5 Things Transgender Students Want Their Teachers to Know

“Iwish my teachers could understand how important pronouns are. It’s physically painful to be misgendered. If they do mess up, I wish they’d just calmly correct themselves instead of making a huge deal out of it.” — Beau

“Iwish they understood that it takes a lot to come out, especially while still in school. I’m just like everyone else — I just want to be able to live my life while also transitioning and it not be a huge deal.” — Addison

“Iworry about being attacked in the restroom. I fear my teacher using the wrong pronouns. I worry that my teachers will separate the class into groups by gender and will tell me I’m in the wrong one. I worry that they’ll use my birth name.” — Asher

“Iwant my teachers to know how much it means to make their classroom a safe space. I’ve spent a lot of time feeling uncomfortable because of transphobic and homophobic things I’ve heard. A lot of teachers don’t have the training to respond when they hear a student saying something terrible, so they just ignore.” — Sam

“Iwish my teachers knew how exhausting it is to come to school every day. My experience at school is more difficult and anxiety-producing. I need my teachers to understand why I’m missing school — it’s not because I don’t care or don’t want to be there, it’s because I don’t feel safe.” — James