 Welcome to Think Tech on OC16, Hawaii's weekly newscast on things that matter to tech and to Hawaii. I'm Haley Kedah. And I'm Diamond Cabildo. For today's show, we will discuss the issues transgender students in Hawaii face and what the Department of Education is doing to alleviate them. But first, happy Pride Month everyone! Yes, the month of June is all about love, pride and acceptance. And we hope you'll join us in celebrating the LGBTQA community. Diamond, what does LGBTQA stand for? Why, Haley, I'm glad you asked! LGBTQA stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and asexual. That's a lot to remember, but today we're going to focus on the T in LGBTQA, transgender. The question is, what is transgender? Okay, so my name is Janea Purcell and I'm transgender of the LGBT community. My name is Jason, I was born here on Maui, Hawaii and I am trans. My name is Kaia and I'm a transgender girl. Transgender means a person who is born as a gender, as a wrong gender. So it's basically someone who's transitioning from one to the other to be them true selves. I think it means just expressing yourself how you want to be. So if you don't feel comfortable with how you are right now, then you can change it for real life. A boy that would be a girl and a girl that would be a boy. People always talk about how being transgender is a choice. They're always saying, oh, you're choosing to live your life this way. You're choosing to be a man or be a woman. It's not something that they wake up one day and they decide that, hey, I want to be discriminated for the rest of my life. So they don't wake up and they don't say things like that. It's just the way that they are. I think maybe one of the myths is that it's a choice or it's a phase or they're just going to grow out of it or it's just going to go away. Some of the transgender adults that I know that I've talked to, they also knew it four, five, and six years old. They just weren't in a safe environment that they could express it. But most of everyone that I talked to has told me that they knew very young and they were very aware. And they were very aware of their environment and whether it was safe or not. I think the most telling thing about the process is that the child needs a safe environment to express themselves and be able to talk about it and know that they're going to be loved and not rejected. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the term transgender refers to any person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex. People often use the terms transgender, transsexual and transvestite interchangeably. However, these words have very distinct meanings. The term transsexual refers to a person who emotionally and psychologically feels that they belong to the opposite sex and seeks to acquire medical assistance such as hormone treatment and or sex reassignment surgery. Meriam Webster defines transvestite as a person who adopts the dress and often the behavior is typical of the opposite sex. Transgender is usually like the umbrella to everybody falls under transgender. Transsexual, from what I learned, was people who decide to have surgeries because not everybody decides to have surgeries. Transvestite, sometimes or also known as cross-jesser, are people who dress the opposite sex, but that's not how they really identify. They like the activities of dressing the opposite gender. In Hawaii, from my experiences, they don't really like that word, we say queen. We don't use transvestite or cross-jesser. It's kind of like an old term that we don't really use anymore. We just say queen or girl or sister instead of saying words like that. When it comes down to it, the term transgender is usually the go-to word. Transgender is often used as an umbrella term for anyone whose gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. This umbrella covers people who identify as a gender, bi-gender, pan-gender, poly-gender, gender-less, gender-fluid, gender-queer, gender-nonconforming, gender-neutral, gender-flux, feminine presenting, masculine presenting, non-binary, demi-boy, demi-girl, two-spirit, mahu, the list goes on and on. As you can see, gender identity goes beyond just male and female. Due to the fact that many people are not openly transgender, it is difficult to determine the exact population of transgender individuals. According to a frequently cited study in 2011 by the Williams Institute, nearly 700,000 people in the U.S. identify as transgender. That's just below 0.3% of the U.S. population. But then this about a month before school ended this year, she fully came out as CHI at school. So she's fully transitioned at school and it was a positive experience. Her teachers, the counselor, the principal, the SSC, the whole school has been very supportive. So there hasn't been any negative or responsive. First they were like, wow, and then they got used to it. The teachers have been supportive. Of course, you know, I'm there and I'm being vocal about it. So I do wonder about other kids that maybe, you know, don't have that kind of support, you know. But I, lots of times I like to think that it's not malicious. I think it's just because the teachers and the people in the school, they're not educated about the topic or they're just afraid to talk about it. Or they have some kind of religious bias that for reasons why they would not want to talk about it in school. Personally, I haven't witnessed it. I have heard stories through the media and through reading and things like that. But I personally, I'm not witnessed discrimination. But I am aware that it does happen. I think most definitely I was discriminated a lot by my school, even faculty and staff. And it was kind of hard for me to go through school just because sitting in class, nothing will be said to me, but I just have that vibe like, ugh, I'm not welcome here. And it's that's because I go there to learn and to be bullied and be taken away from my education is not fair. Over the years, I had good and bad. The majority of them were bad, I'll have to admit. I also got like a lot of hate and upsetting comments and remarks from my own friends. Okay, so kids are being discriminated against in many, in a variety of ways. Not being called by their, their pronouns, their preferential pronouns. They're not being called by preferential names in the school, like put on a roster. To me, what I feel is the most simplest thing is calling them by their preferred name and preferred gender pronouns, you know, like his, her. And sometimes teachers get confused because like after a number of years of seeing the student on campus and then the student, you know, decides to transition and then being stuck in that, that, you know, previous he or she and having a hard time calling them by their preferred names. But that's probably one of the, the biggest cryouts from our trans kids is that I just want to be known as like who I am, you know, and part of their identity. That's part of their identity. That's like a huge part of their identity. Fortunately for Jason, being able to use the bathroom that he chooses hasn't been a problem. But, you know, I'm sure it can be a, without, I think, a standard policy in place across all of the schools, you know, we're fortunate that we were at a good school that was supportive. But I'm sure that there are schools that maybe don't understand. And other kids have been discriminated against in the sense that they weren't able to use the bathroom of their choice to actually use the bathroom. So what happened was they were holding it to like the end of school, rushing home and then using the bathroom when, and that's, that's like, that's not healthy, you know, for them to do. It's not, it's not cool. Then schools are like, okay, well, you can use this bathroom in the health room. And the kids are like, why do I have to walk across campus or up a few floors to use the restroom because everybody else feels uncomfortable. Hawaii's Department of Education has been working to right these wrongs and has recently released a draft of guidelines Hawaii schools should follow with regard to transgender students. If this draft is approved, those who work for the DOE will have to be trained in enforcing these guidelines, which require that schools should accept and respect students gender identity without confirmation from professionals or changes to their official records. However, transgender students are advised to meet with a school counselor or administrator so the staff can understand how they can assist them. If a student's gender identity subsequently changes, they could hold another meeting so the staff may adjust the support plan as needed. With or without a designated plan, there is a great need for schools to address transgender students by their preferred name and gender pronouns. Allow them to dress however they choose as long as it conforms to their school's dress codes and grant them access to facilities and activities that align with their gender identity. So the new guidelines that were in place were saying that, you know, one of the things bathrooms came up and one of the things was that kids were allowed to use the bathroom of their choice. However, if any kid should feel uncomfortable, then that kid can go use the health room bathroom or that kid can go use the, you know, the other stall two levels up or across campus. What we set as safe for LGBT kids is safe for all kids in our schools. They should be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice or play the sport of their choice. They should be allowed to wear the uniform of their choice or the clothing of their choice to school. People shouldn't dictate that for the student as long as it's within the regulations of the school. So if wearing a short skirt is not acceptable by the girls in the school, then wearing a short, short, short skirt shouldn't be accepted by a trans girl that's in the school either. But if a girl is allowed, a cisgender girl is allowed to wear the skirt uniform, then a trans girl should be allowed to wear the skirt uniform in school as well. And right now it's in the AG's office, the Attorney General's office. And what they're doing right now is to see if the guidelines are within like the laws, you know, making sure that federal laws and the guidelines are within those laws. I actually had the privilege of reading them prior to them being implemented. I was working with the superintendent's office as a consultant, so I thought they were very inclusive. They addressed all the different needs, addressed the bathroom issues and the locker room issues and the, you know, and the DOE's policies anyway are supposed to be addressing bullying and treating all kids equally and with respect. Teaching other kids too what is going on, that way they can know, you know, that it's not, it's not like a, it's not like taboo or anything. You know, nobody should be put down for it and kids should know that. So they should teach the kids that too. As far as the draft that they're forming for transgender students now, I definitely feel like, yes, like I had something to do with it. Like I had, you know, a big, I played a big part in this for this policy to happen and it's been definitely needed because I feel that if someone's not going to be calling me the pronouns that I want to be called or being the name that I want to be called, it's kind of like disrespecting because I don't call you out of your name. Whether you're my friend, family, teacher, staff, administration, anybody, you want to be called a certain way, a certain name, that's how I address you. So to be addressed as something that I'm not or someone who I'm not is like disrespectful to me. So I'm definitely happy that the DOE is finally coming up with some sort of policy and then also with like bathroom goals, locker room goals. I think it's definitely a smart idea because when I was in high school going to like the men's bathroom in the boys' locker room, it wasn't, I didn't feel safe. I didn't feel comfortable. A safe school environment for a transgender child would be a school without harassment, without bullying, without name calling. A child is allowed to use the bathroom of their choice. A child is allowed to dress in the clothing of their preferred gender expression. A child is allowed to use the bathroom of their gender identity. Basically, you know, non-discrimination, equality, fairness, treated equally like all their children. And they should just feel safe and comfortable in their school and supported by their teachers, their counselor, and their classmates. And as a parent, a safe school to me is I want to know that my child can go to school and be, you know, participate in everything that everybody else can participate in, be respected, especially by the teachers and the administrators and supported by them, and also have them watching out for him, you know, with the other students. You know, there may be students that don't understand or, you know, haven't, and that's fine. But if there's, you know, bullying going on or there's anything like that, the administration, the teachers got to be there to step in right away and to help educate the students and protect these students. Administration and staff faculty, just to be open, accepting, loving, supporting. Because when I was going to high school, I did not feel the love that I, as a student, should feel. And I didn't, like, that made me not feel safe. So I feel like if the adults, you know, the supervisors, the people who we're supposed to look up to, like, are in the certain light of loving everyone equally, we will feel more safe. Like, being nice to people and, like, being friends with them. And help people to feel like they understand that they, you know, they're educated and, you know, and create this safe environment so that our kids want to go to school, so that our kids don't feel like suicide is an option or dropping out of school is an option. In their upcoming draft, the DOE has brought this to attention and is responding to the struggles transgender students face in schools today. Hopefully, these new school policies will not only serve to protect young transgender kids, but also encourage all parents and students to learn more about transgenders and what they can do to help those who lack support. Try to be open-minded, you know, be empathetic and put yourself in other people's shoes. Trans people aren't out to get to get cisgender kids, you know, they're not out to get you. They are, they're trying to be students just like, just like you. You know, they're trying to be accepted and be loved and be safe in the same school that a cisgender is accepted, loved and safe in their school. I think a common misconception is that, you know, we all have to be, like, if you're trans then you have to, like, completely fit, you know, like, what you feel like, if you're a guy then you have to be, you know, like, super masculine, or if you identify as girl you have to be super feminine, but that's not it. And it is a spectrum and the people that we need to listen to are... The person themselves. The person themselves, exactly. And respect that. And ask them what they prefer, you know, what pronouns, you know, if there's a question just ask them. If somebody, I'd rather have somebody ask me a question that they're unsure about than watch them, you know, having to struggle with it and be uncomfortable. And I don't want anybody to feel uncomfortable or having to, like, step on eggshells around me. I want them, you know, feel comfortable with me and, you know, know me. What I like to say is, like, you are who you are. This is who you are, you know, you are who you are. Whoever you say you are, that's who you are. It's be who you are enjoying. Be true to who you are. Don't let anyone stop you from being you. It's okay to be you. You know, there's going to be a lot of people who are going to gun you down, but just not to let anybody's judgment determine your happiness. We all want to see our children happy and healthy and living life and doing well in school. And, you know, all those hopes for your child. And I think parents are slowly learning that they can still, life is not over because your child is trans. Like, life is better because your child is trans, you know. I think one of the hardest things as a parent is to sometimes give up your own ideas and expectations that you have for your child. But if you hold on to those and it doesn't match up with who your child is or what they want, then there's going to be conflict. And sometimes you just need to listen really hard to who your child is and what they're expressing to you and take the time to educate yourself, you know, and talk to people. You know, there's a ton of information out there. It's a process. It's a learning process. It's something that I had to learn about. I had to read about, ask a lot of questions, find out. I went online. I made phone calls. I actually called some universities on the mainland to get more information. So I did my research to find out what to do as a parent and how to respond and what kind of processes are there that you go through. To parents, I'll definitely say, like, you know, it's going to be hard as a parent because you're going to be standing next to your child. Oh, I would hope they're standing next to your child as they're walking through this journey of being, you know, transgender. But even though it's going to be hard, they should also be, you know, strong for their child. Just stick through it. Love your child regardless. And because I feel like if a parent doesn't love their child no matter what the reason is, the child will definitely, like, just, it's going to be hard to love themselves. Because I feel like your family, it's kind of like an obligation to love your family, right? If you look at these people that you love with your heart, like deep in your heart, you've loved them so much, but they don't feel the same way that you do for them. It's kind of like you're going to start second-guessing yourself and like, what's wrong with me? Is this, what did I do? What did I say? Why do I look like? And they start asking questions about themselves and start doubting themselves and then it's going to be hard for them to love themselves. And a lot of that, you know, goes into depression and goes into like suicidal thoughts and more on. So I feel like parents just love your kid no matter what. And also it will get better for you too. Because, you know, soon you will understand or people will understand you. And it's not your fault. You did nothing wrong. You did nothing wrong. Find a supportive adult, find a counselor or a teacher or somebody that can support you through that process. Hopefully you have a safe family that you can talk to about it and parents that will be supportive. I do know that there are some cases of children that do not have supportive parents and that's a shame. But hopefully they can find somebody in their life that can be supportive and help them through that process. There's people you can talk to. There's people everywhere. And there is nothing wrong with asking questions or looking for help. Because it's out there. You can stick up for a trans person and you can be their ally or you can be their enemy. You know, and I don't think people would want to walk around and say, I am that kid's enemy or I caused that kid so much pain. You know, I think generally kids want to keep that safe environment and want to be loving. They just don't know how. You know, so again, another voice, you know, to stick up for your trans peers. My final remarks as a transgender in Hawaii, I would have to say that let's just keep pushing on and raising awareness for all genders of spectrum. You know, just find the right group of people to hang out with and don't try to be anything that you're not. And, you know, find the right place for yourself to be in. And just be happy with who you are and do whatever makes you comfortable because it will get better. You should like be who you are, follow your dreams. If you want to be that person, be it. A big mahalo to all those incredible individuals we interviewed, as well as Marianne Sasaki, without whom we would not have been able to meet and talk with all of these wonderful people. Thank you to everyone watching. And again, happy Pride Month. We hope that you will continue to learn more about and support the LGBTQA community and its endeavor to create a safe and rich learning environment for queer and gender non-conforming students. And now let's take a look at our ThinkTech calendar of events going forward. ThinkTech broadcasts its talk shows live on the Internet from 11am to 5pm on weekday afternoons. And then we broadcast our earlier shows all night long. And some people listen to them all night long. If you missed a show or you want to replay or share any of our shows, they're all archived on demand on ThinkTechHawaii.com and YouTube. For our audio stream, go to ThinkTechHawaii.com slash radio. 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We'll be right back to wrap up this week's edition of ThinkTech. But first, we want to thank our underwriters. Thank you so much for being a part of our ThinkTech family and for supporting our open discussion of tech, energy, diversification, and globalism in Hawaii. You can watch this show throughout the week and tune in next Sunday evening for our next important weekly episode. I'm Haley Kedah. And I'm Diamond Cabildo. Aloha everyone.