Today was the first time I have ever had any type of trans gender situation occur at work. While doing my mundane paperwork I noticed a note attached to someone's account regarding their child being transgendered. After working here almost five years I am well aware of the fact that no one here has any experience with or even knows transgendered people, so I looked into it further.
The child (which turned out to be 22), is named Paul. However from the notes on the account, I kept seeing Paul referred to as 'she'. It got me to wondering what gender Paul was. Was his gender male now? Or was it his birth gender and his name not changed yet? Either way, I needed to make sure that Paul was treated like any other person of his or her gender. And from the rest of the note, I knew that was already in jeopardy. "I showed her (the mom) the handicap locker room and said Paul could change there". (it only accommodates one person or small family at a time)
I immediately made a phone call. Thank goodness Paul hadn't been here yet and had never been subject to that ignorance. And that is all it was. There was no maliciousness in the comment. Just plain ignorance.
I made the call and found out the Paul was an FTM. I stated that Paul is a man and should have all the same rights and availabilities as every other man that walks through that door. I was pleased that our staff asked a lot of questions. I was even more pleased that I knew the answers. The common misconception was over 'where he was in the transition'. After explaining the difference between gender and sex assignment and the rights that Paul should be afforded, all was how it should be. And all without Paul having to deal with the stigma and embarrassment associated when confrontation with ignorant people occur.
In all fairness, you can hardly expect everyone to be knowledgeable about things they have never had exposure to. But sometimes I think common sense is stalled when staring into the face of the unfamiliar. Exposure, as scary as it may be for those exposed, truly does open doors to acceptance.
That's awesome! Sometimes I wish there were more people like you, patient and ready to answer questions, here in NC. I run into a lot of ignorance here.
ReplyDeletethank you for this! i have a long and boring tale of my experience with school that i wont subject you to that had a different outcome. it's good to see that some people can be adults about trans issues instead of acting out of fear or bigotry.
ReplyDeleteI would encourage you to write about it! Even in a note to someone if not publicly. Can be quite therapeutic to hear people's responses and associations.
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