Gendertopia in Vermont

In Burlington, Vermont, they could be singing along to Lola at this after school program that takes place one day a week. Associated Press writer Wilson Ring has the story.

The nine-week program, partially funded by the Burlington School District, was held at Vermont's Queer Youth Center and called "Gendertopia."

Gay, lesbian and straight students discussed a wide range of topics, from the characters in the book and movie "Twilight," to taking photos around the city that show the different ways gender is portrayed in popular culture.

Kids used to look at their two parents to see representations of the two sexes.

[Much more is below the fold if you care to read it.]

"Most people come into it thinking, 'Oh, there's two genders and two sexualities' ... ," said David Kingsbury, a 16-year-old junior at Burlington High School who signed up for the program. "People assume it's boy and girl, but it's so much more than that. There's a whole world out there full of different genders."

Perhaps, depending on how you define "gender". There are two sexes – male and female.

The program is among the first of its kind to be funded, in part, with tax dollars, said Christopher Neff, the executive director of Outright Vermont, the social service organization running Gendertopia.

Do you know where your tax dollars are?

Neither the program nor the school district's participation triggered any objection.

There could be any number of reasons for that – including that it is voluntary. Perhaps those with old fashioned ideas such as, oh, women have XX chromosomes, and men have XY chromosomes – maybe they already found a way to prevent their child from being subject to this. Or maybe someone with reservations was afraid of being publicly (and unfairly) labeled a bigot?

It's so important that people be able to see beyond any concerns or misconceptions that they have," said Eliza Byard, the executive director of the New York-based Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, which has 35 chapters across the country.

Which misconceptions would those be, I wonder? They don't say in this piece.

The program was designed to help young people identify the subtle signals used to express gender and how not being aware of those signals can lower self esteem and possibly lead to an increase in at-risk activities like substance abuse or dropping out of school, Neff said.

Look, if one guy is counting on another classmate to notice and compliment his eyeliner or he's going to smoke crack, well, he's got problems that have nothing to do with other students not picking up on his passes.

"We often see a lot of homophobia or transphobia that happens on the basis of how someone looks," Neff said. "If you are making fun of me because I am wearing a pink shirt and that's sort of expressing my femininity, my feminine side, that translates into homophobia, but it has nothing to do with whether I'm straight or whether I'm dating boys or whether I'm dating girls. It has to do with the fact that I'm wearing a pink shirt."

You know, like just about every other kid, I got kidded around or taunted by other kids. Let's say they taunted me about my eyeglasses. Does that mean they were myopophobic, and needed sensitivity training?

Burlington School Superintendent Jeanne Collins said no one has objected to the program.

"The district has been in the forefront on this topic for at least a decade, if not longer," Collins said. "We are very sensitive to celebrating the differences in people and accepting people for who they are and what they bring to the table."

I like sticking bananas in my ear. Are you going to celebrate that, and what I bring to the table? You're a bigot if you think bananas don't belong in the human ear.

The funny thing about schools claiming they for "accepting people for who they are" is that the whole point of school is to change someone. The purpose of schools used to be to educate kids, which definitely changes them. If we accepted that they were ignorant and wanted to honor that, we wouldn't teach them. Adults don't go to college so that they'll be the same person when they are done.

Steve Cable, of Rutland the founder of Vermont Renewal, an organization that promotes what he calls traditional family values, said he wasn't familiar with "Gendertopia," but he knew Outright Vermont.

Notice it is what "he calls" traditional family values. No bias here.

About 40 students signed up for the program, Neff said, and about 12 attended the weekly program. Sometimes the group watched a movie or had food. Much of the discussion was led by the students themselves, and it wasn't just for gay and lesbian students.

Led by the students? Couldn't they do that at the mall on their own time? 12 attended. Well, I'd say that deserves a friendly national Associated Press story.

"I'm straight, but I don't like using that word because then it feels like if you're gay then you're crooked, you're not meant to grow up in a certain way," Sophia Manzi, 15, a Burlington high school freshman, said during this year's final "Gendertopia" meeting.

But it is okay to use the word "queer"?

Neff said "Gendertopia" wasn't about sexuality or who people are attracted to.

Actually, that's exactly what it is about. I like how there is a demand for creating protected classes based on behaviors, and all of these programs that grow out of that, and then on the other hand it isn't supposed to be about that behavior. Really? Then what is the difference? These "different genders" are all about how someone behaves.

"We're really clear that gender and gender identify is separate from sexual orientation," Neff said.

You mean, like how I am a male lesbian?

"Hugh Grant and Russell Crowe have the same sex, they're both male and they're both heterosexual. But they have very different gender presentations. One is sort of seen as much more masculine than the other."

We need to teach high school kids this stuff? My hunch is that these are the two tamest examples they use.

Look, people are born male and female, the species perpetuates itself through the two sexes interacting. Sure, some people of each of those two sexes have no interest in sex, or are attracted to people of the same sex exclusively or in addition to people of the opposite sex. Yeah, there are instances when baby is born with some abnormal genitalia. But there are two basic genders – period. I saw picture of a baby born with a third arm. Instead of starting an activist movement to "honor" this new category of identity, they amputated the arm.