Below is a segment from a theoretical podcast I would like to expand on surrounding the topic of transgender representation in schools, including resources I created that can be accessed here.
I spoke with Chase Cambray on what their experience of school was like, both as they were growing up, and as it is now in a higher education setting. I also asked them what changes they would have made to improve these school settings with the intention of making them safer and more inclusive of queer and transgender people. Take a listen, and I hope you enjoy~
Transcript follows below:
fade in: sound of chatter and crowd ambiance narrator: In the United States, there are at least 1.6 million people over the age of 13 who identify as transgender. 18% of those people are between the ages of 13 and 17, and that’s just those who self-report. Many more, we can’t even know for sure just how many, are not comfortable coming out and living as their true selves. Schools are a hotspot for people who are figuring themselves out; the years spent within school walls are important eras of self-discovery. compelling music: “coniferous forest” narrator: But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that queer students are 4 times more likely to attempt or commit suicide than their cisgender, heterosexual peers. Queer youth consistently report higher rates of bullying and violent harassment— which make them more likely to miss school as a result. I had a conversation with political science major Chase Cambray on what solutions might exist, and what it was like for them growing up without those resources. ... narrator: So, what was your school environment like growing up? chase cambray: It was… a bit conservative. I came from an old mill town in Central Mass— um, Westford, Massachusetts, and there was a healthy mix of Republicans in there, which was hard growing up as a queer, trans youth without access to the institutions of support that I needed to help me transition. Um, even at home I wasn’t given that support, so then that certainly extended into my school environment. I didn’t have support in place or, like, people to look up to— to have role models. narrator: So, you didn’t have any positive representations of queer or transgender people reflected in, say, your classrooms or your course materials? c.c.: No, the only kind of exposure to that I had was there was a GSA that I started in middle school that we learned a little bit about queer history in; but for the most part, there were no, like, there was no queer course content or history taught and there were no queer or trans staff to look up to. narrator: Has this improved at all in higher education settings? c.c.: Definitely. I mean, since then I’ve had a few queer professors, um, and I’ve been able to take classes oriented around queer history, and there are now also classes being offered around trans history. So, it’s definitely been a shift. There’s also a lot more queer peers that I have, um, there’s just people to look up to in general. narrator: Do you think that the representation you see in higher education is complete, or is there still room to improve? c.c.: I mean there’s certainly still room to improve, like I can count on one hand out of all the professors and teachers I’ve ever had how many queer professors I’ve had, and that doesn’t feel, you know, representative of the larger majority in the real world. And I think, also, the fact that you have to sort of go out of your way to learn about queer history, like, it’s not just something that’s built into the curriculum, it’s— you have to seek it out— is not ideal. You know, it sort of still segments a lot of it, apart from the general curriculum. It doesn’t feel, like, necessarily as accessible almost, like it doesn’t feel like it’s like something for everyone, it feels like you still have to not just look for it but like want it, and if you don’t want it then you don’t have to. It’s like it’s meant to be palatable, sort of, it’s not for everyone. narrator: What changes— in that same vein— what changes do you think schools and colleges should make to improve the experience of LGBTQ+ students like yourself? c.c.: I think definitely including queer history in school content, like teaching about stuff like the Stonewall Riots and the AIDS epidemic in like a professional, like academic setting, um, both at college and high school levels because those are very shaping modern queer experiences that we’re still feeling the effect of our generation now. It’s not something that’s— at least in my experience— was discussed at all, not until college classes. That and then hopefully, in an ideal world, more opportunities for queer and trans staff to be hired to teach about these things but also to, you know, a lot of those professors have been people specifically teaching on that curriculum, but I would have loved to have like a trans or a queer professor teaching English or math, like, stuff that’s not specifically just related to their identity but just there as a person, as opposed to, like, they’re there putting their identity on the front lines to teach everyone about what we could already know about from other people as well. narrator: I really like that, that's— those are some good ideas. Thank you very much. c.c.: Yeah, of course.
[End Transcript]
Audio Editing Software used: Audacity
Background Music used: “Coniferous Forest” by orangery