Anti-trans legislation and public schools
Anti-trans legislation and public schools
Somehow I was unaware until school started this week that the state I live in, Indiana, passed a law this year requiring the school to REPORT to the parents if a child requests to be called by a different name or gender pronoun than they registered under…and the parent has to give written permission for the school to use said name or gender pronouns. This has put a ridiculous burden on the teachers, of course. Today I got an email notifying me that my son, Ben, would like to be called Ben and not Benjamin. I signed a form. Thousands of other parents will do so as well.
This is absolutely fucking ridiculous in so many ways. The pursuit of eliminating trans people at all costs has gotten so out of hand. This is some Taliban shit.
Please…for fuck’s sake call my kids whatever they want to be called, have drag queens read to them…teach them that slavery was bad and gay people exist. Let the teachers teach. Help my kids to be smart and kind and call it a day…I trust our public school system. This is so infuriating.
To the people passing these laws, I hope your children and grandchildren are ashamed of you and put you in a shitty nursing home and never visit you…and then you die (of old age) and the next generation is better. This is disgusting.
Holy shit your kid has to have written permission to be called a diminutive of his own name.
That's absolutely batshit.
Indeed. My sister in law has three kids they all go by shortened versions of their full names. Had to sign three forms…to really think that it is technically ILLEGAL for them to call him Ben without a form from me is so absurd.
The GOP is creating the nanny state they always accused Democrats of wanting for so long.
All of these right wing laws are transforming schools from places of learning to places of indoctrination.
But they're preventing that with this legislation.
/s, Florida is pulling so much shit right now too.
Now get him to ask for a new name bimonthly and keep signing those forms
I’m totally down for protesting but fucking with the schools isn’t the way to do it…they are victims in this too and forced to do crazy things. Imagine having to ask all of the students what they want to be called on the first day of school and then having to initiate email notification/permission requests to parents. They had to build forms and systems for all of this nonsense
People change due to discomfort (pain) or pleasure. If neither is experienced or transmitted to the deciders, likely nothing changes.
Finding the path with the least amount of friendly-fire is good, but some civil disobedience seems fine with me.
May even be that the teacher is cool with the below:
Ben -> Benn -> Ben
I'm not going to lie, I misread that as: "Now get him to ask for a new name, 'Bimothy'."
...I've been joking too much with my (incidentally-trans) housemate and best friend about fake/silly portmanteau names lately. The name "Bess" came up and I'm like... "what is that even short for?" They were like "Queen Elizabeth, apparently", but I said "Bessica".
Jesus.. the US is going to shit. You'd think that the "land of the free" would be more against this surveillance campaign.
It's becoming more and more "the land of the oppressed. "
Free yep but if your kid wants to be called “they” all bets are off…declare marshall law. Put teachers in jail. Get your Bibles ready.
Currently the freedom is experienced by an organized and motivated voting block.
I continue to think the idea for some, "I should be free enough to own slaves (it may even be good for the slaves)" is out there.
I mean, they didn't have to worry about room or board, right? They "only" had to worry about being killed, traded, raped, or beaten.
When you hear "freedom," ask, "for who?" To them, this is freedom to protect their children from "the world."
Holy shit. That they didn't at least carve out an exception for shortening a given name shows how poorly thought through this shit is. No Mike, Luke, Dan, Jenny, Liz, Mark, Beth, and the rest of you. Your teachers and friends may have called you that all of your life, but you are now Michael, Lucas, Daniel, Jennifer, Elizabeth, Macus, Elizabeth.
Yep my sister in law had to sign papers that Emerson, Finley and Addison could be called Emmie, Finn and Addie. Definitely keeping kids safe from……….drag queens? Pedos? Secret gender affirming care?
Another thing I think about is that my daughter talked to a school counselor and now a therapist…I am 100% fine with them keeping things private unless it’s a threat of violence or suicide. Sometimes mental health care needs to include discussing things with TRUSTED adults and not your parents. Of course I wish she would tell her mom and I everything she tells her therapist…but no way she ever fucking would. Better the trained mental health expert than getting advice from other teens.
This essentially a direct challenge to that. Kids can’t have secrets. The school may not use discretion.
We should roll our some black mirror shit and monitor them on video 24/7 and some kind of brain chips as well…
Wait, you want teachers to keep secrets from parents?
Explain to me the problem the law solves. Things were fine, this is a manufactured trans panic.
Yes, if a child feels comfortable sharing something in confidence with a supportive adult in their life, the adult should respect that privacy. Of course things like being a danger to themselves or others, or signs of possible abuse, should always be reported. What it comes to is that we don’t know what is waiting for that child at home. Parents are not always good, understanding, or open-minded people.
That is a good thing that the parents need to be advised. They have the responsibilities of the well beoing of their children.
Is this sarcasm, "Throwaway?"
Edit: scrolled down. It's not sarcasm. Eek.