NYC Radical Teachers
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
September 18th, 2004

On September 18, 2004, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project hosted an event with the NYC Radical Teachers focusing on gender diversity and children. Teachers, parents, and activists attended. The beginning of the session focused on brief training about gender identity and expression, conducted by SRLP staff, defining basic terms related to gender, sexuality, and identity and establishing shared analysis about the enforcement of gender norms in culture. Next, the group broke out to discuss manifestations of gender coercion and enforcement of gender norms in schools and classrooms, and what teachers can do to intervene. Finally, the group shared resources for teaching and thinking about these issues. Below are the notes from the meeting.

Manifestations of Gender Enforcement in Schools and Classrooms

• Sports
• Texts/curricula
• Electives becoming gendered (shop/home economics)
• Language used in classrooms
• Sex Education segregated boys/girls (creates increased sexual shame)
• Boy/girl seating arrangements in classrooms
• Symbols/coding
• Competitions (boys vs. girls)
• Lining up by gender
• Gendered school uniforms
• School plays with highly gendered role compliance
• Supplies/party favors/incentives gendered items (pink/blue etc)
• Telling the class "I need two strong boys to help me lift this" or "act like a lady"
• Trusting girls more as responsible/mature, assuming boys act out/rowdy

Potential Interventions

• No Boy/Girl Lining up
• Art projects to explore gender expression/variation
• Positive books and stories
• Teachers role modeling gender variance (female teachers who share that they like to fish or play sports, male teachers willing to share that they enjoy cooking or knitting)
• Address slurs in classroom
• Be aware of class/cultural/ethnic differences
• Refer kids to safe spaces/programs
• Good posters in classroom
• Curricula/texts
• Train administration
• Degender bathrooms
• Encourage kids to disrupt norms
• Encourage kids to point out gender enforcement/stereotypes
• Harassment policies
• Be aware of own bias/assumptions
• Avoid gender segregation

Resources

Oliver Button is a Sissy, by Tomie de Paolo. Voyager Books, 1990. Available at amazon.com.

Oliver Button is a Star (video), available at http://www.oliverbuttonisastar.com/

Geography Club, by Brent Hartinger. HarperTempest, 2003. Available at amazon.com.

Am I Blue? : Coming Out from the Silence, edited by Marion Dane Bauer. HarperTrophy, 1995. Available at amazon.com.

The Sissy Duckling, by Harvey Firestein. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2002. Available from amazon.com.

Free to Be You and Me, by Marlo Thomas. Available from amazon.com.

"Weetzie Bat Books" by Francesca Lia Block. (Available as a single volume, Dangerous Angels.)

Annie on My Mind, by Nancy Garden. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982. Available at amazon.com.

Are You a Boy or a Girl?, by K.P. Jiménez

Boys can be girls can be boys (coloring book)

Books by Jaqueline Woodson

Books by Francesca Lia Block

"Toilet Training" (video) available from the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.

Organizations

Transgender Law Center, San Francisco.
http://transgenderlawcenter.org

People in Search of Safe Restrooms (PISSR)
http://www.pissr.org

Gender Public Advocacy Coalition
http://www.gpac.org

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
http://www.lambdalegal.org

National Center for Lesbian Rights
http://www.nclrights.org

Intersex Society of North America
http://www.isna.org