It is relatively easy to have a conversation in the abstract about transgender identity in such fields as health, religion, or government policy, but it’s an entirely different matter when it comes to the everyday challenges of navigating the rights of individuals with accommodations such as restrooms and locker rooms.
And it’s also a very different story when it’s your child needing to be accommodated.
That was the case with Lynn Brennan and her family when a daughter became a son between the seventh and eighth grade in the Talbot County Public School district a few years ago. At a time when state and local governments had not developed guidelines for transgender students, Lynn’s family was the first locally to enter into this new and complex terrain for public schools, teachers, and students.
In her interview with the Spy, Lynn tells the compelling story of her family working with a St. Michaels school principal to thoughtfully prepare for this significant cultural change. And a lot of progress was made to respect her son’s access to bathroom and locker room facilities.
But all of this was before the Trump Administration’s rollback of Obama-era civil rights safeguards, or more recently, the Supreme Court weighing in favor of transgender access in Doe v. Boyertown Area School District this May.
We talked to Lynn a few weeks ago at the Spy HQ.
This video is approximately nine minutes in length. For more information about the Shore’s transgender community please go here
Denice Lombard says
I want to thank Lynn, Max and their whole family for being so courageous and willing to share their story about being transgender. This is the way that we learn and get beyond our misconceptions and prejudices. As is said about being gay or lesbian, if you come to know someone who is, your stereotypes crumble. The same is true with a transgender person.
The categories of sex and gender are not binary but along a spectrum. For example, biological sex of a person is not just male or female. Anatomy, chromosomes and hormones play a role. I am in the middle of that spectrum as an intersex person, meaning (in my specific case) anatomically I am female but my chromosomes are male.
In the category of gender identity, or psychological sense of self, a person may identify as a woman, a man or both, neither or other.
In the category of gender expression or how we communicate our gender, on one end is feminine, the other masculine, and in the middle is androgynous and everything in between.
In terms of sexual orientation, or erotic response, there are those attracted to women, those attracted to men, or bisexual, attracted to both, and everything in between.
There have always been lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. Humans are biologically and psychologically complicated and diverse. As a society we are just growing up in our knowledge and understanding of this.
Bravo to the Brennan family for helping our community understand what being transgender is.