I spoke to a high school health club on Friday – the one who emailed me the questions I’ve been answering the last few days – and had a really good time. They weren’t too knowledgeable about queer/trans issues, but I much prefer well-intentioned and open-handed ignorance to feigned understanding… And they were all willing to learn, which counts for a lot in my book.
Most of the chat was pretty expected, with me going over my (abridged) life story and transition, talking about how hormones have changed my experience of emotions and sex, and so on. I did have one student ask, “So, if you did get…the surgery, and you like women…how would you have sex after?”
One of the other students waved her fingers in front of his face, which made me laugh. I also directed them to Early to Bed, which is actually only a few blocks away from their school. I hope, for the sake of his current and future partner(s), that he learns about the options available beyond penis/vagina.
Continue reading 'Talking to high schoolers'»
Chicago Public Radio has a program called Eight Forty-Eight and this morning’s show had a segment about a proposed GLBT-friendly high school in the Chicago Public School system and they asked for people to call in, so I did, and got on the air.
As I said (and I think you can listen to online, or will be able to eventually) I’m very torn about the concept of a GLBT high school campus, and have had discussions concerning the idea since the Harvey Milk high school opened in New York city.
The realist in me acknowledges that, had I attended such a high school, I might have felt more inclined to come out and transition earlier, which could have put me in a much better place now. (Not that I think I’m in a horrible place now.)
However, the idealist in me feels that segregating (even self-segregating) a community that is under attack only allows biggots and assholes (wasn’t allowed to say that one on NPR) to set the discussion about GLBT students.
I guess, in a perfect world, I would want this to be part of a two-pronged approach, where the GLBT high school opens within a larger push in public schools for GLBT acceptance. A number of guests on NPR seemed to share a similar sentiment, but we’ll see if anything like that actually ends up happening.
-R
PS – The caller imediately prior to me was a year below me in highschool. Small world… I’ve Facebook messaged her to say ‘hi’ now, as seems the socially appropriate thing to do after following her on a call-in talk-radio show. Although I feel sort of bad that the two youth voices (or younger voices, anyway) both went to the same pretty GLBT-friendly high school. Oh well.
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gender, queer, sex, theory, trans, transitioning
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education, high school, questions, theory 
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