Oakland attack shines light on 'agender' issues



less Students at Maybeck High School in Berkeley wear skirts on Friday Nov. 8, 2013 to support 18-year-old classmate Luke "Sasha" Fleischman, who was allegedly set on fire by 16-year-old Richard Thomas, who has been charged as an adult, while the two were riding an AC Transit bus in Oakland Monday night. Investigators have said Thomas told them he set Fleischman on fire because he is homophobic. Fleischman was wearing a skirt at the time. Students at Maybeck High School in Berkeley wear skirts on Friday Nov. 8, 2013 to support 18-year-old classmate Luke "Sasha" Fleischman, who was allegedly set on fire by 16-year-old Richard Thomas, who has been ... more Photo: Doug Oakley, Associated Press Photo: Doug Oakley, Associated Press Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Oakland attack shines light on 'agender' issues 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

After 18-year-old Luke "Sasha" Fleischman was set afire last week for wearing a skirt on an Oakland bus, students at Maybeck High in Berkeley wore skirts and kilts to school in a show of solidarity for their classmate. Since the attack, donations of more than $20,000 have poured in to help with the teenager's medical bills, as the story garnered international attention - and outrage.

The brutal act, coupled with the kind response, put a new spotlight on gender nonconformity, an issue long championed by the LGBT community but one that is gaining increasing attention on the streets, in schools and from legislatures. It's an issue that could even affect our language, in the form of new gender-neutral pronouns being discussed on college campuses.

Awareness growing

Experts say there is still much work to be done for a broader understanding of gender nonconformity, a phenomenon that often starts in childhood, when youngsters don't conform to gender expectations in their dress or other behaviors. But the violent Fleischman case underscores the fact that the public at large is becoming more aware of the issue.

"I was horrified by what Sasha has gone through, but I was heartened by the response," said Carolyn Laub, executive director of the Gay Straight Alliance Network, a youth leadership organization fighting gender oppression and stereotyping in schools. "So I was struck by this dissonance. What this tells me is that there is a strong level of support in this person's life, but there is hostility and violence in another part."

Fleischman, who identifies as "agender" or "gender queer" and has an affinity for wearing skirts, was heading home to East Oakland from Maybeck at the time of the attack. The suspect, 16-year-old Oakland resident Richard Thomas, reportedly admitted to police that he was "homophobic." Fleischman is now at St. Francis Memorial Hospital and will require numerous surgeries for second- and third-degree burns.

"It's that jarring contrast between support and rejection," Laub said, "that presents a larger message about where we are as a culture."

Few would dispute that gender nonconformity is taking a more prominent place in culture.

More than 60 percent of public high schools in California have gay straight alliance clubs on campus, operating under the umbrella Gay Straight Alliance Network. Some colleges have added "neither" to the male and female gender categories on new student applications. Documentaries such as "Straightlaced: How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up" and "It's Elementary: Talking about Gay Issues in School" have been shown in hundreds of primary and secondary schools across the state.

And earlier this year, the School Success and Opportunities Act was passed in California, reaffirming existing antidiscrimination laws requiring that transgender students be provided with the safe and supportive school environment needed to succeed.

Adjusting the language

Linguists are getting in on the act, too. New gender-neutral pronouns are being introduced on college campuses, including at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vanderbilt University, with suggested usages including "ze" rather than "she" and "he." The plural "they" is being used as a gender-neutral term for the singular "he" or "she."

Nevertheless, high rates of violence directed at people who don't conform to gender norms persist, said Rebecca Rolfe, executive director of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. "I've been doing this work for years, and there has been added public awareness, but it's still a new issue for most people. Most people don't know someone who is gender neutral, or don't know someone who is transgender."

Debra Chasnoff - an Academy Award-winning filmmaker who founded GroundSpark, an organization in San Francisco that uses documentaries and short feature films to advocate for social justice - spent the weekend in Nashville at an international conference on bullying.

"We did an exercise where we asked people (counselors and others who work in schools) to list the kinds of bias they're dealing with in school that contribute to harassment and homophobia," Chasnoff said. "At the top of the list were students who do not conform to the gender stereotypes."

Chasnoff, who is a lesbian, said she started her organization to protect her own children from bias and harassment in school. She made GroundSpark's first film, "It's Elementary," when her oldest son was entering first grade.

"Where is it written," she asked, "that boys have to dress a certain way? Why is it so scary if a boy wears a skirt?"

Going to bat for kids

She said she didn't want her sons to get to school and be subjected to bad words and harassment. "My sons have two moms," she said. "I went to bat for my kids. I happened to be a filmmaker, and I thought I could make a difference through film. It's my belief that all children are affected by antigay harassment, and that we all should do something proactive."

Chasnoff sees progress. "Things are starting to change in many schools," she said. "Some school communities are finding very appropriate ways to create safe climates where every student can be their true self. But unfortunately, it's a minority of our young people who are growing up with that kind of support. The person who set Sasha's skirt on fire is someone who is very threatened by someone who doesn't conform to a very narrow gender stereotype."

She added, "There are a lot of students who talk about not fitting into a gender box. Gender is a fluid concept. I'm sorry but that's the reality for many, many people in the country."

In a letter posted on Facebook and on a parenting blog, Sasha Fleischman's father, Karl Fleischman, a teacher at Sequoia Elementary, said he was deeply touched by the outpouring of kindness and donations. On the same day that students at Maybeck High wore skirts to show their solidarity with Sasha, a group of community members led by Sequoia teachers wrapped bus poles along the route Sasha rode - the same route where he was attacked - with dozens of rainbow ribbons.

Karl Fleischman urged people to open their minds to the reality that some people don't conform to gender stereotypes.

"Even though Sasha appears to be a boy, the fact is, Sasha self-identifies as 'agender,' and prefers the pronouns 'they,' 'them' and 'their,' when people refer to Sasha in the third person," Karl Fleischman wrote. "Being 'agender' simply means that the person doesn't feel they are either a boy or a girl."

He went on, "I realize this is a concept that even adults have difficulty wrapping around. My wife and I frequently slip up in our pronoun usage, much to Sasha's chagrin. So I can't pretend that it's an issue that all young children will grasp. But what they certainly can and should understand is that different people like different things. And that's a GOOD thing. It makes me smile to see Sasha being Sasha."

This article has been corrected since it appeared in print editions.