Ryan (he/him) described the harrowing experience of being deliberately and repeatedly deadnamed by his year 10 form teacher.
Deadnaming is when someone calls a trans person by their birth name. It is often done maliciously to invalidate a trans person’s gender indentity. Many trans people view deliberate deadnaming as a form of abuse and targeted harassment.
The health Website Verywell mind says deadnaming can cause ’emotional trauma from being treated as a different gender.’
On the website Psych Central it says:
‘Being deadnamed can also be potentially dangerous, outing them to people that they are trans who may not have that information, who may respond with questioning, harassment, discrimination, or even violence’.
No respect for his identity
Ryan explained that his form teacher would not stop calling him by his deadname.
When I asked him to use my new name (Ryan) he deadnamed me three times in front of my form class.
Ryan found the ordeal very distressing and it left him unable to attend the rest of his classes that day.
I felt completely disrespected by him
Head of year fails to support Ryan
Unfortunately for Ryan, his head of year left him feeling unsupported and even more vulnerable .
A meeting took place between Ryans parents and the head of year 10.
My head of year excused my form teacher, saying he was just following government guidelines.
To make matters worse my Head of Year then told me to apologise to my form teacher.
Defiantly proud to be trans
To take back his pride, Ryan defiantly attached a trans rights sticker to his school bag. The sticker reads ‘Trans Rights Are Human Rights’
Some pupils mocked the sticker, saying ‘trans rights are subhuman, not human rights.”
Meanwhile Ryan continued to be deadnamed by his form teacher for a while longer. The teacher has since stopped deadnaming Ryan, but refused to apologise or admit anything he did was wrong. He just said “not talking to me then?” and Ryan feels the teacher has been acting quite haughty toward him ever since.
Ryan’s fight for respect continues
The bullying received at school inspired Ryan to set up a Go Fund Me Fundraiser for the trans kids charity Mermaids, for which he used a pseudonym (but not the same as in this article). Ryan feels compelled to campaign for trans rights.
I want more support for trans kids. I want them to feel comfortable in educational settings and then in the workplace.
Being trans is not something you can control.
Ryan reached out to the trans youth campaign group Trans Kids Deserve Better (TKDB). He hopes that with their help he can support other trans kids in the community.
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