Community rallies around transgender students

PHOTO: Attendees of the Jan. 19 school board meeting carry signs and flags showing their support for trans youth.

By Mattias RowenBale,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff—

Transgender youth and their allies crowded the Jan. 19 Davis school board meeting, exceeding the room’s maximum capacity. The outpouring of support came two months after anti-trans activists first made their presence known at a Nov. 17 board meeting.

In the months since, anti-trans activists have been active on social media, at board meetings and on the Davis High campus, protesting against gender affirming health care and support. The protests have especially affected trans youth at DHS.

Anti-trans activists protest publicly

On Nov. 17, Davis parent Allie Snyder made a public comment urging parents to “let kids be kids” and “remind them that no child is born in the wrong body.” Her public comment was met with vocal dissent from the audience, and a handwritten sign reading “THIS IS FALSE” was raised on-camera in the audience behind her.

Snyder was joined by a larger group at the Dec. 15 meeting of the board of trustees for the Davis Joint Unified School District, when eight speakers made public comments claiming that Davis public schools were indoctrinating children into believing they were transgender. Throughout the public comment period, the group held professionally printed signs with the messages “No gender ideology in schools” and “Telling a healthy child that they need to be ‘fixed’ with drugs and surgery is abuse”.

The activists then brought their protest to the DHS campus on Jan. 11.

Students leaving the main DHS parking lot after school on that Wednesday were met by approximately a dozen protesters holding signs that included phrases such as “Stop telling gay boys they’re trans girls” and “Loving parents don’t support gender ideology”.

“We want students to grow up with their bodies intact. We want gay kids to be gay and not transition,” protest organizer Erin Friday said. Friday is not a DJUSD parent but is a member of Our Duty, a group first formed in the United Kingdom in 2018 to “teach kids to love their bodies as they are.”

Friday claims that “(DJUSD) is directing kids to get gender affirmation (medical care) …not involving parents,” and says that Our Duty will continue to be active in Davis in hopes of changing this. She also wants to “get students (to) be aware that there is not a one path only for if they feel uncomfortable in their body… there’s another option other than medicalizing.”

“I think all folks should live in their bodies as they are because their bodies are amazing,” Friday said.

The group stood outside DHS in the rain for close to an hour before driving to the DJUSD district offices and continuing its protest.

‘I just felt awful’

Many transgender and queer students were upset by the Jan. 11 protest at DHS and felt that the demonstration promoted harmful and painful messaging on a campus where they generally feel supported.

“(The ‘Transitioning is not suicide prevention’ sign) really upset me… it’s quite the opposite. And I’ve experienced it both myself and with friends. And I feel like it’s such a really damaging view,” senior Quin McNeil said. “I just got really, really angry.”

Upon seeing the protesters on his drive home, DaVinci High sophomore Max Donner ran up and screamed at them. “(I told them that) they’re wrong and that their ideology would have had me kill myself.”

Others were more scared than angry. “I have friends who are trans and nonbinary, and it’s just scary to see people who are preaching that their existence is not valid,” junior Ila Oakley Bremson said. “This is really scary to see that this is going on in a place where I’ve always felt safe.”

Students were particularly hurt by the fact that adults were bringing this messaging onto campus for youth to see. “I just felt awful. It wasn’t even that I personally felt attacked, it was that they’re hateful enough to pay to have these (signs) printed out (and) go do this in the rain,” McNeil said.

“It’s hard to hear adults tell you that what you’re doing is hurting yourself,” senior Ian Bourne said.

Some students also worried about their safety following the protest. “I definitely keep (my genderfluid identity) more quiet because, you know, I’m worried about what could happen. I don’t want to be somebody that’s targeted by adults who are protesting on our school property,” junior Jaime Pauley said.

The event that sparked the backlash

The anti-trans activism was sparked by a lecture event for parents on the topic of supporting transgender children and teens.

Davis Parent University invited Rachel Pepper, author of “The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Parents and Professionals Supporting Transgender and Nonbinary Children,” to speak on Jan. 11. Pepper’s event is part of DPU’s annual lecture series for community and parent education and is promoted by DJUSD.

According to Friday, Davis parents reached out to Our Duty and asked for help in protesting this event. “We want the schools to not bring in speakers that are pushing gender medicalization,” Friday said.

DPU co-chair Abby Koenig defended the lecture.

“I think there’s a lot of misinformation about what education around gender diversity actually is. And I would say that Rachel made this very clear in her talk, that her scholarship is evidence based and backed by science,” Koenig said. “I feel that DPU’s selection of Rachel has that evidence based and scientific backing.”

This year, the series is focused around mental health.

“We were very much aware that mental health outcomes for transgender and nonbinary kids are often quite sobering… the data is very clear that when gender non-conforming people feel understood and accepted and supported, that those mental health outcomes improved significantly,” Koenig said.

“We felt really grateful that we were able to bring in Rachel Pepper, a nationally recognized expert on identity on gender identity development, which aims to provide our community with concrete and evidence based tips and tools for offering support and understanding to transgender and nonbinary (youth),” Koenig said.

Pepper’s event was the second in this year’s lecture series, and was publicized throughout the community for months.

“We were expecting that this would be a controversial topic, because anyone who’s reading the news knows that gender is a sensitive issue and there’s been a lot of discomfort and a lot of complex conversation nationally. So we weren’t shocked (by the backlash),” Koenig said.

Following the Dec. 15 school board meeting, DPU decided to move Pepper’s lecture online, which is now available for streaming at davisparentuniversity.com.

“We wanted to make sure that our audience and our speaker and our moderator were emotionally and physically safe. And perhaps even more importantly, we wanted to ensure that our event was as conducive to learning as possible, unimpeded by any potential disruption,” Koenig said.

The importance of support

Sutter Health physician Ryan Spielvogel works with transgender adolescents seeking medical transitions. “For the general public, the suicide rate is less than 1%… for trans individuals it’s 30%… and that number is modifiable. So when kids are in a really unsupportive, hostile environment with family that tells them ‘you’re not allowed to be that way, that’s not real,’ that number gets pushed north of 50%,” Spielvogel said.

According to Spielvogel, when trans youth are supported by their family and school, the suicide rate drops down to that of the average population.
“What we do matters, how we talk to our kids matters, and making sure that all of our kids know that they have a place in this life matters,” Spielvogel said.

Student Max Donner concurs.

“I suffered from depression for a very long time due to my gender dysphoria, and medicine didn’t help. The only thing that alleviated my depression was transitioning,” Donner said. “Honestly, me and thousands of other millions of trans children all around the world are in the exact same boat.”

Student Ian Bourne spoke at the Jan. 19 school board meeting about the significance of the support they received from DJUSD in their social transition. “The resources I received… truly saved my life,” Bourne said. Their speech received a standing ovation from the crowd, prompted in part by Superintendent Matt Best’s enthusiastic applause as he leapt to his feet.

DJUSD ‘stands in support’

While no anti-transgender activists were present at their Jan. 19 meeting, DJUSD trustees referenced the previous protests in their opening comments.

“When student communities are under attack, it is our duty to protect them,” board president Lea Darrah said.

This sentiment was reinforced in a statement the school district issued to the HUB. “Our job as educators is to ensure our school environment is safe and welcoming, and thus conducive to learning for all. We are committed to fostering schools where everyone feels accepted and knows they belong, especially those in groups that are targeted for hate and oppression. We stand in support of our students, staff and community members of all genders.”

DJUSD itself was not involved in the planning or funding of the Pepper lecture event, but does make efforts to support its trans and queer youth. In fact, the state of California requires it.

The California Education Code requires education surrounding queer and trans identities, including the “instruction and materials shall teach pupils about gender, gender expression, gender identity, and explore the harm of negative gender stereotypes,” as stated in section 51933 d(6).

Community backs trans youth

Anoosh Jorjorian, a DJUSD parent and activist with several community LGBT support groups, organized the show of support at the Jan. 19 school board meeting.

“I am very pleased to observe that the majority of the Davis community is willing and following through with standing up for trans kids rights,” Jorjorian said. “Keeping our kids safe—all of our kids safe—should be everyone’s top priority.”

Jorjorian believes that DJUSD does well in following the mandated Ed Codes and appreciates the policies DJUSD has in place to support its transgender and queer students. Some of these policies include the ease of changing students names in the system and the push to add gender neutral bathrooms and locker rooms.

However, “(do I) think DJUSD could go farther in supporting trans youth? I absolutely do,” Jorjorian said.

“I think (DJUSD) should be more vocal about what kind of resources they’re offering, instead of just saying ‘oh, hey, we have counselors here to talk to you,’” student Jaime Pauley said.