At This Soon-to-be Brooklyn School, the Future is Trans
It's transcultural. It's transdisciplinary. And, yes, it's that other one, too . . .
Which side are you on?
In Latin, it’s a question with a clear answer.
If you’re on “this side,” you’re cis-.
And if you’re on “the other side,” you’re trans-.
No wonder, then, that even though both prefixes have been around since the days of, well, Latin, the only one that lives in our language is the one that summons us to the space beyond.
In our work, we aspire to be transdisciplinary.
In our lives, we seek transcendence.
And for those of us who don’t fit into the gender binary, we are transgender.
Ten years ago, middle school math teacher J Florence (they/them) didn’t yet describe themself that way. But when their school organized a workshop around gender inclusion, J realized their school had been unintentionally harming its students over and over again -- especially the students who didn’t fit neatly into our modern American gender paradigm.
“I wasn’t out at the time,” J explained to me, “but there was one student of mine who was coming out, and it made me question how a school could create a safer place for them -- and where I fit in the universe as well.”
This wondering birthed a seed that slowly grew inside J’s mind -- a radically inclusive, truly trans formative school. And yet, as J put it, “I didn’t have any real language for what I was envisioning -- until I met Alaina.”
Alaina Daniels (they/she) is a lifelong educator, science and sex ed teacher, and force of nature. She was also the first out trans educator J had ever met.
For Alaina, it was a familiar experience. “Over my career, I have had lots of trans students or colleagues for whom I was their first example of a possibility model. I recognize the importance of that role, because most cis people don’t spend any time listening to trans people, especially trans women and trans people of color. When you see anything about us, it’s filtered through a cis lens.
“Most adults have never even seen someone like me unless it’s in porn. All these aspects of trans reality are well understood within the trans community, but not the broader cis community. The attitude we encounter is, ‘We let you in this cis space -- that should be enough.’”
Throughout her career, Daniels had consistently fought to be seen and heard, and yet, as she put it, “J had an idea that I had not thought of before: the possibility of a trans-centered school. I’m still not sure it’s possible. But there’s all this evidence that marginalized kids do better when they have teachers who share their identities.
“How, then, do you create a school with the mission of moving everyone towards liberation?”
For J and Alaina -- and, later, their third co-founder, Ro Peña (they/elle) -- such a place would, by definition, be transformative. “This is an unprecedented time of anti-trans violence,” Ro explained. “Trans people – especially trans youth – are the target of politicians’ campaigns, reporters’ news segments, pop culture commentaries, and social media posts that debate our right to exist.”
Alaina added, “Even as trans people contend with this hypervisibility, systems of power constantly prevent our voices from being included in discussions and decisions. In the first four months of this year alone, over 470 anti-trans laws, bills, and executive orders, most often aimed at trans children, were proposed and passed in an attempt to control our bodies and limit our lives.”
Indeed, over the last eight years, more anti-trans legislation has been introduced at all levels of government than in the previous 240 years of U.S. history. “Despite this right-wing moral panic about there being ‘too many trans people,’” Alaina explained, “liberal institutions and voters have not responded with resistance or even support for trans communities. Instead, they treat our very existence as a ‘question’ worthy of ‘debate,’ an attitude that has contributed to the drastic escalation of transphobic state violence.”
For all three founders, therefore, any school they created would have to be anchored in joy.
“Black trans joy, Indigenous trans joy and POC trans joy are vital because they are all linked to feelings of safety,” Ro offered. “If students don’t feel safe, they can’t learn. So good teachers must make space for the feelings that can counteract all the negative societal narratives, and make school a second -- or perhaps the only -- home for marginalized students.”
In response, meet Trans formative Schools (TfS), a school centering trans-ness and social justice, open to all, in order to support and uplift the lives of trans children, trans educators, and families-touched-by-transness through “rigorous academics, joyful connections, identity exploration, and progressive practices.”
“People who live outside the western gender binary are not a new phenomenon,” Alaina reminded me. “We have existed forever. Our transcestors were criminalized, our histories were deliberately burned, and our children were too often tortured into hiding themselves in order to survive. As a result, trans existence has long been a story of survival in the face of these obstacles, resistance in response to discrimination, and finding joy and love in our communities.”
Ro added, “Our goal is to create a place where kids feel loved and understood, where we can let them explore and uncover their identities, and where the grownups around them have the necessary lived experience to support them and help them grow.
“There’s a lot of talk in cis spaces about the high rates of suicide in our community, but we want people to see the beauty that lives in trans spaces, too -- the love and the comfort that comes when people are allowed to unfold and feel safe and supported.”
To that end, this fall TfS will open an Afterschool Program located in the Brooklyn Community Pride Center’s Crown Heights location in the Major R. Owens Community Center. TfS will also offer online classes — and has set the goal of opening a Middle School a year from now.
“We’ve been these kids,” J added. “We teach these kids. We’ve been parents to these kids. And yet, while we’ve tried our best to provide as much support as possible to these youth, we have been consistently constrained by the existing systems of power within schools.
“That’s why our intention is to trans education itself -- by which we mean helping people see the ways our current systems inherently exclude people, and working to dismantle oppressive systems as we move towards more inclusive possibilities. We hope that our work will be a possibility model for educators from all over the country, and even the world, so that lots of schools and communities can access, use, and improve upon what we’ve started.”
“We’re not the saviors of anything,” Ro added. “We’re just trying to create another point of access for the kids and grownups in our community who need it. We know that when it comes to the future of humanity, we won’t find the way forward by leaning on antiquated ideologies that stymie our collective progress.”
In fact, the future resides on ‘the other side.’
The future, for all of us, is trans.
TfS needs your support!
Please consider making a donation, following their socials, or joining their email listserv for updates.
And for updates on what is happening in anti-trans legislation, join the Trans Formation Project’s weekly newsletter.
So needed at this moment as trans (and all LGBTQIA+) youth face increasing hostilities at so many districts. Just heard from a friend in Wisconsin who said a group of parents are up in arms about Queer Prom, an inclusive event that has been happily happening for years. Thanks for sharing, Sam!