Acceptance is the one thing that every person wants, including transgendered people, who identify as a gender that doesn’t match with the sex assigned to them at birth.  There are transgender people all over the globe, including right here in Massapequa High School.

Alex Gordonson, a female-to-male transgender sophomore at MHS, has struggled with finding acceptance from peers and himself on his transexuality.

From a young age, Alex has questioned his gender identity.

“I just always knew something was wrong, but I never knew it was because I was transgender,”  Gordonson said about discovering his gender identity.

Other transgender students in Massapequa feel conflicted as well. One, who prefers to remain anonymous, said “I’d prefer students not knowing and just want them recognizing me as they would any cisgender person [someone whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth].”

The anonymous student has also struggled with gender identity problems, and has known for a long time that he is transgender. Although the student feared coming out, he said that he was given the strength to do so thanks to encouragement from one of his friends who had come out as transgender before him. “He had the courage to do it, so why can’t I?”

“I think personally, the biggest thing that I have been able to do is to just have [the] support of a Gay Straight Alliance here and just being another presence in the building.,” Mrs. Eileen Lind, an MHS guidance counselor and Gay Straight Alliance adviser, said. “They know that they can come in here at anytime and be one hundred and ten percent accepted for who they are. ”

Another school guidance counselor, Mr. Matthew McCauley, is also supportive of LGBTQA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Ally) students.

“I think that everyone has a sense of their own body and should explore what it is that they’re feeling and be happy with their life and their existence.,” Mr. McCauley said. “Whether it’s in home, school, or anywhere else, they should feel comfortable in their own skin.”

Mr. McCauley hopes that any transgender students facing problems or confusion of their gender identity will find help.  “If people are feeling that they’re afraid to come out and say that that’s who they are or how they’re feeling or that they have mixed emotions, that they hopefully shouldn’t have any fear in reaching out to the right people. ”

Gordonson and other transgender students in the high school have faced problems regarding their preferred names, bathrooms, and locker rooms.

“I think it’s ridiculous that the school doesn’t allow transgender students to use the locker room that agrees with their gender.,” junior Anne Jordan said. “That’s discrimination and bullying and it goes against the Dignity Act and people need to start paying attention to it.”

“Going with the gender marker assigned at birth, obviously for transgender students, is not an appropriate place for them, because they don’t identify with that particular locker room,” principal Dr. Barbara Williams said in response, “But… I have to also be mindful of safety, and to me that is a huge issue right now.”

“ As much as I want students to be tolerant and accepting, if I know that I can’t guarantee that or if I’m concerned that there could potentially be an issue with that, I would be remiss in my obligations to not provide [a safer alternative]. ”

Regarding the names of the transgender students, instead of having their prefered first name on their school identification cards, they only have the first initial of their name.

“I think that schools and more places should be more accepting and accommodating to them.,” sophomore Kathryn Anderson said. “If they request to be called a different name or anything, it should be accepted and not fought.”

“Anything that’s issued from the school, whether it’s an official school transcript, whether it’s a username for an account, or whether it’s a lanyard, has to be by what a person’s legal name is.,” Dr. Williams responded.

“We [the school and central administration] were able to make an agreement that as long as I had parent approval and some sort of documentation from anyone that could positively say that this person is in fact transgender, I then had the latitude to at least change the name to an initial,” Dr. Williams added.

Still, it was also made clear that a legal name change is required in order to print a student’s preferred name.

With regards to acceptance of transexuality, most students are supportive.  “If you want to be who you are and it makes you happy then you should just be it and don’t let anything stop you.” Anderson said.