Transidentity at school: Progress still needs to be made to protect trans students and teachers

It was a year ago: on 29 September 2021, just 9 months after the suicide of Fouad, a transgender student who attended the school in Lille, the Ministry of National Education published a circular to guarantee students a respectful and protective welcome. This unprecedented stance on the part of the institute has made it possible to enlighten the educational staff regarding the care of a student who goes out, or asks to be named and of a different gender. Lighting more than necessary in a school that needs a structure, explains Mika Alison, teacher, activist and author of the book Living your trans identity at school: a transgender journey and perspective :

“Prior to the publication of this circular, it was the recommendations issued by the Interministerial Delegation for Combating Racism, Anti-Semitism and Anti-LGBT Hate (DILCRAH) that served as a basis for institutions wishing to address this problem.

But overall, the lack of a good practice guide to better accommodate transgender students has resulted in too much heterogeneity in supporting these situations, with sometimes extremely serious consequences for those concerned. “

A recent but growing concern

This vagueness, Mika Alison has experienced herself on many occasions. First her as a high school student, then during the first ten years of her career as an SVT teacher within National Education:

” In the early 2000s, when I was in high school, no one was talking about transgender, especially not in school. At least there was talk of homosexuality, but only among students, and only through the prism of the insult. The subject simply did not exist. “

A situation that hardly improved when she joined the Ministry of National Education in the 2010s as a teacher, at the time the institute had not yet taken an official position on the issue of transience.

As for the management staff, in addition to being powerless in the face of the care of trans people, they were often very reluctant to accept the topic, as Mika Alison recounts in her book.

A mental closure partly responsible for the bond to masculinity that the teacher imposed on herself for an entire decade, which however ended up breaking the silence by making public his passage to his school at the end of the school year. done with kindness and trust, it gives Mika Alison hope for the future:

“Over the past five years, more and more students have also shared their questions or their transition process that has already begun in their school. As we saw with last year’s circular, this is a topic that the institution had to deal with, which at first took it a little off guard, because the staff was unaware of it.

But the school evolves, in the same way and at the same pace as society. I hope the situation improves further, particularly thanks to the generation that is coming. “

Territorial inequalities and other challenges

The kind listening that Mika Alison was able to benefit from at the time of this announcement was the first surprise. Because if the teacher realizes it ” immense luck »To have obtained support from his factory, he knows moreover that he owes it in particular to the professional and human qualities of his factory manager.

Enzo, a former high school student from the Grand Est, whose more mixed career is recounted by Mika Alison in his book, could also be encouraged by the benevolence of key members of his institute’s educational staff such as his CPE.

However, according to Jérôme Brethomé, member of the transience commission of the Contact 44 association that accompanies parents of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender children who wish to best support them in their life path, these positive testimonies are unfortunately not yet the norm:

” Positive talk only accounts for a small fraction of transgender people’s school experiences. Although the circular published by the government last year is a real step forward, it is in no way legally binding. This means that establishments do not incur any sanctions if they do not apply the recommendations contained therein. “

It should also be noted that some points in this circular may pose a problem in certain cases. This is particularly the case in the paragraph recommending the agreement of both parents before agreeing to name and sex the student as desired. The absence of the right to self-determination is problematic, especially when we know that the strongest and most dramatic forms of discrimination occur within the family.

Despite these gray areas, the text establishes some very important principles, such as the depathologization of trans identities, the right to respect for transgender people and their private life, or even a reminder of the criminalization of non-respect for a person’s identity. transgender.

The circular, which also invites schools to be attentive and respectful of the confidentiality of certain exchanges, and which establishes, among other things, the principle of mediation with families only if the student explicitly requests it, nevertheless requires dissemination and ‘homogeneous application to have a real impact on the ground, analyzes Mika Alison:

“This circular is an essential tool to improve the reception of transgender students. However, we must ensure that it is spread across the country and applied in all schools so that it has a global impact on the lives of transgender people in schools. “

The essential work of associations for better care of trans people in school

To ensure the correct dissemination and application of good practices, there is a solution: grassroots activism. A logical choice for Mika Alison, who has always had a taste for education and who more than ever wants to change the school on issues of transience.

For this reason, in addition to the care he takes to educate and inform his interlocutors on a daily basis, in 2019 the teacher joined the team of volunteers responsible for interventions in the school environment of the Couleurs Gaies association, which fights the discrimination referred to lesbians, gays, bi and trans are victims, but also the teams of the Contact association:

“It is thanks to Contact Moselle that I was able to integrate myself in the awareness raising actions of the National Education staff. The association benefits from accreditation and has been able to forge links with this institution in recent years. It is also a member of the Contact France network, whose role is to provide general guidelines to local actors, organize staff training, create and distribute awareness tools and even provide financial support for certain local projects and actions. “

A necessary activism in the field, according to the teacher, for which the arrival of LGBT + associations within the institutions, in addition to opening reflections on stereotypes, is sometimes revealed in some institutions as the starting point for reflections on inclusivity, that is to say the opportunity to rethink certain practices.

It is also thanks to these associations that systems are put in place at a national level that allow progress in the field and more generally the evolution of mentalities, as Jérôme Brethomé recalls:

” Behind the simple drafting of a circular, in reality, there are years of struggle by associations and attempts to confront the institutions. Unfortunately, we are still a long way from what should be done optimally.

The ideal would be to talk about gender issues from primary school, but we still encounter very strong resistancewhich has already been done in many countries.

In 2022 in France it is still difficult to talk about gender identity, for fear of the end of gender normalization. “

Cover photo credit: Jacob Lund via Canva.