In our culture everything is gendered from colors to children’s toys, and anyone who breaks those imaginary barriers becomes a target. These imaginary barriers are called the Gender Binary System. The Gender Binary System is an oppressive force that enforces that everyone is raised as a “boy”, meaning being ultra-butch, or a girl, ultra-femme. It also dictates (by your genitals) what job you are “supposed” to have, how you are “supposed” to behave , what you are “supposed” to wear, who you are “supposed” to be attracted to. This system affects EVERYONE. Under this system, your parents tell you not to wear that pretty bright pink nail polish because it isn't meant for boys and you get forced to play baseball with your father. This is understandable, because being transgender or gender non-conforming in this culture can be dangerous and even deadly. Does anyone remember Gwen Araujo? How about Teena Brandon?
Gwen Araujo was a teenage transwoman from Newark California, who was at a house party. She was found out to be transsexual by Paul Merel’s girlfriend she announced it at the party. Three boys beat Gwen up and strangled her with a rope. Brandon Teena was a teenage transman; from Falls City, Colorado he was dating Lana Tisdel. He was murdered and raped by two of Lana’s male friends.

This system can be extremely dangerous for youth; a study showed that more than half of all transgender students felt unsafe at school. And less than a fifth of school staff intervened when hearing homophobic remarks or negative remarks about someone’s gender expression . Another study showed that LGBTQQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersex) youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers (Massachusetts 2006 Youth Risk Survey). If you are not very progressive, you may think “well then why don't they just stop being that way", but it isn't like that. You do not choose to be GLBTQQI, and it isn't a mental disorder. And I do not think that a cisgendered heterosexual should make assumptions about what we have to go through, because there is no way that they can even fathom (unless they ask).


Sex-segregation is common and can increase bullying of transgender and gender non-conforming students. It can create isolation and an "us and them" mindset. From my personal experience, when a teacher attempts to segregate bio-boys and bio-girls then it becomes a very bad circumstance for me. If I choose to go where the bio-girls are then the males in classroom begin to taunt me and scream homophobic comments, but if I choose to go where the bio-boys are then the males in the classroom also scream and shout homophobic taunts in the classroom. This causes a lot of problems in the classroom that can be avoided if teachers just didn't segregate students based on their genitals in common places such as restrooms and locker rooms, or if there was more gender neutral areas, where students can use the restroom and change into PE clothes. I have also noticed that a lot of my harassment has been directed mostly by male students, and I believe this is because in our culture being male is having entitlement over women, and the one who "brings home the bacon". It is difficult for them to understand why someone born biologically male would not feel like their gender and sex match up. This hatred and discrimination against trans-women is not transphobia it is more like transmisogyny. And is from media depictions of transpeople, the media depicts transpeople as "the deceivers" that they lure "innocent" straight people into their perverted sexual trap. Television shows on the Discovery Health channel are very invasive in the lives of transpeople, and make it seem like we are all artificial and less than human. Seeing as the majority of people watch television and movies, it is understandable why people may feel this way about us, but it does not justify the amount of prejudice, discrimination, transphobia, and sexism we receive daily. It all comes down to heteronormativity, as long oppression is allowed to ferment in our schools then your transgender peer may become just another statistic.