A Place of Respect: A Guide for Group Care Facilities Serving Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Youth

This guide offers group care facilities information and tools to provide transgender and gender non-conforming youth with appropriate and informed care. It  describes laws requiring facilities to protect these  youth from harassment and abuse and to provide them with appropriate medical care. This publication assists staff in understanding the experiences and concerns of transgender and  gender non-conforming youth, and responding to these youths’ safety,  programmatic, and health care needs.

National Center for Lesbian Rights and Sylvia Rivera Law Project (2011)

Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Students

This toolkit is designed to assist transgender, gender non-conforming, questioning, and ally students to make school a safer place. Resources include how to advocate for change as well as an extensive list of resources to help you connect with the transgender community and find support.

Lambda Legal & National Youth Advocacy Coalition

Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People

Psychologists who work with transgender or gender nonconforming people should seek to provide acceptance, support and understanding without making assumptions about their clients’ gender identities or gender expressions, according to practice guidelines adopted during the American Psychological Association’s 123rd Annual Convention.

American Psychological Association (2015)

I Want to Be Like Nature Made Me: Medically Unnecessary Surgeries on Intersex Children in the US

In this report, based on interviews with intersex adults, parents of intersex children, and medical practitioners working with intersex people, interACT and Human Rights Watch document the fall-out from that medical paradigm, and the failure of the medical community to regulate itself effectively. There have been changes in practice in recent years, with many doctors now advising against surgery on infants and young children. But even so, surgery continues to be practiced on children with atypical sex characteristics too young to participate in the decision, when those procedures both carry a meaningful risk of harm and can be safely deferred.

Mental Health of Transgender Children Who Are Supported in Their Identities

Transgender children who have socially transitioned, that is, who identify as the gender “opposite” their natal sex and are supported to live openly as that gender, are increasingly visible in society, yet we know nothing about their mental health. Previous work with children with gender identity disorder (GID; now termed gender dysphoria) has found remarkably high rates of anxiety and depression in these children. Here we examine, for the first time, mental health in a sample of socially transitioned transgender children. Results demonstrate that socially transitioned transgender children who are supported in their gender identity have developmentally normative levels of depression and only minimal elevations in anxiety, suggesting that psychopathology is not inevitable within this group. Especially striking is the comparison with reports of children with GID; socially transitioned transgender children have notably lower rates of internalizing psychopathology than previously reported among children with GID living as their natal sex.

Safe Havens: Closing the Gap Between Recommended Practice and Reality for Transgender and Gender-Expansive Youth in Out-of-Home Care

This new report offers the first comprehensive analysis of the troubling lack of explicit laws and policies in most states to protect transgender, gender-expansive and gender non-conforming (TGNC) youth in the child welfare, juvenile justice, and runaway and homeless youth systems (“out-of-home care systems”). The report is co-authored by Lambda Legal, Children’s Rights and the Center for the Study of Social Policy.

Lambda Legal, Children’s Rights and the Center for the Study of Social Policy.

 

Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students: Guidance for Massachusetts Public Schools Creating a Safe and Supportive School Environment

All students need a safe and supportive school environment to progress academically and developmentally. Administrators, faculty, staff, and students each play an important part in creating and sustaining that environment. This guidance is intended to help school and district administrators take steps to create a culture in which transgender and gender nonconforming students feel safe, supported, and fully included, and to meet each school’s obligation to provide equal educational opportunities for all students, in compliance with G.L. c. 76, §5 and the state regulations. The guidance sets out general principles based on the law, and addresses common issues regarding transgender and gender nonconforming students. It offers case studies based on experiences of schools and students in Massachusetts, and reflects the need to consider issues on a case-by-case basis. The list of issues is not exhaustive, and the examples are intended to be illustrative, not prescriptive.

Two Spirits, One Dance For Native American Artist

“Two-spirit” is how some Native Americans describe people whose gender identity doesn’t fit as strictly male or female. Meet Ty DeFoe, who’s using traditional dance to take this gender identity back from the negative connotations established during colonization. Shot by video journalist Courtney Quirin for AJ+