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Parents Do Not Need To Fear Foxboro Elementary Music Teacher For Being Transgender
 The Axiom Of Respect In Vacaville, California, numbers of parents are concerned because the administration of Foxboro Elementary School did not "notify them ahead of time" that a music teacher at the school had gone through gender reassignment surgery. ("Kids Pulled From Transgender Teacher's Class") The teacher, who was born biologically female, "returned to school as a man at the beginning of the school year." "Some parents told Travis Unified School District that they feel like their rights to know were violated." However, "the school board said such disclosure would violate HIPAA privacy rules," and Superintendent Kate Wren Gavlak asserted, "We have a legal obligation to protect our employees." (Watch "Kids Pulled From Transgender Teacher's Class" Video) Although we feel that Ms. Wren Gavlak and the Travis Unified School District made the appropriate decision in following HIPAA privacy rules, we also completely appreciate why parents were alarmed: In this country, transgender individuals are deeply misunderstood and quality information about the transgender community is not widely publicized. The goal of Magna Sententia is to strengthen America by helping each individual live with personal responsibility, respect, and realistic expectations. To that end, it is impossible to live with these values if we lack knowledge and understanding or our beliefs are rooted in prejudice or based on misinformation. Unfortunately, the transgender community is faced with the daunting challenge of living in a society that has almost no clear comprehension of their situation, and we hope that the following will clear up some of the common misconceptions about their struggle: The transgender teacher at Foxboro Elementary school is a female-to-male transsexual (FTM). What does that mean? While usages vary, in general transgender refers to "a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies that diverge from the normative gender role (woman or man) commonly, but not always, assigned at birth, as well as the role traditionally held by society." (Wikipedia: "Transgender") Hence, the blanket term "transgender" encompasses a great deal of people and behaviors, including (but not limited to) transsexuals. Transsexualism is "a condition in which a person identifies with a physical sex different from the one with which they were born." (Wikipedia: "Transsexualism") This means that the physical sex of transsexual people's bodies does not match the gender of their brains. For instance, the music teacher at Foxboro Elementary School identifies as a man, even though he was born biologically female. Transsexualism has nothing to do with mental illness, sex, sexual activity, or sexual orientation. (There are heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual transsexual individuals.) On the contrary, there is increasing evidence that transsexualism is a medical condition that develops in utero and is "hard-wired" into the brain. For example, one of the ways you can tell male and female brains apart is the "central subdivision of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTc)," a part of the hypothalamus. ("A Sex Difference In The Human Brain And Its Relation To Transsexuality") The BSTc is consistently "larger in men than in women," and when researchers dissected the brains of male-to-female transsexuals (MTFs, individuals who are born biologically male but identify as female), they discovered that MTFs have brains with a "female-sized" BSTc. "This study [was] the first to show a female brain structure in genetically male transsexuals and supports the hypothesis that gender identity develops as a result of an interaction between the developing brain and sex hormones." Also, "regardless of sexual orientation, men had almost twice as many somatostatin neurons as women." ("Male-To-Female Transsexuals Have Female Neuron Numbers In A Limbic Nucleus") In a separate study, researchers found that "the number of neurons in the BSTc of male-to-female transsexuals was similar to that of the females" and "the neuron number of a female-to-male transsexual was found to be in the male range." Transsexualism is not a choice, and as a society, we can help transsexual individuals by becoming informed and treating them respectfully. This is especially important for parents with transsexual children. In order to truly take responsibility for transsexual children, parents must surround them with love and understanding, as well as seek the best medical care available. Please, never abandon, belittle, or ridicule your transsexual child. They did not ask to be born with a brain that does not match their body, and they need your help to make the necessary changes so that they can build a fulfilling life for themselves. And never, ever send them to religious "counseling" to get them to "change their mind." This only prolongs their agony. You do not want your child to have to live a lie and make extreme changes later in life, particularly after they have married and had children. "So far, 23 students from 15 different families have transferred their children out of the [Foxboro Elementary School] music class." We hope that parents there change their minds and give the music teacher a chance to show their children that being different does not make you a bad person. We cannot ignore, abuse, or isolate transsexual individuals and be a nation that is strong, compassionate, and wise. Anna and Ellie Sherise References 2. Zhou J.-N., Hofman M. A., Gooren L. J. G., & Swaab, D. F. (1995). A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality. Nature, 378, 68-70. [Full Text, as reprinted in The International Journal of Transgenderism, 1(1)]
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