Transphobia is rampant in our current society. In the BLM movement, transgender black women are the most targeted for hate crimes. Black transgender women have an average lifespan of thirty. According to the Human Rights Campaign, In 2019, at least 27 deaths of transgender people were recorded, with a majority of black transgender women. That number has almost doubled this year alone, with a total number of 43 deaths. Consider this stat with the understanding that transgender people only make up 1% of the population. It is clear we need change on both fronts.

As we fight for justice within our judicial system, we must also consider how all of this came to be. Understanding that lack of education can cause fear and hate towards a group of people is the first step to uprooting culturally ingrained hated. Violence and discrimination towards transgender people, or those who were born outside of the realm of the binary genders, is a learned behavior based on ignorance. By teaching to unlearn these behaviors, we can begin to make change.

In health class, previously and presently, students learn about the anatomy and science of their genitalia and how to have protected sex. That being said, it is statistically proven that 1.7% of people are intersex. That means at least one person each school year is not getting an education. That is nearly one million high school students as of 2020 who are not getting a proper sex education. Add on those who are transgender, and it becomes 1.53 million in the United States.

This does not account for those whose lives were detrimentally affected by a lack of education, and now spend their lives with an internalized hate towards these groups. Educating students on their transgender and intersex peers will be a significant and important step in erasing hatred from our schools.

Proposed topics of learning include: The different ways someone can be biologically intersex, how to practice safe sex with varying sexes, the effects of hormones on the human body, the science of gender dysphoria including non-binary transgenders, the difference between social and physical dysphoria, the difference between sexuality and gender, and gender confirming clothing items, procedures, and/or hormones and hormone replacement therapy. It is not the education system’s job to teach why someone might want to change their gender, but it is their job to give children a Sex Education, whatever their gender or sex may be.

If we do not begin change in our schools, this problem will continue. Transgender and intersex hate crimes will continue. We need change to begin at the start of these learned behaviors and remove the ignorance on the subject, so that hate towards these groups will subside. It is imperative to add to the Sex Ed and Health curriculum some part that acknowledges both of these groups, because we want to have a progressive curriculum. If you are not apart of this change, then you are allowing this to continue. Please support intersex and transgender rights by giving your students the rights to an education.