INCLUSION OF TRANSGENDER IN EDUCATION

Transgender people are individuals of any age or sex whose appearance, personal characteristics, or behaviours differ from stereotypes about how men and women are ‘supposed' to be. Transgender people have existed in every culture, race, and class since the story of human life has been recorded. The contemporary term ‘transgender' arose in the mid-1990 from the grassroots community of gender-different people. In contemporary usage, transgender has become an ‘umbrella' term that is used to describe a wide range of identities and experiences, including but not limited to transsexual people; male and female cross-dressers (sometimes referred to as ‘transvestites,' ‘drag queens' or ‘drag kings'); inter-sexed individuals; and men and women, regardless of sexual orientation, whose appearance or characteristics are perceived to be gender atypical. In its broadest sense, transgender encompasses anyone whose identity or behaviour falls outside of stereotypical gender norms. That includes people who do not self-identify as transgender, but who are perceived as such by others and thus are subject to the same social oppressions and physical violence as those who actually identify with any of these categories. Other current synonyms for transgender include ‘gender variant,' ‘gender different,' and ‘gender non-conforming.'