A few weeks after returning from our trip south, I received a phone call from my older sister, The reason for her call was to talk to me about a training that she had just finished with the special education teachers and school psychologist. This training came from GLSEN, which is an organization that works to ensure that LGBTQ kids have a safe environment in schools. If you read my last blog I talked about how the area I grew up in didn‘t have the tools that parents or LGBTQ individuals need to help them. This made me so happy that the school district was having these people attended a meeting like this.
My older sister is the head of school district‘s psychology department and also works with the special education teachers to make sure they get the trainings they need. She was the person that had helped to organize this training.
During this training she learnt about different pronouns and other stuff when dealing with the LGBTQ students to make them feel safer in school. When I told her that I used my name as my pronoun, because I was non-binary. She said I never told her, but I know I had. She must have forgotten.
It was ok with me that she had forgotten, because by her calling me this gave me another opportunity to discuss it with her. Also since she had been through this training she was more receptive to the idea. She was so excited to share the information she had learnt from this training.
GLSEN does a survey each year to find out what LGBTQ children experience in their schools. This was mainly what her training was about and what they could do as a school district to help this group feel comfortable and accepted by the teachers in their schools. And also how to deal with bullying, that occurs with them.
My sister was really interested in the transgender population and how they could improve their experiences. Her calling me was a huge surprise to me, because we don’t talk often. However, this phone call gave me some hope that things could get better for the children in the area I grew up in. Hopefully young people like the person I talked about last week will get what they need. Maybe even the schools might be able to give their parents ways to cope with how they feel about finding out, how their children feel about their gender identity or sexual orientation.
This is so exciting and inspiring, Meredith! Change is a-comin', not just within your family but through your family to the kids where you grew up.