Gender Affirming Biology: Week 1 by Veronica Cassone McGowan

In between

2025-04-17 00:05:00 UTC

I'm comfortable talking about sexuality across the animal kingdom but I struggle a bit when talking about human sexuality. I have a fear that a student is going to get upset and I won't know how to handle it or I might accidentally say something upsetting.

Always learning...

tzouct — 2025-04-17 00:05:49 UTC

I was a middle school science and health teacher and loved teaching sex ed. But I was not educated in the kinds of edges of sexual selection science that we talk about in this class, so I know that my students got an incomplete education about this.

Wait I am gay?!?

2025-04-17 00:06:47 UTC

Coming from a religious background I didn't learn about human gender and sexuality growing up. When I had sex ed in high school, queer sex was never mentioned or taught about.

In a professional setting it makes me nervous to talk about human sexuality since I am afraid I will be targeted by parents because I am queer.

Limited

2025-04-17 00:06:58 UTC

I have only had very basic "official" teachings about sex, gender, and sexuality. Everything else I learned myself by looking things up online and reading basic books.

I'm pretty comfortable talking about bodies and differences, but I'm not extremely educated on the topic. I'm interested in knowing more.

markham8 — 2025-04-17 00:07:09 UTC

I took this course last year and it was fabulous. I learned so many new things. I have taught integrated science to elementary ed students for many years and now teach gen ed but my background is not biology. So, I think I am pretty comfortable but have not been tested. But I am looking forward to the challenge of teaching a forum to a mixed age group.

sex ed

vmcgowan1 — 2025-04-17 00:07:17 UTC

Sex was always talked about as reproduction (and not reproducing!) in most contexts. When I taught sex-education, I was happy to talk openly with students but I lacked resources and never thought about sex in the more-than-human world as a space of learning until later in life. With the focus of sex as reproduction, I learned a lot of harm narratives around queerness and it took me a long time to come out likely for those and other reasons..

Improving

2025-04-17 00:07:20 UTC

I am queer, and I discuss these topics constantly in my personal life/community. I am developing increased comfort about digging into discussions of gender with my co-workers and in a more professional setting. However, I haven't tested myself around facilitating such discussions with students. I expect that would be quite a bit harder for me!

2025-04-17 00:09:08 UTC

I feel more comfortable discussing them with students when there's a clear framework and scientific grounding. In professional settings, I’m generally open to these conversations, but I also recognize there can be institutional or cultural constraints. Tonight’s session helped me think about how to navigate those dynamics more thoughtfully.

Comfortable but need more tools...

2025-04-17 00:09:23 UTC

Coming from a public education background, I really enjoy talking about a lot of these topics and helping young people understand how to keep their bodies safe and healthy. I have been struggling more and more with adults who argue against what a "fact" is when it comes to gender and sexuality. I Feel like I go into freeze mode and am never as eloquent as I want to be. I would love more tools to support this work and help show that this material is medically accurate.

Experiences

2025-04-17 00:09:40 UTC

I started my first unit this past year in AP Biology with same sex pairings being common in nature and the benefits. I was a bit anxious to start the year off with this so I invited an admin to come watch me teach (and in case I got any parent backlash). She loved it and said she learned a lot and wished all the biology classes were teaching this topic! :) So I am back now to learn more and get more confident in my teaching of this topic.

Eager Beaver...

2025-04-17 00:11:05 UTC

Currently, I'm a sexual health education training manager, so I'm always looking to dig in more! I taught sexual health education when I was teaching fifth grade and wove as much inclusivity into all subjects in all other grades and content areas as possible in grades 1st-8th that I've taught over the years. I loved supporting my colleagues and students with GSA clubs and staff pd. Growing up in an intensely religious setting and supporting my sister as a teen mom, has certainly brought a lot of angles to these conversations. I love these topics with students, professionals, and personally. I'm eager to learn as much as I can to support these conversations more productively and be able to hold space scientifically amongst the common pushback we get these days.

Understanding Gender is Understanding Our Community and Biology

2025-04-17 00:26:31 UTC

Thank you for having this class and holding space for us to learn about the gender-affirming biology. I have three loved ones in my family in the LGBTQ+ community and I want to connect and understand them and serve my community the best I can. Learning about difficult topics and ones that could be divisive for some people is here w I want build bridges and connections because wildfire resilience is for everyone and inclusion and understanding is.a big part of this work.

outdoorschool — 2025-05-08 00:02:47 UTC

I feel excited to try to find ways to bring these subjects into informal outdoor education. I'm still not sure what types of lessons would be a good vehicle for these topics, but I'm even more enthusiastic about trying. Truly it's our responsibility to counter the misinformation and back-sliding in our culture.

Feeling that Weight

2025-05-08 00:03:03 UTC

It is that time in the school year where I am feeling burned out and can't wait for summer. Seeing that graph from the PEW Research Center about the importance of science instruction on sex, gender, and sexuality is eye opening. It is a big responsibility to make sure I start including what I have learned in this training into my curriculum, but I am excited for the challenge and to help the LGBT+ community out.

Comfort level

2025-05-08 00:03:50 UTC

I am way more comfortable that my students are! even my anatomy students. However, I find kids really want to dig in. I have taught that biological sex is not binary to both biology and anatomy, but I finding so much more this time around. I led our high school GSA for 8 years, so I will talk to anyone about LGBTQIA.

Eye opening

2025-05-08 00:17:43 UTC

I remember in high school genetics the teacher always had us repeat "One gene came from the mama, and one gene came from the papa." I am now realizing how damaging this language can be and that there are much more inclusive ways to talk about reproduction.

2025-05-08 00:18:08 UTC

I was surprised by "The goal of every organism is to survive and reproduce" at first that it was on the "instead of" list, but then I realized how much it oversimplifies sex.

anatomy

2025-05-08 00:19:23 UTC

As an anatomy teacher, I have really tried to shift my language, but it's hard. Most of us were not raised in an inclusive environment, so breaking these habits, while very worthwhile, take time.

outdoorschool — 2025-05-08 00:22:53 UTC

I'm completely blown away by the Evolution section, specifically. I can't even count the number of times that I've heard in biology classes that the point of existence, the very QUALITY of life, is reproduction. After enough evolution and ecology classes, I guess I just internalized that deep down to my very bones. ALSO... I'm a childless person on the asexual spectrum. I must have been carrying some baggage from this learning, because reading the new phrasing almost made me cry.

Greatful

2025-05-08 00:35:38 UTC

The language suggestions are extremely helpful for me. I've been having more discussions about specific language even just with friends recently and was shocked with how many people were offended by the term cisgender. Some people had extremely almost violent reactions. When I questioned the reasons behind the strong reactions, only once has someone been able to unpack it and come to see it is not an insult or taking anything away from them to call them a cisgender woman. The other people doubled down and we're at an impasse. It just really shows me how much language matters.