Reassessing gender reassignment

The phrase, "I'm a woman trapped inside a man's body," provokes many reactions from people, most commonly an uncomfortable giggle.

A Batavia high school science teacher has begun the process of gender reassignment. Basically, he wants to become a she. In order to receive the surgery, he must dress and live as a woman for one year, a standard rule in medical procedures of this kind.

As you can imagine, many parents have a problem with this. Some have gone as far as to move their children to another school.

The media is the main resource for most people's knowledge and understanding of transsexuals, who are still largely misunderstood in modern society. For better or worse, our culture has become dependent on media representations in film, television and print. We especially look to the media for information on things we feel distant from or threatened by.

Let's face it, the media doesn't do a very good job of representing transsexuals in a positive way. Everyone has seen those trashy talk shows, the worst of which is probably "Jerry Springer," wherein "cross-dressers" are paraded on stage like circus freaks in order to provoke raucous howls from the audience.

The talk show format is an open arena for producers to exaggerate the characteristics of certain groups of people, inflating and encouraging stereotypes of all kinds. Audiences watching at home are drawn into a sort of mob mentality. They're encouraged to think of transsexuals as freaks who want to corrupt the average conventions of everyday society.

In truth, people who feel that they have been born the wrong sex are faced with a complex problem. The term "transgender" encompasses a wide array of situations, including people who wish to have gender reassignment surgery. Women can want to become men, and still remain attracted to men, while men can want to become women and desire to be with a man.

Even scientists can't determine whether it is a psychological problem or just a disparity in human behavior.

Understandably, parents are upset about this sort of thing happening in their child's school. They don't want some scary "drag queen" teaching their kids biology. He might put some crazy ideas into their heads.

By all accounts, this is a good teacher who was previously well liked by students. It seems unfair to tear down his otherwise decent character just because he has decided to change an aspect of his life that won't affect his ability to teach.

Luckily, we live in the United States, and this country wouldn't be what it is today if we started to trivialize the importance of people's rights. Title 7 of the Federal Civil Rights Act states that discrimination by employers infringes individual human rights, which protects the teacher from any harmful legal action. The school is supporting him through this prolonged transitional process, either because of the law or because of other incentives. Classes are being offered to help students and parents better understand the situation.

Obviously, this is a small news story, but it marks a tremendously important step in the right direction for the transsexual community. Before they decide to have the surgery, these people are just like you and me. They have families and jobs, and all they want is to feel normal. Surely no one could imagine enduring life day-to-day feeling as if they were born the wrong sex.

There are a few accurate portrayals of the transsexual community out there. Positive examples that show transsexuals living real lives can be found more recently in films like "Transamerica," wherein a man decides to have surgery to become a woman. The film's lead female-posing-as-male, Felicity Huffman, was nominated for an Oscar.

Perhaps this and the Batavia high school's efforts indicate that the subject matter has made a hopeful breach into the consciousness of everyday Americans, where someday it will be more accepted.