Supporting transgender children: new legal, social, and medical approaches

The author, a lawyer who advocates for transgender children and youth, explores how clinical approaches to transgender children and youth are keeping pace with social and legal changes affecting these young people and with recent evidence suggesting that children are harmed by family and societal rejection as well as by attempts to change their gender identity or gender expression. The author urges providers and legal advocates to work with policymakers and the families of transgender children and youth to create a future in which these young people can reach their full potential and be embraced as fully equal, respected, and participating members of society.     

“Male Hair Cannot Extend Below Plane of the Shoulder” and “No Cross Dressing”: Critical Queer Analysis of High School Dress Codes in the United States

ABSTRACT

In this study, we questioned how high school dress codes outlined in official handbooks were written or presented in regard to the gender binary, either/or perspective. We critically analyzed how or if they allowed for flexibility in expression of gender and sexual identity and if they supported, encouraged, or affirmed a variety of expressions, in particular transgender and gender non-conforming expressions, throughout the text or images. The content analysis method was used to analyze 735 handbooks from the 2016 to 2017 school year. Three themes emerged from the data: (1) support of fluid gender expression, yet not overt support; (2) passive marginalization of gender non-conforming or transgender identities or expressions; and (3) active marginalization of gender non-conforming or transgender identities or expressions. The “LGBTQ+ Dress Code Analysis Tool” was developed for policy makers to use to analyze their dress codes.     

Being Transgender: The Experience of Transgender Identity Development

This article is based on a grounded theory analysis of interviews with transgender-identified people from different regions of the United States. Participants held a variety of gender identities under the transgender rubric (e.g., crossdresser, transman, transwoman, butch lesbian). Interviews explored the participants’ experiences in arriving at their gender identity. This article presents three clusters of findings related to the common processes of transgender identity development. This process was made possible by accessibility of transgender narratives that injected hope into what was a childhood replete with criticism and scrutiny. Ultimately, participants came to their identities through balancing a desire for authenticity with demands of necessity—meaning that they weighed their internal gender experience with considerations about their available resources, coping skills, and the consequences of gender transitions. The implications of these findings are considered in terms of their contribution to gender theory, research, and clinical support for transgender clients.     

Portuguese Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Sexual Minorities: Transphobia,Homophobia, and Gender Role Beliefs

Research has shown that negative attitudes toward lesbians and gay men are common and widespread in Western societies. However, few studies have addressed attitudes toward transgender individuals. In addition, although research has shown that homophobic harassment and bullying is highly common among adolescents, little is known about adolescent's attitudes toward sexual minorities. This study aimed to fill these gaps in knowledge, by investigating adolescents' attitudes toward transgender individuals and possible attitudinal correlates of those attitudes. Participants (N?=?188; 62 males and 126 females) were recruited in high schools in Lisbon, Portugal. Age ranged from 15 to 19 years (M?=?17; SD = .96). Participants completed a questionnaire booklet measuring attitudes toward transgender individuals, lesbians, and gay men, and gender role beliefs. Results revealed that attitudes toward transgender individuals were significantly correlated with all attitude measures. Specifically, it was revealed that those participants who endorsed negative attitudes toward transgender individuals were also endorsing of negative attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and tended to adhere to traditional gender roles. A significant gender effect was found with males being more negative toward sexual minorities than females, but these negative attitudes were more extreme toward gay men than toward lesbian women. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Implications of Ethnicity,Gender, Urban–Rural Residence,and Socioeconomic Status for Progress Through School among Children in Nigeria

This study examines the role of ethnicity, gender, urban–rural residence, and socioeconomic status on children’s progress through school. It also investigates other correlates of progress through school within the categories of ethnicity, gender, urban–rural residence, and socioeconomic status. The study finds ethnic and income gaps in progress through school. In particular, the results show that Hausa–Fulani children and poor children are less likely on average to progress through school than Yoruba children and non-poor children. The preceding results have numerous policy implications. To address the lack of progress through school that arises from late entry, policies must implement early childhood nutrition and food programs. To reduce lack of progress through school among poor children, policy makers must focus on poverty eradication, learning enhancement, and remedial education programs. To address the problem of lack of progress through school among Hausa–Fulani children, it is vital for policies to establish mobile schools, visiting female teachers, and separate school facilities, especially for Hausa–Fulani girls. Results also indicate that work interferes with children’s progress through school; particularly among poor children, rural children, and Hausa–Fulani children. To address this problem, policies need to implement educational stipends that are given to the households in which these children belong on the condition that they are released from work-related distractions during school time.     

Under the Radar: Parental Traffic Safeguarding and Automobility

Abstract

Research shows that parental mobility care of children has become a growing feature in many western cities, but parental traffic safeguarding has rarely been examined. Based on an ethnographic, comparative case study of two elementary (primary) schools located in Vancouver, Canada, this paper explores how auto-dominated urban environments intertwine with gender and other social inequalities to produce highly charged, variegated and contested parental safeguarding practices in the school journey. The paper also examines how parental traffic safeguarding is discursively and materially organized in relation to automobility and the social denial of its inherent dangers. Two themes (risky traffic spaces and parental traffic safeguarding strategies) illustrate the ways in which parents practice traffic safeguarding in specific contexts and how as part of domestic labour, their practices contribute to automobility and its illusion of safety.     

From gender identity disorder to gender identity creativity: true gender self child therapy

True gender self child therapy is based on the premise of gender as a web that weaves together nature, nurture, and culture and allows for a myriad of healthy gender outcomes. This article presents concepts of true gender self, false gender self, and gender creativity as they operationalize in clinical work with children who need therapeutic supports to establish an authentic gender self while developing strategies for negotiating an environment resistant to that self. Categories of gender nonconforming children are outlined and excerpts of a treatment of a young transgender child are presented to illustrate true gender self child therapy.     

“It's Complicated”: Collective Memories of Transgender,Queer, and Questioning Youth in High School

Using the qualitative participatory action methodology, collective memory work, this study explored how transgender, queer, and questioning (TQQ) youth make meaning of their sexual orientation and gender identity through high school experiences. Researchers identified three major conceptual but overlapping themes from the data generated in the transgender, queer, and questioning youth focus group: a need for resilience, you should be able to be safe, and this is what action looks like! The researchers discuss how as a research product, a documentary can effectively “capture voices” of participants, making research accessible and attractive to parents, practitioners, policy makers, and participants.     

Center-Based Care in the Context of One-Child Policy in China: Do Child Gender and Siblings Matter?

We examined the effects of child gender and siblings on center-based care enrollment in the context of China’s one-child policy and its tradition of preference to have many children, especially sons. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) 2000 wave and multilevel logistic regression models, we found that children without siblings consistently had higher odds of receiving center-based care than those with siblings, while there was no evidence that child gender mattered. Further analyses did not show evidence that the effects of child gender and siblings were moderated by household and community resources or local one-child policy. However, we did find that the presence of male, older, or school-age siblings (as compared to female, younger, or preschool-age siblings) reduced preschoolers’ odds of receiving center-based care. This was possibly because parents valued formal education much more than preschools and thus focused more on boys when they entered elementary schools than on their sisters or younger brothers. These findings suggest that more attention needs to be given to the equal education opportunities for boys and girls as well as for children with and without siblings.     

Transgender Teachers: The Personal,Pedagogical, and Political

This empirical research study examines the experiences of three male-to-female transgender teachers who transitioned genders, in three different decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s) while actively teaching within Canadian K–12 public schools. I utilize poststructural storylines to explore how these transgender teachers navigated the personal, pedagogical, and political and the survival and transition strategies they developed to become intelligible within their schools. Their storylines illustrate how they developed counternarratives to challenge traditional discourses of trans invisibility, silence, shame, and fear.     

Contested Citizenship: Renaming Processes among People of Transgender Experience

ABSTRACT

Scholars have illustrated the significance of forenames in processes of social identity and personhood, yet little attention has focused on the relationship between names and gender identity among people of transgender experience. This article uses mixed methods to consider what’s in a name among people of transgender experience whose gender identities are within and outside of the gender binary. Chi-square analyses demonstrate a robust association between gender identity and gendered characteristics of the current name. While there are nuanced differences according to gender identity, renaming is fundamental to recognition and an important cultural practice for all people of transgender experience. Names are also controllable state objects, which pose tensions between administrative governance and the individual, who has the right to legally amend them. Ultimately, transgender name stories reveal the ways that names become active sites of contested citizenship.     

The beauty and the beast: reflections about the socio-historical and subcultural context of drag queens and "Tunten" in Berlin

In this article, I focus on two different faces found in Berlin's gay subculture: the Tunten and the drag queens. Both are commonly seen as "male homosexual transvestites," although many such individuals today prefer to identify themselves somewhere within a diverse transgender spectrum rather than as transvestites. Tunten and drag queens differ in their gender performativity, their self-image and their chosen role models as well as in the niches in which they have been able to establish themselves in German mainstream society. Based on ethnographic data, I argue against the widespread reductionist view that the differences between Tunten and drag queens lie primarily in style, behavior, talent and success. Nor can these differences be easily explained away as a result of subculture globalization. Instead, I show that there is a simultaneous coexistence of both a subculturally established, "traditional" local transgender culture and a more recently adopted and partly imported, new local transgender culture. The coexistence of these two urban transgender cultures also indicates the paradigm shift in German gay and youth cultures of the last decades. Thus, I will emphasize the importance of the socio-historical and subcultural processes in studying transgender cultures in Western societies.     

Transgender youth: invisible and vulnerable

This study used three focus groups to explore factors that affect the experiences of youth (ages 15 to 21) who identify as transgender. The focus groups were designed to probe transgender youths' experiences of vulnerability in the areas of health and mental health. This involved their exposure to risks, discrimination, marginalization, and their access to supportive resources. Three themes emerged from an analysis of the groups' conversations. The themes centered on gender identity and gender presentation, sexuality and sexual orientation, and vulnerability and health issues. Most youth reported feeling they were transgender at puberty, and they experienced negative reactions to their gender atypical behaviors, as well as confusion between their gender identity and sexual orientation. Youth noted four problems related to their vulnerability in health-related areas: the lack of safe environments, poor access to physical health services, inadequate resources to address their mental health concerns, and a lack of continuity of caregiving by their families and communities.     

Children’s Resilience-Related Beliefs as a Predictor of Positive Child Development in the Face of Adversities: Implications for Interventions to Enhance Children’s Quality of Life

This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal childhood resilience study which investigated the relationship between resilience-related beliefs and positive child development. Three waves of data collection (T1, T2, and T3) were completed in January 2005, July 2005, and January 2006 with a sample of 843 grade 4 pupils, drawn from six primary schools in Hong Kong, and their parents or guardians. At T1, parents/guardians responded to a 24-item inventory of life adversities affecting their children since birth; at T1 and T3, they completed a 25-item Parental Assessment of Child’s Habit, which provided parental evaluation of children’s performance at home and in school. At T1, T2, and T3, children responded to a 58-item Child and Youth Resilience Measure, a 9-item scale on Chinese cultural beliefs about adversity, and an 11-item Chinese Resilience Measure for Children and Adolescents in Hong Kong. Regression analyses, based on linear mixed models, controlling for gender, T1 and T2 scores, personal variables, and random effects of schools, were conducted to test and validate the hypothesis that children’s resilience beliefs are predictive of positive child development, and that this predictive relationship is stronger with increasing adversity in children’s lives. Implications of these findings for the development of resilience-based interventions to enhance the quality of life of children facing adversities are examined.     

Neighborhood Coethnic Immigrant Concentrations and Mexican American Children’s Early Academic Trajectories

We use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 as well as neighborhood data from the 2000 U.S. Census to examine relationships between neighborhood Mexican immigrant concentration and reading (n = 820) and mathematics (n = 1,540) achievement among children of Mexican descent. Mixed-effects growth curves show that children living in immigrant-rich communities enter school at an achievement disadvantage relative to children in neighborhoods with fewer coethnic immigrant families. However, these disparities are driven by lower-SES families’ concentration in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods as well as these neighborhoods’ structural disadvantages. Controlling for children’s generation status and socioeconomic status, as well as neighborhood-level measures of structural disadvantage, safety, and social support, neighborhood immigrant concentration demonstrates a modest positive association with mathematics achievement among children of Mexican immigrant parents at the time of school entry. However, we do not find strong positive associations between Mexican American children’s rate of achievement growth over the elementary and middle school years and their neighborhoods’ concentration of Mexican immigrants.     

Schools,Neighborhoods and Selection: Outcomes Across Metropolitan Los Angeles

What is the relationship between school segregation and neighborhood segregation across school districts in Los Angeles County, and are school district outcomes on reading and mathematics scores related to levels of school segregation across these districts? We compute segregation scores using US tract level data for 2000 and use reading and mathematics scores from California State tests. Data from the Los Angeles family and neighborhood survey are used to track individual residential changes and differences in the associated Woodcock Johnson scores. We show that there is a close link between levels of school segregation and neighborhood segregation and that many suburban school districts are relatively integrated across both neighborhoods and schools. When we examine average school district outcomes on reading and mathematics scores we do not find any relationship with levels of segregation. At the same time there is clear evidence of spatial sorting with poorer and lower scoring children moving into school districts (or zones with poorer achieving schools). The multi-level models of segregation and achievement show that the variance in achievement levels across districts is significantly greater than across schools within districts.     

Is the Lack of Specific Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Transgender and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) Health Care Education in Medical School a Cause for Concern? Evidence From a Survey of Knowledge and Practice Among UK Medical Students

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) people frequently report negative health care encounters. Medical professionals may inadequately manage LGBTQ persons’ health if they have not received training in this area. An anonymous survey measuring efficacy in health situations among LGBTQ persons was answered by 166 medical students across all years of a UK university. Results show that 84.9% of participants reported a lack of LGBTQ health care education, with deficits in confidence clarifying unfamiliar sexual and gender terms, deciding the ward in which to nurse transgender patients, finding support resources, and discussing domestic abuse with LGBTQ patients. Most participants reported that they would not clarify gender pronouns or ask about gender or sexual identity in mental health or reproductive health settings. Participants reported infrequently observing doctors making similar inquiries. Participants held positive attitudes toward LGBTQ patients, with attitude scores positively correlating with LGBTQ terminology knowledge scores (r_s = 0.5052, p < .01). Addressing gender identity and sexuality issues within medical curricula may remove barriers to accessing health care and improve encounters for LGBTQ patients.     

Still Trapped in the U.S. Media’s Closet: Representations of Gender-Variant,Pre-Adolescent Children

Many studies have examined representations of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. media. Yet they have centered on portrayals of adults or teenagers. This investigation considered a potential LGBT population that has been neglected in media research, namely gender-variant, preadolescent children. Surveying the U.S. media at large but with an emphasis on television, the article reveals that gender-creative youth are nearly invisible. When depictions of gender-variant kids do appear, they often focus on either children who express extreme gender dysphoria or in some way signify the “tragic queer” motif (or both). The implications of these findings are discussed.     

家庭对流动儿童择校的影响研究

通过对"2010年北京市儿童发展状况调查"数据的分析,把流动儿童就读的学校划分为三种类型,即打工子弟学校、流动儿童多的公立学校和流动儿童少的公立学校,这三类学校接收的流动儿童大体上对应于不同的流动人口阶层,依此为参照,分布在不同类型学校中的流动人口家庭的社会经济水平、社会网络质量、独生子女比例、家庭教育期望和条件等呈现出逐级递增的趋势。在流动儿童少的公立学校中,无论学习成绩还是家庭状况,流动儿童和户籍儿童均无显著差异。