One of the most important things we can do as teachers is provide a safe and welcoming environment for our students. All of our students. Most of the time, we are able to take steps forward, albeit slow ones, towards creating equity for our students. One demographic, however, is becoming a societal scapegoat for discrimination: our students who do not ascribe to the normalized “rules” of gender. Whether these are binary transgender, nonbinary, questioning, creative, or non-conforming students, the label isn’t important; their identities and public existence have become political fodder while all they want to do is live their lives as themselves, safely and cared for.
The Supreme Court of Canada has recognized that transgender people are uniquely disadvantaged in Canadian society and that they have to face debate about their very existence (Hansman v. Neufeld, 2023). We also have strong data that tells us that transgender people are much more likely to be violently victimized in Canada than any other demographic, taking into consideration both gender and sexuality (Statistics Canada, 2020; UCLA Law, 2022).
Transgender youth face specific issues that we need to be aware of in our schools. We know that transgender teenagers report being sexually assaulted at a rate of 36% when not allowed access to bathrooms associated with their gender identity, a topic that is currently up for debate in Canada (Harvard School of Public Health, 2024). We also know that the rates of suicide of transgender youth are particularly high, with 44% considering suicide and 34% attempting it (Price & Green, 2023). What does this mean for us in schools? It means that we need to create safer spaces for those children in our care who are part of an increasingly vulnerable community.
There is hope when we can create a safe space for our transgender and gender non-conforming students to be themselves fully and unapologetically. The rates of suicide cited above can be reduced by a third if a transgender child has even one affirming adult in their lives (Price & Green, 2023)! This number is even higher if the adult is a parent, but we can do our part in helping keep our students alive and safe simply by honouring who they are telling us they are. When a student walks into their classroom, they should feel seen, respected, and valued. Knowing that simply being affirming of a student can have such a powerful impact hopefully makes it easy to do!
Speaking from my own personal experiences as a trans-nonbinary person teaching in the public school system, I have seen the ways that being affirming has created change for many of my gender non-conforming students. I was teaching in middle school when I began this work, and as I have moved into adult education, I see its value even more. Many of the transgender students that I see now did not make it to their high school graduation on time, and this is almost always at least partially because of the negative experiences they had surrounding their queerness. I have seen many students breathe easier and find more success once they know that who they are will not only be tolerated but also honoured and welcomed in the classroom, and it doesn’t take much from me. It can be as simple as gathering students’ pronouns and then using the ones they share (Nein, 2025). It can be as easy as ensuring that every student can use a bathroom that aligns with who they are. The days of racial segregation are not that far behind us, but we understand that it is absolutely unacceptable as we look back on our own histories. It is time to take a stand for the new segregation being pushed for in our schools today. After all, it wasn’t about water fountains then, and it isn’t about bathrooms now (Smith, n.d.).
References
Hansman v Neufeld, 2023 SCC 14 https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/19911/index.do
Harvard School of Public Health. (2024, November 22). Transgender teens with restricted bathroom access at higher risk of sexual assault. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/transgender-teens-restricted-bathroom-access-sexual-assault#:~:text=of%20 sexual%20assault-,Transgender%20teens%20with%20restricted%20bathroom%20access%20at%20higher%20risk%20of,according%20to%20a%20recent%20study.
Nein, B. (2025). Normalizing Pronouns: A Step Worth Taking. MB Teacher, 103(2), 12-13. https://issuu.com/manitoba_teachers_society/docs/mb_teacher_-_winter_2025?fr=sMjV mZDY2NzUyMTE
Price, M. N., & Green, A. E. (2023). Association of Gender Identity Acceptance with fewer suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth. Transgender Health, 8(1), 56–63. https://doi.org/10.1089/ trgh.2021.0079
Smith, A. (n.d.). Protest Sign- Image Analysis. The Evolution of Trans Rights. https://introtowgstransstudies.voices.wooster.edu/feminism-and-race/protest-sign/
Statistics Canada. (2020). Experiences of Violent Victimization and Unwanted Sexual Behaviours Among Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Other Sexual Minority People, and the Transgender Population, in Canada, 2018. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00009-eng.htm
UCLA Law. (2022, December 21). Transgender people over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime. Williams Institute. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ben Nein
Ben Nein has been teaching for twenty years at a variety of levels from primary multiage to adult education. They are a genderqueer, neurodivergent, Métis teacher working to create equity within educational spaces for both teachers and students. In their free time they co-facilitate a social support group for nonbinary and gender questioning adults which had the opportunity to serve as Group Marshal for the Winnipeg Pride Parade in 2024.
This article is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Spring 2025 issue.
