For almost two years I’ve been working for Jennifer Bryan as a research assistant / general assistant / consultant / tech aid /etc. A lot of our work has been focused on consultations with individual schools and presentations at larger education conferences. Another aspect of our work has been writing+ this book. I include the plus, because the book has so much more than just inspired and helpful text. It has resources, lesson plans, diagrams, glossaries, cartoons, news clippings. We finished the book at the end of 2011 and it was published last month by Rowman & Littlefied. People have already started contacting Jennifer to share that they are reading the book and trying to work her strategies and concepts into their schools and school districts. SO exciting. I’m going to copy and paste a bunch of information on the book below and I hope that y’all will reblog what you think is relevant to your followers and readers or like it on facebook or tweet about it. It’s just such an amazing resource and I want to get the word out as far and wide as possible. ++++++++++++++++++ LIKE THE FROM THE DRESS-UP CORNER TO THE SENIOR PROM: NAVIGATING GENDER AND SEXUALITY DIVERSITY ON FACEBOOK for information on the book, upcoming events and related current events / new resources: https://www.facebook.com/FromTheDressUpCornerToTheSeniorProm ++++++++++++++++++ Available in Hardback, Paperback, E-Book, and Kindle EditionsPurchase links:https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781607099789 http://www.amazon.com/From-Dress-Up-Corner-Senior-Prom/dp/1607099799/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1 +++++++++++++++ Description: Very few PreK-12 teachers are adequately trained to address the gender identity and sexual identity of their students in a developmentally-appropriate and pedagogically-sound manner. Yet responsible adults—parents, educators, pre-service teachers, coaches, religious instructors, camp administrators and school counselors— must help children navigate the inherently diverse, increasingly complex world of gender and sexuality in the twenty-first century. From the Dress-Up Corner to the Senior Prom is a practical, forward thinking resource for anyone involved in educating children and adolescents. Jennifer Bryan takes readers into classrooms, administrative meetings, recess, parent conferences, and the annual pep rally to witness the daily manifestations of Gender and Sexuality Diversity at school. She provides a coherent framework for understanding what readers “see,” and invites them to use a contemporary, heart/mind perspective as they consider the true developmental needs of all elementary, middle, and high school students. The book features thoughtful questions, models of dialogue, accessible lesson plans, and many pedagogical strategies. At the heart of this book, though, are the evocative stories from teachers, students, and parents that Bryan has listened to over the span of her career. These personal anecdotes bring the comprehensive explorations of this seminal work to life. +++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++About the Author:Jennifer Bryan, PhD, author of the children’s book The Different Dragon, is a psychologist and educational consultant with over twenty-eight years of experience working with administrators, teachers, board members, parents, students, and school communities. She is a specialist in Gender and Sexuality Diversity and a consultant to PreK-12 schools throughout the United States. Bryan lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with her partner and two children.+++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++Reviews:If you are interested in the role of gender and sexuality in schools, the only thing you need to know is: read this book! It is a long overdue resource that is rich with examples from PreK-12 classrooms across the country. The student and teacher voices framed by Dr. Bryan’s research and expertise combine to form a powerful tool that will help educators everywhere make their schools and classrooms more inclusive and freer of all forms of bias. This well-researched text is strengthened by pedagogically meaningful stories, lesson plans, and interventions that offer guidance and support to educators engaged in this work. Her valuable insights and ideas will certainly help reduce the harmful impacts of homophobia, transphobia, and heteronormativity in schools everywhere. — Elizabeth Meyer Ph.D, author of Gender, Bullying and Harassment: Strategies To End Sexism and Homophobia in Schools and Gender and Sexual Div, Assistant Professor of Education at California Polytechnic State UniversityA brave, lucid, and insightful exploration of the intersections of gender, sexuality, and the experiences of K-12 students. Informed by scholarship and years of school experience, Jennifer Bryan has written a superb manual for faculty, administrators, and families on how to navigate safe passages for all students. Following Bryan’s advice not to run from these issues, but to embrace them conscientiously, will help educators and parents meet the challenges of raising healthy children in a nation where gender and sex have become tools of commerce. — Arthur Lipkin Ed.D, Chair, MA Commission on GLBT YouthFrom the Dress-Up Corner to the Senior Prom: Navigating Gender and Sexuality Diversity in Pre-K to 12 Schools, by Jennifer Bryan, is a must read book for any and all teachers and parents interested in getting their hands around gender stereotyping: what it is, how it’s limiting to all, and how to teach children to overcome it, towards the end of embracing gender and sexual diversity in the same way enlightened cultures embrace racial, ethnic, class, and religious diversity. The copious anecdotes alone are worth the price of admission to a future world where we transcend millennia of assumptions about “what boys do” vs. “what girls do” toward a more psychologically and socially androgynous and balanced future. Readers will find themselves thinking time and again, “It never occurred to me that our kids might be saying, and wondering, and exploring these things. How would I address that situation when it arises in my classroom?” This book of innumerable stories and wise counsel is also the new definitive authority reference book on terminology and resources on the topic. The central question Bryan addresses—what to teach about gender and sexual identity diversity in schools—is articulated perfectly by a fourth-grade teacher: “The school community needs a point of view on these issues. Then we all need to support this view.” Schools and teachers that don’t address the question collectively as a school community will address it, at their own risk, haphazardly and poorly individually.— Patrick F. Bassett, president, National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)What we teach in our school curriculum helps shape the minds, attitudes, and identities of children. Conversely, what we omit or leave unexamined matters as well. In this carefully researched, courageous book, Jennifer Bryan cogently argues that despite the centrality of gender and sexuality to our core relationships and identity, schools rarely contend with these topics. Bryan is persuasive, forthright, and sensitive in challenging us to formulate a more inclusive and complex approach to addressing gender and sexuality diversity in school. As a teacher, I have often shied away from topics of gender and sexuality. I fear that I don’t know enough or that traversing these topics is too fraught and dangerous. Reading this book challenged me to re-think my tendency to sidestep these issues and provided me the conceptual vocabulary and practical strategies to be a better teacher for all my students. — Sam Intrator Ph.D, Professor of Education and Child Study, Smith CollegeThe issue of safety for GLBTQI students in our schools today is a matter of life and death, not a matter of politics. Jennifer Bryan’s book is essential reading for anyone directly or indirectly involved in the education of children today. As the Head of a pre-K through 8th grade independent school, I found valuable information contained in this book for faculty, parents, and trustees alike. Whatever your role is in the process of education, Jennifer Bryan’s book provides real life examples along with excellent solutions, making it a useful tool in the classroom and at home. Bryan does not shy away from the conflict, rather she encourages us to face the prejudices and inequities that exist with confidence, candor, and even humor. This book is a must read now! — John Peterman, Head of School, Brookwood School, Manchester, MA+++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++ TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE - Gender and Sexuality Diversity at School: What Educators Need to Know and Then Some CHAPTER TWO - Heteronormativity at School: Questioning the “Natural Order” of Things CHAPTER THREE - A Framework for Engaging GSD at School: Educational Mission; Best Pedagogical Practices CHAPTER FOUR - GSD at School: Understanding What You See; Thinking Critically About What You See CHAPTER FIVE - GSD Professional Development: “Learnings” that Lead to Best Practices CHAPTER SIX - GSD in Early Childhood and Elementary Education: Strategies, Application and Curriculum CHAPTER SEVEN - GSD in Middle and High School Education: Development, Safety, and Curriculum CHAPTER EIGHT - Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Providing Foundations for GSD Literacy CHAPTER NINE - Leadership, Policies and Programs: Supporting GSD Education at Schools (Not for Administrators Only!) CHAPTER TEN - GLBTQI and Straight Educators and Parents: Different Challenges; Unique Opportunities +++++++++++++++ Website:  http://jenniferbryanphd.com/navigating.html

For almost two years I’ve been working for Jennifer Bryan as a research assistant / general assistant / consultant / tech aid /etc. A lot of our work has been focused on consultations with individual schools and presentations at larger education conferences. Another aspect of our work has been writing+ this book. I include the plus, because the book has so much more than just inspired and helpful text. It has resources, lesson plans, diagrams, glossaries, cartoons, news clippings. We finished the book at the end of 2011 and it was published last month by Rowman & Littlefied. People have already started contacting Jennifer to share that they are reading the book and trying to work her strategies and concepts into their schools and school districts. SO exciting.

I’m going to copy and paste a bunch of information on the book below and I hope that y’all will reblog what you think is relevant to your followers and readers or like it on facebook or tweet about it. It’s just such an amazing resource and I want to get the word out as far and wide as possible.

++++++++++++++++++

LIKE THE FROM THE DRESS-UP CORNER TO THE SENIOR PROM: NAVIGATING GENDER AND SEXUALITY DIVERSITY ON FACEBOOK for information on the book, upcoming events and related current events / new resources: https://www.facebook.com/FromTheDressUpCornerToTheSeniorProm

++++++++++++++++++

Available in Hardback, Paperback, E-Book, and Kindle Editions

Purchase links:

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781607099789


http://www.amazon.com/From-Dress-Up-Corner-Senior-Prom/dp/1607099799/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

+++++++++++++++
Description:

Very few PreK-12 teachers are adequately trained to address the gender identity and sexual identity of their students in a developmentally-appropriate and pedagogically-sound manner. Yet responsible adults—parents, educators, pre-service teachers, coaches, religious instructors, camp administrators and school counselors— must help children navigate the inherently diverse, increasingly complex world of gender and sexuality in the twenty-first century. 

From the Dress-Up Corner to the Senior Prom is a practical, forward thinking resource for anyone involved in educating children and adolescents. Jennifer Bryan takes readers into classrooms, administrative meetings, recess, parent conferences, and the annual pep rally to witness the daily manifestations of Gender and Sexuality Diversity at school. She provides a coherent framework for understanding what readers “see,” and invites them to use a contemporary, heart/mind perspective as they consider the true developmental needs of all elementary, middle, and high school students. The book features thoughtful questions, models of dialogue, accessible lesson plans, and many pedagogical strategies. At the heart of this book, though, are the evocative stories from teachers, students, and parents that Bryan has listened to over the span of her career. These personal anecdotes bring the comprehensive explorations of this seminal work to life. 
+++++++++++++++

+++++++++++++++
About the Author:

Jennifer Bryan, PhD, author of the children’s book The Different Dragon, is a psychologist and educational consultant with over twenty-eight years of experience working with administrators, teachers, board members, parents, students, and school communities. She is a specialist in Gender and Sexuality Diversity and a consultant to PreK-12 schools throughout the United States. Bryan lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with her partner and two children.
+++++++++++++++

+++++++++++++++
Reviews:

If you are interested in the role of gender and sexuality in schools, the only thing you need to know is: read this book! It is a long overdue resource that is rich with examples from PreK-12 classrooms across the country. The student and teacher voices framed by Dr. Bryan’s research and expertise combine to form a powerful tool that will help educators everywhere make their schools and classrooms more inclusive and freer of all forms of bias. This well-researched text is strengthened by pedagogically meaningful stories, lesson plans, and interventions that offer guidance and support to educators engaged in this work. Her valuable insights and ideas will certainly help reduce the harmful impacts of homophobia, transphobia, and heteronormativity in schools everywhere. 
— Elizabeth Meyer Ph.D, author of Gender, Bullying and Harassment: Strategies To End Sexism and Homophobia in Schools and Gender and Sexual Div, Assistant Professor of Education at California Polytechnic State University


A brave, lucid, and insightful exploration of the intersections of gender, sexuality, and the experiences of K-12 students. Informed by scholarship and years of school experience, Jennifer Bryan has written a superb manual for faculty, administrators, and families on how to navigate safe passages for all students. Following Bryan’s advice not to run from these issues, but to embrace them conscientiously, will help educators and parents meet the challenges of raising healthy children in a nation where gender and sex have become tools of commerce. 
— Arthur Lipkin Ed.D, Chair, MA Commission on GLBT Youth


From the Dress-Up Corner to the Senior Prom: Navigating Gender and Sexuality Diversity in Pre-K to 12 Schools, by Jennifer Bryan, is a must read book for any and all teachers and parents interested in getting their hands around gender stereotyping: what it is, how it’s limiting to all, and how to teach children to overcome it, towards the end of embracing gender and sexual diversity in the same way enlightened cultures embrace racial, ethnic, class, and religious diversity. The copious anecdotes alone are worth the price of admission to a future world where we transcend millennia of assumptions about “what boys do” vs. “what girls do” toward a more psychologically and socially androgynous and balanced future. Readers will find themselves thinking time and again, “It never occurred to me that our kids might be saying, and wondering, and exploring these things. How would I address that situation when it arises in my classroom?” This book of innumerable stories and wise counsel is also the new definitive authority reference book on terminology and resources on the topic. The central question Bryan addresses—what to teach about gender and sexual identity diversity in schools—is articulated perfectly by a fourth-grade teacher: “The school community needs a point of view on these issues. Then we all need to support this view.” Schools and teachers that don’t address the question collectively as a school community will address it, at their own risk, haphazardly and poorly individually.
— Patrick F. Bassett, president, National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)


What we teach in our school curriculum helps shape the minds, attitudes, and identities of children. Conversely, what we omit or leave unexamined matters as well. In this carefully researched, courageous book, Jennifer Bryan cogently argues that despite the centrality of gender and sexuality to our core relationships and identity, schools rarely contend with these topics. Bryan is persuasive, forthright, and sensitive in challenging us to formulate a more inclusive and complex approach to addressing gender and sexuality diversity in school. As a teacher, I have often shied away from topics of gender and sexuality. I fear that I don’t know enough or that traversing these topics is too fraught and dangerous. Reading this book challenged me to re-think my tendency to sidestep these issues and provided me the conceptual vocabulary and practical strategies to be a better teacher for all my students. 
— Sam Intrator Ph.D, Professor of Education and Child Study, Smith College


The issue of safety for GLBTQI students in our schools today is a matter of life and death, not a matter of politics. Jennifer Bryan’s book is essential reading for anyone directly or indirectly involved in the education of children today. As the Head of a pre-K through 8th grade independent school, I found valuable information contained in this book for faculty, parents, and trustees alike. Whatever your role is in the process of education, Jennifer Bryan’s book provides real life examples along with excellent solutions, making it a useful tool in the classroom and at home. Bryan does not shy away from the conflict, rather she encourages us to face the prejudices and inequities that exist with confidence, candor, and even humor. This book is a must read now! 
— John Peterman, Head of School, Brookwood School, Manchester, MA
+++++++++++++++

+++++++++++++++

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE - Gender and Sexuality Diversity at School: What Educators Need to Know and Then Some

CHAPTER TWO - Heteronormativity at School: Questioning the “Natural Order” of Things

CHAPTER THREE - A Framework for Engaging GSD at School: Educational Mission; Best Pedagogical Practices

CHAPTER FOUR - GSD at School: Understanding What You See; Thinking Critically About What You See

CHAPTER FIVE - GSD Professional Development: “Learnings” that Lead to Best Practices

CHAPTER SIX - GSD in Early Childhood and Elementary Education: Strategies, Application and Curriculum

CHAPTER SEVEN - GSD in Middle and High School Education: Development, Safety, and Curriculum

CHAPTER EIGHT - Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Providing Foundations for GSD Literacy

CHAPTER NINE - Leadership, Policies and Programs: Supporting GSD Education at Schools (Not for Administrators Only!)

CHAPTER TEN - GLBTQI and Straight Educators and Parents: Different Challenges; Unique Opportunities

+++++++++++++++


Website: 

http://jenniferbryanphd.com/navigating.html

» Check out some amazing films on gender-variant children

About The [Youth and Gender Media] Project

The Youth and Gender Media Project encompasses a growing collection of short films that capture the diversity and complexity of gender non-conforming youth. In The Family Journey: Raising Gender Nonconforming Children family members relate their transformations from denial to acceptance and finally to celebration around supporting and nurturing their courageous children. I’m Just Anneke tells the story of a gender fluid twelve–year–old girl who’s taking hormone blockers that delay puberty so she can decide if she wants to be male, female, or somewhere in–between, when she grows up. Becoming Johanna tells the story of a sixteen–year–old Latina transgender teenager living in Los Angeles whose deeply religious, immigrant mother commits her to a mental hospital against her will in order to prevent her transition to a young woman.

    The films introduce radical new concepts for many audiences, from the very idea that a young child can be transgender and have the wherewithal to fight against the pressures to conform to a binary gender paradigm, to the new and still very rare use of hormone blockers to delay puberty. However, since the films are structured around universal themes such as parenting and acceptance, identity and difference, growing up and coming of age, tolerance, love and self-esteem, they remain accessible and deeply moving even to people who are resistant to the idea of transgender youth.

    In collaboration with our outreach partner Gender Spectrum and several other non-profits dedicated to creating safe and inclusive classrooms for gender nonconforming youth, the films will be used to educate teachers, administrators, parents and students in school communities across the United States.

I just watched I’m Just Anneke and The Family Journey and was floored by how great they are. Read more about them and consider buying the DVD for yourself (or yr organization).

Buy the DVD:

Colleges, schools and non-profits can order the DVD from New Day Films now! DVDs for individual/home use only, please email us.

 

» No Longer Alone: A Resource Manual for Rural Sexual Minority Youth and the Adults Who Serve Them

A resource that might be helpful to those of you outside of the cities.

Guidance Regarding the Employment of Transgender Individuals in the Federal Workplace

[Last Friday, the White House Office of Personnel Management issued new guidelines for protecting and respecting transgender employees, including non-discrimination protections based on gender identity. The memo offers understanding and direction for creating an inclusive environment, particularly for those who may transition while employed. It was so well-done, that I wanted to post it in its entirety as a resource here, so the entire guidelines are after the cut.]

Read More

(Source: thinkprogress.org)

Anonymous: Hey Sebastian,

I am looking into changing my name and gender information. I know to get the gender changed one has to go to their state of birth. I also know that my state of birth requires the name change/SRS (they require a notarized copy of the surgery file saying SRS has been "completed") to have happened before the gender/birth certificate change request. As such, I am looking into changing my name (and, if possible, gender marker on my license). I live in North Carolina (not the state I was born in). Do you know the rules about name changes? I trust it can be in the state you reside rather than the state where you were born?

Thanks.

First of all, I lived in NC for a while and I miss it sometimes! Just wanted to bond over that for a second.

Second, you are right that birth certificate changes have to be done through the state in which you were born. And you must change the sex on yr birth certificate to change it with social security. However, to change yr name with social security, you only need to get a court order from yr county of residence, (and possibly take it to the DMV - some states require SSA first and others require DMV first). And to change yr gender marker on yr license, you only need to go to the state where you reside (and/or where yr license was issued). I’m gonna post a bunch of links on state-by-state policies for all of this stuff. Good luck!

http://www.transequality.org/Issues/federal_documents.html

http://xxboy.tumblr.com/post/732198663/how-to-change-the-name-on-your-social-security-card

http://transequality.org/Issues/federal_documents.html#ss_gender

http://www.thetransitionalmale.com/dlchange

http://www.intersexualite.org/BirthRecord.html

http://etransgender.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33

http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2010/06/sample-letter-for-us-passport-gender.html

Anonymous: Do you have any recommendations for gender therapists in noho? I'm hoping to find someone that will be covered by Smith insurance and might be open to the idea of partial transition.

Yes I do! First of all, the woman I work for is also a clinical psychologist who is experienced in gender-variance and is based in downtown Northampton (not sure if she is taking new clients though - but worth checking). Her name is Jennifer Bryan.

And UMass’s Stonewall Center put together this amazing list of trans resources in the valley, based on actual communication (via surveys) with the providers. Here are the therapists they deemed to be trans specialists: http://www.umass.edu/stonewall/transresguide/#Transgender Therapy Specialists

And here is a list of trans specialists by state: http://www.drbecky.com/therapists.html

I saw Nancy Kirk, who is in Easthampton and may not be taking new clients, and I think she would have been totally open to partial transition. Additionally, I know someone who saw 

Shelley Janiczek Woodson (whose trans partner and her actually were the ones who put together that resource list) and he at the time was planning on a partial transition and had her full support and help.