School uniform policy a gender issue

Making school a safer place for transgender and gender diverse teens is the aim of a campaign to change the culture of educational institutions and make them more understanding and inclusive

By BRIHONY TULLOCH

It is a room of dazzling colour – rainbow posters, pink, green and red hair, and the teenager to the left is in purple from head to toe.

Ygender is a support and advocacy group for transgender and gender diverse teens that meets on Wednesday nights in a Victorian townhouse in Carlton.

Everyone goes around the circle to introduce themselves and say what personal pronouns they prefer. “Hi, my name is Robin and I prefer bird pronouns.”

A warm burst of laughter follows. It’s clear that these young people see the room as a safe place, where they are free to express not just themselves, but their essence, their gender identity.

Ygender co-ordinator Cannon O’Saurus and the founder of the Safe Schools Coalition Roz Ward hope this freedom will soon be extended to their school environment. The Gender is Not Uniform campaign was launched on Friday, May 16, in conjunction with the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

The campaign is an attempt to raise awareness about the uniform requirements of transgender and gender diverse school students. Through changes to uniform policies to make them gender neutral, providing access to unisex toilets, additional staff straining and giving support, it is hoped that gender diverse and transgender students will feel comfortable and more accepted in their school.

The campaign's support materials include providing a glossary to help people understand the more-inclusive language they use. They say gender diversity “acknowledges the many different ways people may identify their gender”, including those who don't strictly identify as male or female.

This new campaign has the support of a range of LGBTI community organisations, such as Minus 18, Transgender Victoria and the Zoe Belle Gender Centre.

While there is not a lot of information about the amount of transphobic bullying in Victorian schools, Roz Ward hears stories from students every day about cruel comments and verbal abuse. She decided to create a “pro-active and positive program” that would give schools the resources to work with gender diverse children and improve their time at school.

Roz and her team have helped 17 transgender students in the past two years by providing them with on ground support and co-ordinating help from the school and its staff.

It is her hope that the Gender is Not Uniform campaign will change school culture for future generations. One day, school will be a place where every child can feel safe and accepted, regardless of their gender representation.

Cannon talks about the importance of the Gender is Not Uniform campaign as he fiddles with the oven, preparing vegan snacks for tonight’s Ygender meeting. He says that school can be “very distressing” for young people who are gender diverse.

Their environment leaves them “not feeling confident enough to come out as trans” and so they often suffer in silence. A young person named Ashley with lilac-shaded hair and a skateboard comes in to help with drinks.

She talks quietly about her experience at a public school in Canberra a few years ago. Male students were made to wear a collared white shirt and pants and she never felt comfortable.

Ashley never dared to wear the school dress she so desired out of fear of what other students might do to her. Her eyes drop and she fiddles absentmindedly when I ask her if she experienced any bullying. “Always,” she mumbles.

At least 15 out of 100 people in Australia are gender diverse and/or transgender. The Government does recognise that individuals may identify as a gender other than the sex they were born with.

Earlier this year, a person named Norrie was awarded the right to register as “non-specific” – neither a man nor a woman – with the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The High Court recognised that gender is not binary, and there are other representations besides simply “male” or “female”.

At the Ygender meeting, one person describes the massive anxiety caused when  teachers asked boys to stand in one line and girls in another. Some in the group talk about buying oversized uniforms so they could hide their bodies, others about the horror of changing in the locker rooms after mandatory sport.

Under the Equal Opportunities Act schools in Victoria have a “positive duty” to support gender diverse and/or transgender students and to ensure they do not experience bullying or discrimination on the basis of their gender representation.

Some schools like Billanook College, a private school in Mooroolbark, are showing their support. The school is a member of the Uniting Church and recently joined the Safe Schools Coalition. Principal Roger Oates does enforce the assigned uniform; however female students are free to choose between wearing a dress or pants. The sports uniform is also gender neutral. Billanook hasn’t yet had a transgender or gender diverse student enroll, but Mr Oates says they would be open and accommodating.

Barry Dickinson, the director of marketing at Knox School in Wantirna, has a similar perspective. The school has an assigned uniform and correct presentation is enforced. The uniform policy was recently changed when a female student asked to be allowed to wear pants. Mr Dickinson says the school would also be accommodating to transgender or gender diverse students.

Courts in Australia have increasingly supported the rights of transgender and gender diverse children. In 2011 a judge authorised access to puberty-suppressing hormone therapy for a 10-year-old boy who wanted to undergo medical measures to transition into a girl.

“Jaime” told the court: “Without it I wouldn't be who I feel myself to be and that would just be terrible … because for the rest of my life I couldn't be who I feel myself to be.”

In the same year a teenager known as Rosie was granted the right to begin hormone treatment so she could medically transition into a male. In her early teens Rosie was “tormented, angry and anti-social” due to her desire to be a boy. She was also unable fit in at school because she was not being treated as male.

Cannon O’Saurus and Roz Ward agree it is too early to assess the success of the Gender is not Uniform campaign. But hopefully there will be a day where all school policies accommodate the needs of transgender and gender diverse students and school can be a place where they’re free and safe to be themselves.