Queerphobia results in all students losing out on valuable educational opportunities and connections. Whether young people are LGBTQ+, questioning, allies, or cisgender and straight, when they’re denied access to history texts, books, and other media by and about queer people, they’re missing out on important chances to learn about others and themselves. As we know with Republican efforts to pass ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills alongside book bans, conservatives are hoping to reach into the past and push hateful “predatory” and “inappropriate” rhetoric against openly queer people, whether those people are teachers, writers, or students themselves.
Queerphobia—and in this case, transphobia—can manifest in any number of situations. As covered by Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), for example, we have a truly sad and disappointing case coming out of what should have been a fun and unique learning opportunity in Oregon.
Many public school students in Oregon participate in an educational camp called Outdoor School, where sixth graders from across the state gather for an overnight field trip to learn about nature and wildlife safety. Sounds nice! What’s not so nice? According to OPB, one school district allegedly pulled its participation because of transphobia.
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Here’s what we know, according to OPB. Students in the Culver School District, located in rural central Oregon, arrived at Camp Tamarack on Oct. 17. The plan was for them to participate in the three-day experience, which includes two overnight stays in shared cabins. Makes sense.
Apparently, once officials in the school district learned that nonbinary camp counselors (who are high school students) would be sharing cabins with middle school students, they loaded the buses back up and took all of their students home.
In an Oct. 18 letter to parents, Superintendent Stefanie Garber said she heard concerns from middle school principal Brad Kulac, who said he heard concerns from teachers who were at the camp in person. They say students were uncomfortable sharing a cabin with a nonbinary person and had concerns about showering with them.
Garber spoke to OPB in an interview and clarified they did not have an exact figure on how many students said they were uncomfortable. Garber also said they didn’t know if students did explicitly request to leave the camp and return home or not. She told the outlet they had to “err on the side of caution” and ultimately had to make the call quickly.
Charlie Anderson, who serves as the executive director for the camp, however, told the outlet the school district didn’t seem to have all of the pertinent information when making the call. Anderson told the outlet that students don’t shower during Outdoor School, to begin with, meaning there’s no scenario where they would have been sharing a shower with a counselor. He also said there are private changing rooms.
While Garber said she does wish the district had been able to communicate better with the camp, she would have appreciated the camp letting her know ahead of time there were nonbinary counselors. She also told the outlet part of the decision to withdraw students from the camp was out of concern that students would make fun of nonbinary counselors, but she didn’t have specific evidence of that happening.
Either way, if notifying people ahead of time about someone’s gender identity sounds illegal to you, that’s pretty much what Anderson said as well. Anderson said informing them ahead of time of gender identity like that would have violated state law and been discriminatory. He also said he personally did not know students were uncomfortable or leaving until the buses returned to take them home.
In speaking to OPB, Anderson recalled “tears” and a lot of “confusion” when students had to go home, and said there was a “sadness felt everywhere.” Anderson also said at the end of the day, the nonbinary counselors did feel hurt and singled out—but not because they were bullied or teased by the kids, but because the students had to leave because of them.
Trans and nonbinary people exist. Period. People do not need to “out” themselves ahead of time for anyone’s comfort. Doing so could put people in serious danger both physically and emotionally, not to mention in places that don’t even have employment or housing protections for openly trans folks. It’s also simply cruel and dehumanizing.
Students lost out on a special educational experience. The school district received state funding for students to attend (a cool $20,000) and it’s unknown what will happen to those dollars now. Camp counselors are hurt if not traumatized that literal buses full of children departed because of their sheer existence. Heartbreaking for all involved.
If nothing else, let this be an example of why we all need to be actively advocating on behalf of trans inclusion and education by and about queer people, no matter what state you’re in or how progressive your laws and protections actually are. If there is ever a time to be quiet about trans inclusion and activism, it’s definitely not right now. And especially not right before midterm elections.
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