Ashlyn, 16 years old (S)

I stumbled on an article earlier that was about a young transgender, Ashlyn Parram, who was refused into her exam unless she went home and changed into boys clothes.



Now before I had even read more than two lines of that article I got really angry with the person who had written it. Why did I get annoyed with them? Simple, this person was writing an article about discrimination against transgender people - from what I could gather from the title - but they were almost as bad as the people they were critiquing.



They were writing about Ashlyn who had been refused into an exam by her teacher because she is biologically male and wouldn't go home and change into boys clothes; but they were referring in their article to the young victim as "he". He! I ask you! The whole point of their article was to denounce trans discrimination, and about how the young girl was being treated because of who she was and then they write their article and call her a he! No, no, no! This is wrong in so many ways!

If someone says they are a girl, you respect that and use the appropriate pronouns, which are normally the feminine pronouns right? It's the same in any case, if someone says they are a boy, girl, neither gender or both, and any variant thereof, you respect that and you use the appropriate pronouns or the pronouns they tell you to use.





I don't know if this person realises what they've done by using masculine pronouns, misgendering really hurts trans people. I hope Ashlyn doesn't read their article.





I didn't finish reading this person's article, instead I went to find the story on another website, which I found and to my great relief this person had not misgendered young Ashlyn and I was able to continue my reading.





As it were, Ashlyn turned up to her GCSE exam in a skirt and was asked by her teachers to go home and change into boys clothes in order to be able to sit the paper. Now if I had been in her position I have no idea what I would have done. I mean, you arrive in the morning to sit your end of the year exams, so you're probably already quite stressed, but then your teachers tell you you can't sit the exam because of who you are, I mean what do you do in that situation? You're stressed and now you're probably feeling so terrible and bad about yourself over the top of that. Do you just do what the teachers ask so you can sit the exam? That's not what Ashlyn did.





After being told that she had to change into boys clothes, Ashlyn left and went to print up a copy of the law that bans discrimination based on gender identity and handed it straight to her headmaster Chris Wall. He was forced to admit that Ashlyn couldn't be refused into the exam, but the teachers separated her from the rest of the students by seating her right at the back of the hall. So... She's finally allowed to sit her exam, but isn't allowed to sit near the others because? Because of her gender? That is segregation! The teachers' behaviours are nothing less than disgusting. And this isn't the first time that teachers have acted in such a way. Ashlyn's sports teacher wanted her to be part of the boys' swim class. Another teacher has imitated Ashlyn's walk and yet another has told Ashlyn and her family that "gender dysphoria doesn't exist". Yes, of course it doesn't exist and of course Ashlyn has made it all up, because everyone wants to be discriminated against and spat at and hit in the street for being who they are. I don't think so. Living in the wrong body is one of the worst things I can imagine.





Ashlyn and her mum (S)

Ashlyn has lost many friends over the last two years since the beginning of her coming out; and now she has her teachers against her too.





Luckily Ashlyn has a very supportive family, and her mum and step dad have reported the headmaster's behaviour saying that it was discrimination based on Ashlyn's gender and that as a headmaster he had failed to give her the appropriate support. Thanks to her family's support Ashlyn says that she is determined to live her life the way she wants even though coming out as transgender remains incredibly difficult and in some cases dangerous.





I'm with Ashlyn all the way, she's incredibly brave and strong; and I really admire her for standing up to her teachers like that.