By Sunayana Prabhu
While school boards – and parents – across New Jersey continue to debate the state’s Policy 5756 which bars schools from outing transgender students to their families, the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Monmouth County has taken a firm position in support of the policy.
In order to encourage civic engagement around the sensitive topic, the league hosted an hour-long webinar Oct. 22, during which expert panelists shared their insights to help provide a greater understanding of this complex issue.
Part of the league’s hot topic series, the Transgender Students in Public Education webinar touched upon the human aspects of the issue more than legal debates (at least three school districts are engaged in litigation with the state over proposed changes to the policy).
Kathleen Hoffman, vice president for grassroots advocacy at LWV of Monmouth County, introduced the panelists, including Bobbie McArdle, a gender therapist and mental health counselor; Rev. Micah Cronin, the curate at St. George’s-by-the-River Episcopal Church in Rumson and member of the Diocese of New Jersey LGBTQ Commission; and Rozella Clyde, Ph.D., retired New York City school teacher and current co-chair of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey Education Committee.
Gender Identity, Dysphoria and Expression
Gender identity is how you view your gender, said McArdle. The term “cisgender,” McArdle explained, means identifying as the same sex you were assigned at birth. Gender dysphoria, she said, happens to people who feel their body doesn’t match their gender identity.
“Transgender or trans is an umbrella term for all the gender diversities,” McArdle said. Someone who is transgender may be assigned male at birth and then identify as female or as non-binary, neither male nor female. So, a trans woman is someone who was assigned male at birth and now identifies as female; a trans man is someone assigned female at birth who now identifies as male.
Gender expression is the way someone presents themselves to the world through their clothing, hairstyle and other attributes.
McArdle said “female people have more privilege” when it comes to gender expression. Women and girls wear pants and suits now without a thought but it is still unusual for men to wear skirts and dresses.
McArdle said therapists generally rely on individuals to identify themselves using the pronouns he/him, she/her and they/ them, but those experiencing gender dysphoria may not understand their discomfort or even be able to identify their gender. Some may even be intersex, someone born with sex characteristics, traits or even genitalia that do not fit a binary model of gender. “Sometimes the doctors can’t even tell (a person is) intersex until later when they do blood work,” she said. “There are people that are intersex that probably don’t even know.”
The acronym LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex and asexual) encompasses both gender identity and sexuality (the emotional and physical attractions one has) within a large community. The plus sign denotes space for the inclusion of more identities in the future.
Gender dysphoria can cause social withdrawal, a decline in academics, substance use or abuse, other risky behaviors, self-harm or even suicide.
Transitioning
Transitioning – the process of socially, legally and/or medically changing from one gender to another – can help those experiencing gender dysphoria.
McArdle said most students in high school begin by socially transitioning but “it is a very individualized process.”
Social transitioning is often challenging for people as they navigate using the pronouns they prefer and the bathrooms of the gender they identify with and mustering the courage to participate in activities according to their gender identity.
Medical transitioning is more likely to occur in adulthood or after puberty and includes breast augmentation or reduction, phalloplasty, vaginoplasty or other procedures.
According to McArdle, it is estimated that about 3 million people in the U.S. – and about 92,000 New Jerseyans – are transgender. About one in five people who identify as transgender are between the ages of 13 and 17.
Family Dynamics and Social Norms
As the public discourse around Policy 5756 heated up this year, Cronin, who identifies as a trans man, noted “a sort of religious justification for targeting trans kids” in school board meetings and online, “which upsets me as an Episcopal priest,” he said.
“Religious freedom does not require targeting trans kids or making them feel ‘other’ or discriminating against them in public services.”
Cronin said many parents often feel “a fear for their child’s safety” when that child identifies as transgender and may have a “sense of loss for who they thought their child was, but that tends to be balanced with the curiosity for who their child really is.”
However, in families where there is an absolute denial of their child’s identity, repealing state Policy 5756 can be detrimental.
“I’ve seen parents absolutely, thoroughly reject their child; intentionally switching the family health insurance so as to prevent the child from accessing transgender health care, physical abuse, emotional abuse, harassment and refusal to use a new name or a new set of pronouns,” Cronin said. “Just flat-out denial.”
Rescinding Policy 5756 is “insidious,” Cronin said, “because it contributes to a public climate of transphobia by which other political agendas are slipping underneath.”
State Laws Against Discrimination
There are two school policies that deal specifically with protecting students from discriminatory treatment – 5755 and 5756, issued in 2013 and 2017, respectively. Policy 5756 focuses specifically on transgender students; Policy 5755 is a broader equity in educational programs and services policy. These two policies both deal with equitable access and treatment but they are not the same.
“This ongoing noise at local school board meetings around the needs of trans students is having a detrimental impact on school climate,” said Clyde, the retired educator who monitors the monthly New Jersey Board of Education meetings.
She noted that when a school district decides to rescind Policy 5756 – including a few in Monmouth County – it not only leaves trans students vulnerable to bullying but also “removes important guidance from school personnel on how to address that harassment.”
According to Clyde, eight of the 620 school districts in the state have been challenging Policy 5756, “raising emotions and raising the level of bullying and hate-related expressions that students are experiencing in schools.”
She advocated for finding ways to “lower the temperature” and to recognize the rights of all students for a thorough and effective education as mandated by the New Jersey State Constitution, something that could even save a child’s life.
According to a 2023 national survey by The Trevor Project, fewer than 40% of kids found their home to be LGBTQ-affirming. About half of them found their school to be gender-affirming, and those who did report- ed lower rates of attempted suicide.
Some Questions Answered
“Is being transgender a mental illness and is there any evidence that transgender kids are more violent than cisgender kids?” asked someone anonymously during the webinar.
“It is not a mental illness,” McArdle said. “Transgender people have been around forever. Unfortunately, different societies over the hundreds of years, thousands of years, will destroy evidence of that” but that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist.
As for violence, Cronin said trans populations are in fact “at infinitely greater risk” of being the victims of violence, not the perpetrators.
Another attendee asked if coming out as trans is “part of a fad based perhaps on immaturity or feeling to be a certain way to fit with the peers?”
“This isn’t a trend,” Cronin replied. “If anything, some kids are getting access to information earlier that helps them understand who they already feel themselves to be. It’s not a way to social popularity.”
McArdle added that LGBTQIA+ people are born in all families, not just specific ones. It is easy for parents to “feel slighted,” she said, when the child doesn’t come out to them first but “that’s perfectly normal.” The parent-child relationship is the most important one, so there is a lot at stake when a child comes out to their parents. The fear of rejection can be overwhelming.
The focus of the parents, McArdle suggested, should be to treat their transgender child just as normally as they would treat cisgender children.
“It’s perfectly normal to be transgender. It’s perfectly normal to be gay,” McArdle said. “These are just other ways of being in the world as a human.”
The article originally appeared in the December 7 – December 13, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
