{"id":303,"date":"2017-10-28T20:43:22","date_gmt":"2017-10-29T01:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/?p=303"},"modified":"2017-10-28T20:43:22","modified_gmt":"2017-10-29T01:43:22","slug":"retired-teacher-confronts-transphobia-in-suburban-chicago-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/2017\/10\/28\/retired-teacher-confronts-transphobia-in-suburban-chicago-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired Teacher Confronts Transphobia in Suburban Chicago School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published December 3, 2015
\n\"\"
\n<\/strong>By Roger Fraser<\/strong>
\nLetter to the Arlington Heights Daily Herald<\/em>
\nNovember 14, 2015<\/p>\n

A few evenings ago two lone individuals, one of whom was me, spoke before the District 211 school board on behalf of a transgender student\u2019s right to unrestricted use of the girls\u2019 locker room. There was a large and well organized parent contingent there with signs in support of the board\u2019s decision to restrict this student\u2019s access. The two of us appeared to be the only ones in the room to support the girl\u2019s demand for full inclusion with her peers.
\n 
\nThis is deeply troubling.<\/strong>
\n 
\nIt would have been a moving show of support if several of the girl\u2019s classmates had been present, perhaps with signs of their own. (Reportedly, none of them has a problem with the girl\u2019s full use of the locker room; it\u2019s the parents who are freaked by the possible \u201cexposure\u201d of their daughters to the sight of the transgender student\u2019s physical anatomy). It would have even been more moving if one or two had borne witness before the board against the discrimination she is suffering and the implicit attack it makes against her sense of self.
\n 
\nBut, then, we can hardly expect high school students to take the lead when no teacher in District 211 had the courage that evening to take to the podium and challenge the board\u2019s decision. It would have made a powerful statement if even one faculty member or support staff had spoken on her behalf. It\u2019s hard to imagine that every teacher, coach, social worker, and nurse in 211 stands with the board on this issue. Concerning those who don\u2019t, what are they afraid of? Their jobs are safe. They have strong, effective unions ready and able to defend them in case of retaliation.
\n 
\nAnd, speaking of unions, why wasn\u2019t a teacher union\u2019s spokesperson present to confront the board about the risk it is taking jeopardizing federal funding? Subsidized school lunches for poor kids are at risk as the district flouts the ruling of the Office of Civil Rights. During every contract negotiations, the union vaunts its support for kids. Yet its leadership wasn\u2019t there that evening for the transgender girl, nor did it raise its voice on behalf of the district\u2019s poorest families.  
\n 
\nNovember 20th<\/sup> is Transgender Day of Remembrance when lives lost to anti-transgender violence are honored. Of course, not all violence against transgender people is lethal or even physical. But silence in the face of any of it is moral cowardice; it\u2019s also a form of complicity.<\/strong>
\n 
\nRoger Fraser
\nRolling Meadows<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published December 3, 2015 By Roger Fraser Letter to the Arlington Heights Daily Herald November 14, 2015 A few evenings ago two lone individuals, one of whom was me, spoke Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,104],"tags":[35,106,105],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lgbtq-youth","category-trans-rights","tag-lgbtq-youth","tag-students","tag-transgender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}