Edgerton joined the faculty in 1970 from Johns Hopkins, the first academic institution in the United States to perform such surgery. Neither UVA nor Johns Hopkins does so now.

Gender transitioning worked under a different model then, says Heck. “It was very patronizing and people had to jump through a lot of hoops.”

In some ways, Virginia is ahead of the curve as far as services available to transgender people, says Heck. His work in HIV prevention is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “They’re more progressive in making sure the needs of at-risk people are met,” he says. “Because it’s federally funded, it can’t really be restricted as it could be if state funded.”

Virginia’s General Assembly held off on moving on its own bathroom bill restricting transgender students to using the facilities of their biological gender in anticipation of the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals decision in the case of Gavin Grimm, whose Gloucester School Board ruled he had to use the girls or a unisex restroom. A decision in that case is expected any day now.

North Carolina not only legislated which public bathrooms its citizens may use, it also rebuked Charlotte for prohibiting discrimination based on sexuality. The state now faces a lawsuit, the NBA is reconsidering its 2017 all-star game in Charlotte and its attorney general says he won’t defend the law.

Heck felt a combination of anger, frustration and disappointment over the Tar Heel state’s decision. “I wasn’t surprised, unfortunately,” he says.

That sort of legislation creates a “hostile environment, particularly for young folks,” he says. “When they have to hide who they are, their behavior becomes riskier. There’s a high level of stigma. Any time people’s opportunities are limited because they can’t get a job or find housing, that certainly could have an impact.”

So far 95 people have signed up for the April 27 symposium. “Response has been better than we thought,” says Barker.

Celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox have drawn a lot of attention to transgender issues, says Heck, but their visibility also brings a backlash in much the same way that the legalization of same-sex marriage brought religious freedom bills.

“These bathroom bills are part of the backlash,” says Heck.