6 | DECEMBER 2021
LIFESTYLE
Hawkeye
CREATING GENDER-INC By Ritika Khanal
having. Up until this point, she said she didn’t know much about the LGBTQ community, but listening to the students in GSA, or several years, the Edmonds School District has made an effort to her thinking changed. work towards creating a more inclusive culture across the district, “I didn’t know anything about the trans community, or even in buildings and in classrooms. This effort has included those with what non-binary was or anything until students in GSA taught disabilities, people of color, people within the LGBTQ community and me. Then, I began to research terms and things,” other groups that are otherwise overlooked. she said. “After a couple of years, we had a huge Namely, before COVID-19 shut down schools for a year and a half, group of trans and non-binary students, and efforts were made to implement training for staff on how to create a I realized they wanted to be treated like gender-inclusive classroom. According to MTHS English teacher and everybody else. They didn’t want their Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) adviser Jennifer Widrig-Hodges, gender assumed and they didn’t want these trainings focused on correct pronoun usage as well as creating a to be misgendered all the time. That more representative curriculum. However, despite the district’s efforts, completely changed my thinking.” the training kept getting pushed back due to one reason after another. Around the same time, her “We were supposed to have those trainings this year, but they [the youngest child came out to their district] thought the experience would be too impersonal over Zoom family as gender fluid and bisexual. for such a sensitive topic, so it was delayed again,” Widrig-Hodges said. Widrig-Hodges, having always identified “There is definitely a push to do it [the training], but there is a lack of as a feminist herself, never cared what kinds follow through on actually giving teachers the tools they need to make of toys her kids played with or how they dressed. their classrooms gender inclusive, especially curriculum.” As she began to advise GSA and spend more time researching to According to Widrig-Hodges, creating a gender-inclusive classroom find out more about the LGBTQ community, she realized that involves a lot more than just using the correct pronouns for students, some of the practices she was following unintentionally set her kids though that is certainly very important. She said that it needs to go a lot up for having those conversations with her and knowing that they’d further than that, and students need to be be accepted no matter what. “It is really hard for teachers to do all reflected in the curriculum that each teacher “Well, my youngest came out to us in the research necessary to make sure the is teaching in the classroom. In order for that the fourth grade. They came out to us curriculum is representative, and we need to happen, teachers need support. and said they were gender fluid and bi,” support while doing that.” While Widrig-Hodges knows that many Widrig-Hodges said. Jennifer Widrig-Hodges teachers take their own personal time to do As a parent, Widrig-Hodges made it a GENDER SEXUALITY ALLIANCE ADVISOR the research necessary to help create a more focus to make sure her kids knew what it inclusive classroom, she doesn’t believe this is meant to be an ally. Both of Widrig-Hodges’ sustainable. kids started going to pride marches with their mom as toddlers, and “The district needs to hire people to come in and do training and she did her best to set an example of what it meant to be an ally offer info to us in a way that is during staff time when we’re getting while not placing stereotypical expectations on them as they grew paid. We shouldn’t have to do this on our own in addition to a fullup. time job of teaching kids,” Widrig-Hodges said. “I know a lot of people “I feel like I didn’t ever really care what toys they played with do that [research on their own time], but if the expectation is that the or what they wore. It didn’t matter to me, and that had a lot classrooms are gender inclusive, gender training needs to officially be a to do with the feminism ideas at the time, but I found out part of what we do during our staff time so that we all get the training that that way of thinking was good for letting kids know it we need.” was okay to express their sexuality and gender, too,” WidrigWidrig-Hodges has taught at MTHS since 2013. Throughout her Hodges said. “I sort of accidentally made it so that my kids time at the school, she has become one of the faces of the staff equity could defy the norms and figure themselves out.” team, serves as the GSA adviser and is known to be a strong ally for As she has helped her child go through the transitioning many groups. Among students, she is known as one of the most inclusive process and had conversations with them about their identity, teachers at the school. it has opened her eyes to the challenges that come with that. Widrig-Hodges’ inclusive classroom is something she has worked hard Having a child going through those challenges has given her a to build. She said a large part of why she is able to be as inclusive as she direct view of the various struggles, one of which being navigating is is through observation and being willing to listen. the healthcare system. When Widrig-Hodges first began working at MTHS, she quickly “It’s definitely been a journey of hormones and navigating involved herself with the GSA, helping to co-advise the club. Two years the healthcare system, especially for someone who isn’t cis,” later, she would take over as the only adviser for the club. Widrig-Hodges said. “The students in GSA had mentioned Widrig-Hodges paid special attention to the way the organization was some of those struggles, and now, I’m seeing that from a run, and she took the time to listen to the discussions students were different perspective, navigating it as a parent myself.”
HAWKEYE CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
F
