Understanding Gender Variance and Transgender

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Understanding gender variance and transgender

Lesson plan 3 4

Contents

Introduction 2

Overview 3

Preparation 4

Classroom activities 6

Resources 9

Introduction

This is the third lesson in a series of five lessons on gender and transgender-based bullying.

1. Understanding gender stereotyping. 2. Social norms relating to gender. 3. Understanding gender variance and transgender. 4. What does gender and transgender-based bullying look like and what protections are there? 5. What can we do about gender and transgender-based bullying?

Overview

This is the third lesson plan in a series of five. Through two whole group discussions, one reading activity and one small group activity this lesson will explore issues relating to gender variance and transgender. At appropriate points, links should be made back to the learning from Lesson plans 1 and 2 in the series It is important to explore and understand all of the pre-reading before delivering this lesson, or any of the lessons in the series, as it sets the context and some baseline knowledge and understanding, as well as providing ideas for how to facilitate discussion of these potentially sensitive topics.

Key stage

This lesson plan is suitable for use at either Key Stage 3 or 4. The depth and complexity of the discussion is likely to be greater if used at Key Stage 4.

Links to the curriculum for Key Stages 3 and 4

 Personal and social education (PSE) contributes to thinking and communication skills as well as to the content for Active citizenship; Health and emotional well-being; and Moral and spiritual development.  Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship contributes to the content for Identity and culture; and Choices and decisions.

Preparation

Time

60 minutes (if you have less time you can give the reading to do in advance and/or remove Discussion 1 and just present the information on numbers).

Learning objectives

By the end of the lesson learners will:

 understand what is meant by the various terms related to gender variance and transgender  have become more familiar with using the terms in their correct context  be able to consider the experiences of transgender people.

Background and pre-reading

Respecting others: anti-bullying guidance

Before delivering any of the lessons in this series, teachers should access and become familiar with the Welsh Government guidance document, Respecting others: Sexist, sexual and transphobic bullying (Welsh Government, 2011).

This can be accessed from: learning.wales.gov.uk/docs/learningwales/publications/121128absexisten.pdf

Before delivering this lesson teachers should also refer back to the pre-reading provided with Lesson plan 1 in this series.

Pre-reading

For many people this will be an unfamiliar topic to deliver. Consequently, before delivering this lesson it is important to have looked at and understood the key messages from Transphobic Bullying – Could you deal with it in your school?. This document, produced for the Home Office by GIRES (Gender Identity Research and Education Society), provides a comprehensive understanding of transgender issues and will support teachers to deliver this lesson in a sensitive, appropriate and well informed manner. Sections 1 to 3 provide a good introduction.

The document can be accessed from: www.gires.org.uk/assets/Schools/TransphobicBullying-print.pdf

The GIRES website also provides access to e-learning which may support delivery of this lesson.

This can be accessed from: www.gires.org.uk/index.php/education

Having delivered this lesson, it is possible that young people experiencing issues related to gender identity may choose to speak to you. Chapter 6 of the Transphobic Bullying document gives guidance on providing support and protection for learners dealing with transgender issues.

Your understanding might also be aided by reading an article written by a teacher in America and recommended by GIRES which can be accessed from: www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-bollow-tempel/teaching-gender-variant- children_b_1163459.html

Resources

 Print copies of ‘Handout: Gender development – the inside story’ (for the reading activity and the group activity).  Have the means to play the audio clips from the BBC for Discussion 2.

Classroom activities

Introduction (2 minutes)

 At the root of much bullying is a fear of things that we do not understand. This lesson focuses on helping us to understand the nature of gender variance and transgender and the words used to describe it.

Reading activity and small group activity: Understanding the terminology (28 minutes)

 Provide learners with access to a printed copy of ‘Handout: Gender development – the inside story’ and ask them to read the text on pages 9 to 12 individually. This is provided in the ‘Resources’ section of this lesson plan.  Put learners into six groups and ask each group to prepare a short presentation (no more than a minute each) that they will give to the rest of the class. Allocate one word to each group. Their presentation should explain, in their own words, what the following terms mean to them.  Gender identity.  Gender role.  Gender variance.  Transgender.  Transsexual.  Trans man. – Trans woman.  After each group have completed their short presentations you can share with them the following definitions. – Gender identity: a person’s perception of having a particular gender, which may or may not correspond with their birth sex. – Gender role: the role or behaviour learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms. – Gender variance: a behaviour or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine and feminine gender norms. – Transgender: denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex. – Transsexual: a person who emotionally and psychologically feels that they belong to the opposite sex. – Trans man: a female-to-male transsexual. – Trans woman: a male-to-female transsexual.

Discussion 1: How many people are we talking about? (10 minutes)

 Ask learners how many people out of every 1,000 in the UK they think might:  feel uncomfortable about their gender?  seek medical treatment for their gender variance?  undergo transition and live full time in a gender opposite to that assigned at birth? Also ask them to consider what percentage they think: – were initially raised male? – were initially raised female?  Discuss their answers and ask what they think informed their answers. Was it the media? Their own experiences? Just guess work?  Provide them with the figures for the UK which are in the box below. Point out that the number of transgender people within the UK population is relatively small but significant.  Discuss how similar the answers are to the figures they gave. Why do they think they vary?  You may choose to ask if they think it is not an issue we need to discuss because the numbers are relatively small. Perhaps compare this to other issues that affect minority groups. Make links back to Lesson plan 1 which explored the importance of treating everyone equally and with respect for diversity.  Ask them why it is important to use the words they discussed earlier correctly? How might it feel if you questioned your own gender identity or were transgender if people used the words as a form of insult, e.g. ‘tranny’? Point out that this would be a form of transphobic bullying and more examples of bullying will be looked at in Lesson plan 4 ‘What does gender and transgender-based bullying look like and what protections are there?’.

Figures for the UK

 Experiencing some degree of gender discomfort: This may affect 6 in 1,000 people, amounting to about 300,000 people. In the main, they do not seek medical treatment for their discomfort and remain largely invisible to clinicians. Many deal with their feelings by occasional cross-dressing.

 Experiencing a sufficient degree of gender discomfort to seek medical treatment: The number of people who have sought treatment may be about 10,500 people, possibly 1 in 5,000. About 80% of these people were initially raised as male and the remainder as female.

 Living full-time in a gender opposite to that assigned at birth: The number of people, within that 10,500, who have already undergone transition to live full-time in a different gender role may be about 6,200.

Reproduced from Transphobic Bullying – Could you deal with it in your school? (GIRES, 2008, p.5)

Discussion 2: Real lives – audio clips (15 minutes)

 Explain that having discussed the words used to describe transgender people it is now important to make sure that we see them as people – just like any other people – with lives and jobs and families and friends.  Play one or both of the audio clips from the BBC which are in the resources.  After each clip discuss what they have heard using the suggested questions as well as any of your own.

Summing up and ending (5 minutes)

 Ask each learner to note down two things they have learnt in the lesson or two ways in which their thinking has been changed following the reading and discussion.  If there is time, ask a few learners to share one of their points.

Resources

Handout: Gender development – the inside story (for reading activity and group activity)

Atypical gender development may give rise to a psychological experience of oneself as a man or as a woman, that is, a gender identity, which is incongruent with the phenotype (the sex differentiated characteristics of the body). ‘M’ or ‘F’ is entered on the birth certificate in accordance with genital appearance at birth so individuals experiencing this condition will have been raised, from birth, in the gender role (the social category of boy or girl) which is consistent with their phenotypic appearance. In some cases, both the appearance of the body and the associated gender role give rise to great discomfort. The personal experience of this severe gender variance is sometimes described medically as gender dysphoria.

This condition may be experienced in varying degrees, but in its profound and persistent form, individuals may need to ‘transition’, to live in the gender role which is consistent with their core gender identity. Individuals experiencing this condition may be referred to as trans men (those assigned female at birth who identity as men, and who may ‘transition’ to live as men) and trans women (those assigned male at birth but who identify as women and who may transition to live as women). This man/woman divide is described as a ‘binary’ model. Others may describe themselves as trans masculine or trans feminine indicating that they identify towards one end of the gender spectrum. There are wide variations in identity, that are ‘non- binary’, and many self-descriptions and unusual pronouns; new titles such as Mx and Pr have been invented. Being trans is not the same as cross-dressing (transvestism) which is temporary and not necessarily associated with gender dysphoria. There is some overlap, however, as some people who eventually transition have spent many years cross-dressing in safe places. It should be noted that issues of gender identity are not the same as sexual orientation, which is about whom you are sexually attracted to. The process of sex differentiation is initiated in the fetus in the early stages of pregnancy. Typically, sex differentiation is associated with the chromosomes: all fetuses have an X chromosome (from the mother); the second chromosome (from the father) will be either an X, producing a female fetus, or a Y, producing a male fetus. Regardless of chromosomes, the rudimentary tissue of both male and female reproductive systems are present in both XX and XY fetuses. Certain genes on the Y chromosome trigger the cascade of masculinising hormones from the testes (androgens – testosterone and MIH, a hormone antagonistic to the female internal reproductive system) which move the fetus from its female status towards the male status. Differentiation of sex characteristics – genitalia, gonads (testes/ovaries) – and of the brain, and the apparently binary male or female outcome in all these areas, is, therefore, driven by the genes and the hormone environment, especially the presence or absence of testosterone. The latter depends partly on the pregnant mother and partly on the hormone (endocrine) system of the fetus itself.

It is assumed that the baby’s development is consistent, that all the sex characteristics will be congruent with each other, and that a child assigned as male will identify as a boy, and that a female infant will identify as a girl. This assumption is usually accurate. However it is not always so; by the time of birth, approximately 1 in 100 babies will have developed conditions known generally as intersex. These arise where there is some degree of sex anomaly, owing to a disturbance in the genetic code and/or the hormone environment impacting on the process of sex differentiation. The possible anomalies are many and varied. There may be visible ambiguities of the genitalia so that the assignment of the baby as a boy or a girl is uncertain; there may be inconsistencies between genitalia and gonads, and/or internal reproductive organs. In some cases, where the fetus is insensitive to the masculinising influence of androgens, an individual may develop as a phenotypic female girl despite having XY chromosomes. However, she will have undescended testes, no uterus or ovaries and a short or more-or-less non-existent vagina.

So, incongruence between the visible sex appearance and the pre-natal brain development is just part of a much wider spectrum of unusual development. This is an interpretation acknowledged by Lady Butler-Sloss (Court of Appeal, 2001):

“There is, in informed medical circles, a growing momentum for the recognition of trans individuals for every purpose and in a manner similar to those who are intersexed”.

Factors which may be implicated in causing inconsistent fetal development may include genetic influences, environmental influences and/or medication to the mother during pregnancy. Rarely, unusual chromosomes configurations, e.g. XXY, XYY, XXYYY, etc., or even a mosaic of more than one chromosomal pattern within different tissues in one individual, may also be associated with atypical development of gender identity and sex characteristics.

Some brain processes have been shown to be dissimilar in men and women in the population generally; hearing, for instance is ‘hard-wired’ differently. A study on the hearing of trans women demonstrated that it resembles the non-trans female pattern rather than the male pattern (Govier et al. 2009).

Previous research has established that small areas in the hypothalamic region of the brain are anatomically differentiated into male and female, in the general population. More recent research published in 1995, 2000 and 2008 undertaken by J-N Zhou et al., Frank Kruijver et al., and Garci-Falgueras and Swaab respectively, demonstrated that in three small, but statistically robust, post-mortem studies of individuals experiencing gender dysphoria, two sex dimorphic areas – the central subdivision of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTc) and the uncinate nucleus – are differentiated in opposition to the chromosomal, genital and gonadal sex characteristics. This was found not to have been caused by cross-sex hormone administration nor by sex hormone variations in adulthood. Scans of white matter in the brains of untreated trans men and trans women show them to be masculinised and feminised respectively (Rametti et al., 2011). The gene coding for the androgen receptor, which governs the body’s response to testosterone, is characterised by repeat polymorphisms in trans women, indicating an atypical response to this hormone (Henningsson, 2005; Hare et al., 2008). Monozygotic (identical) twins show a markedly raised incidence of concordance for transition compared with their dizygotic (fraternal) twin counterparts (Diamond, 2013). These, and other findings, support the view that biological factors – genetic, hormonal, and chromosomal – may all have a part to play in strongly predisposing the formation of a gender identity that is at odds with the sex assigned at birth.

Where this predisposition exists, psycho-social factors may subsequently modify the outcome. However, there is no evidence that socialisation in contradiction to the phenotype causes gender dysphoria, nor that socialisation which is consistent with the phenotype can prevent it. Many trans men and trans women struggle to conform to stereotypical gender role behaviour from early childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood.

This may create intolerable stress which, in some individuals, can only be resolved by undergoing transition from the gender role imposed since birth to the role consistent with the gender identity. This process does not change the underlying gender identity but confirms it by aligning the phenotype with it, thus ending the mismatch. Trans people often delay transition to live in the opposite role, until they are adults, but a growing number do so during childhood or adolescence.

In conclusion, although the processes of sex differentiation of the brain are not yet fully understood, the evidence strongly suggests that this is a neuro-developmental condition. It is inevitable that trans people will not all be binary; many will be non-binary as there are many gender interpretations between ‘man’ or ‘woman’.

Therefore treatment for these individuals needs to be tailored to their own particular needs; it often includes hormone therapy, and sometimes surgery, to achieve a closer alignment of the phenotype with the gender identity. Trans people usually benefit from psychological support for themselves and their families and significant others.

The World Health Organisation was advised, in 2013 to ‘abandon the psychopathological model, in favour of one that reflects current scientific evidence and best practice’. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (2011) states that ‘the expression of gender characteristics, including identities, that are not stereotypically associated with one’s assigned sex at birth is a common and culturally diverse human phenomenon that should not be regarded as inherently pathological or negative’.

Trans people should always be treated in accordance with the principles of equality and human rights.

Audio clips from the BBC for Discussion 2

Audio clip 1 (3 minutes)

Sarah (a trans woman) tells her friend Susan about the events that led up to her marriage breakdown and the moment she said goodbye to her children. She also asks Susan to define their friendship.

The clip can be accessed from: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00rm8yq

Possible discussion questions

 How does Susan describe her friendship with Sarah?  How do you think Sarah’s children might have felt when she left? What about her wife? What about Sarah herself?  How would you have reacted if you were friends with one of Sarah’s children?

Audio clip 2 (5 minutes)

An American Samoan transgender footballer talks about the different culture in American Samoa where she is accepted as a ‘third sex’ and is the first transsexual to play in a FIFA World Cup qualifying game.

The clip can be accessed from: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01y7x3y

Possible discussion questions

 Do you think that a transgender person could ever play high level football in Wales?  What does the clip tell us about the different way that transgender is seen in American Samoa and other Pacific Island countries?  What was the main topic of the discussion? (Tip: It is mostly about football rather than transgender.)