Mexican mother promotes trans textbook for teachers
When 12-year-old Daniel transitioned gender in middle school, his Mexican teachers had no clue what to call him, how he should dress or what on earth to tell his classmates.
So they kept it all secret – prompting his mother to join a group that is backing a new text book for teachers on the dos and don’ts of trans life to ensure children like Daniel get the sort of help he never had. “They told me everything was fine but that they preferred that nobody knew (about the process of changing gender),” Jennifer Blanco, Daniel’s mother, told Openly after joining the textbook campaign. “You could tell they did not know what to do next.” The question of how to teach the teachers is especially pertinent as Mexico rolls out new textbooks on sex education that have stirred parental protests, angered the right and divided teachers about the call of duty versus personal belief.
Those books are anyway years too late for Daniel, whose transition came mid-pandemic, already a time of high anxiety and deep isolation for many children who found themselves cut off from friends, routine and all the buzz of school life.
Like millions of pupils, Daniel only attended classes online in lockdown and always did so with his camera turned off. All of which meant his fellow students had no idea what was happening to him – and which also gave cover to teachers who had little information and even less experience on how to help him.
