An Overview
The LGBTQ+ Community is one of which is growing and evolving constantly, showing society how people can speak freely about themselves and how they identify and who they are attracted to. Yet with this premise, the debate of how far this can go has caused a spike in social attacks on the LGBTQ community, through media shaming and even governmental implementation to “protect” the children from’ early onset confusion’ and the potential risks of early decision making of which gender they assign themselves and the medical decisions these children can make without properly understanding the process behind it. In the UK currently, “children can’t obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate so their legal sex will always be the same as their biological sex. There is also no general duty that says schools and colleges must support a child to take steps that are part of ‘social transition’-such as agreeing to change their name or pronouns.” (GOV.UK, 2023) Which in hindsight, indirectly tells parents that even if a child of the age of 16 or 17 who is starting to feel they identify as a female, when they are biologically a male, if they were to use female pronouns and a female name, its perfectly fine for schools to disregard this choice, which results in the child not feeling as though they are in a safe and welcoming environment and can place their mental health at risk. Yes, of course the choice to partake in Gender Reassignment Surgery is a life changing step and those who make that decision should legally be an adult, but if they feel more comfortable to be addressed by different pronouns and/or names, surely this should be allowed?
Education of Children
To further this discussion, I want to broaden the scope of the LGBTQ community society, and the action taken to reduce its presence in early stage learning. Children’s books have been created to normalise children who come from homes with two dads, or two mums, or two mums and a dad etc, yet, these types of books, which have been intended for the purpose to show children that it doesn’t matter what type of home life they are from, the only thing that should matter is that the child is taken care of, is that some believe that these books are somewhat “sexualized” and are “baked into the language of “Don’t Say Gay”: the law prohibits discussion of “ sexual orientation or gender identity”.” (Winter, 2022) which is all constructed through adults who feel that these books have a hidden agenda to deep-route themselves into a child’s ‘impressionable’ subconscious and will make it more likely that a child who reads this will ‘turn gay’. The presumption of these books having this affect upon children is not what they are intended for, these books are there to show children that any parent or guardian situation they have is normal, if anything this may have detrimental effects on relationships between children and parents because of what is considered socially ‘normal’ . This issue within the education system, through media suggestions that these teachings are a form of ‘indoctrination’ (Colliver, 2019) has proven to cause ‘geographical barriers’ for youth who classify themselves as LGBTQ (Garg & Volerman, 2021); these barriers include access towards sexual health support and information, meaning that the health service teachers provide to students is dated; the LGBTQ community has been gradually normalised, accepted and celebrated in society with reference to the globally renowned Pride Month, but with this progress, there is still strong evidence which reduces or completely disacknowledges the presence of LGBTQ rights, which has led towards considerable drastic measures taken in the last 10 years.
Action taken to increase presence of LGBTQ+ rights
Led by students of the LGBTQ community, protests for the inclusion of LGBT-only student halls and accommodation, suggests to prohibit access by students who do not identify themselves as LGBTQ; this comes about through fear of discrimination and harassment claims that go unnoticed or are not taken seriously, and finally action is being taken (Young-Powell & Gil, 2016). However with this development, could this potentially backfire and present as a set-back? Through a different perspective, some may view this as intentional segregation, which could prove to be more dangerous for the LGBTQ community as this is suggested to increase victimisation without any doubt (Young-Powell & Gil, 2016). A later report of the University of Sheffield launching a ‘LGBT-only’ flats scheme, to introduce levels of security and acceptance for the LGBT community, has proven to be successful, making students feel as though they can be themselves without fear of discrimination (Swindells, 2019)
International concerns through sport
There have been drastic controversy within the sporting community about acceptance of identity, however, the title of this blog, is the key discussion in relation to sport: how will there be equality socially, when its biologically impossible? Lia Thomas, a transgender female swimmer, isn’t so much known for her amazing swimming capabilities, but more so the media outrage that followed. When Lia Thomas was competing as a male athlete, she was considered a moderate level competitor, but since her transition, she has won national college titles and was set to compete at the Paris Olympics, however “ The decision, decided by 71% of the cote of 152 national federations at the world championships in Budapest, followed a report from a Fina scientific panel that found trans women retained a significant advantage over cisgender female swimmers even after reducing their testosterone levels through medication” (Ingle, S. 2022). Yet when a similar issue appeared with a trans male, Fallon Fox, who competed in the men’s category of professional MMA, he had to lose to prove biological inferiority to cisgender men, through the argument that just because he now transitioned to the male sex, it doesn’t change the fact that was a female beforehand (Fischer & McClearen, 2020).
Concluding questions and interpretations
The LGBTQ community is built upon fundamental social milestones made through epidemics, violence, protests and activism, so why is there still such immense controversy and reluctancy to be inclusive? The issues I have discussed replicate a small number of many discriminatory tactics implemented by members of society who are simply not open to change. As the human race, we have had to evolve over time to survive and adapt to new situations, the battle of 1066 for instance, the English merged with Normandy, changing key parts to our culture and language. Why is society so afraid to do what we have been doing for over a millennia? Yes of course, from the perspective of sporting, there is levels of indirect unfairness towards the concept of inclusivity for trans females who have been proven to have a biological advantage when it comes to physical fitness, which is understandable why cisgender females feel as though the hard work they have put in all ends in a second or third place title. But the question that no one seems to be asking, is how do we encourage inclusivity whilst also being fair to all parties involved?
Bibliography
GOV. UK, 2023. Gender questioning children: Everything you need to know about new draft guidance for schools. URL: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/12/19/gender-questioning-children-guidance-schools-colleges/
Winter, J. 2022. What Should a Queer Children’s Book Do?: How a vital, burgeoning genre of kid lit is being threatened across the country. In The New Yorker. URL : https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/lgbt-books-kids-ban#:~:text=The%20assumption%20that%20%E2%80%9Ca%20gay,only%20certain%20orientations%20and%20identities
Garg, N. and Volerman, A., 2021. A national analysis of state policies on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning/queer inclusive sex education. Journal of School Health, 91(2), pp.164-175.
Young-Powell, A., Gil, N. 2016. No straight people allowed: students share views on LGBT-only halls. In The Guardian. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/may/16/no-straight-people-allowed-students-share-views-on-lgbt-only-halls
Ingle, S. 2022. Transgender women swimmers barred from female competitions by Fina. In The Guardian. URl: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jun/19/transgender-swimmers-barred-from-female-competitions-after-fina-vote
Fischer, M. and McClearen, J., 2020. Transgender athletes and the queer art of athletic failure. Communication & Sport, 8(2), pp.147-167.
Swindells, K. 2019. Sheffield’s LGBT-only halls were called a ghetto – but a year on, they’re thriving. In The Guardian. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/aug/23/sheffields-lgbt-only-halls-were-called-a-ghetto-but-a-year-on-theyre-thriving#:~:text=For%20these%20students%2C%20LGBT%20accommodation,but%20the%20principle%20is%20unshakeable.
Colliver, B. 2019. Removing ’No Outsiders’ school lessons is adding to LGBT people being targets for hate speech and violence, warms social scientist. In Birmingham City University. URL: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/news-events/news/removing-no-outsider-school-lessons-is-adding-to-lgbt-people-being-targets-for-hate-speech-and-violence-warns-social-scientist
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