Question

Jackie, 26-year-old white female transwoman student, approaches you as department chair. She is frustrated and angry because a 40-year-old whitw female cisgender faculty member continues to refer to her by her male given name and as “he,” even though she has asked the professor several times to use her correct name and preferred pronouns. (Beemyn, n.d.)

, how would you proceed? How do you address Jackie's complaint in a psychological way? Be specific, and include statements that you can imagine saying to the person or people you decide to interact with (put them in quotation marks) as you work to resolve this issue

Answer 1

I would first attend Jackie with complete attention. This is I will do while attending “her”-

1- Active listening:This will make her feel being heard and will encourage her to speak freely about complaints she has without any inhibition.

2- Minimum interruptions: I will ask less questions and will listen without making interruptions or minimal interruptions using minimal encouragers only when required.

3-Observing non verbal behaviour: This will help to get information about Jackie which she may not Express or define in words because of incapability to even recognise that.

These attending skills will be helpful to understand Jackie's specific problem she is facing in a holistic manner and thereby allowing me to look for options.

I would then interact with the female professor but in a very informal way and will start the conversation about sustainable social Development and then slowly bringing in the topic of LGBTQIA+ community and their rights. This will have a reverse impact as such conversation will propel the professor to think about it and self reflect on her thoughts. I would speak the following-

“ Society is an amalgamation of different communities, sidelining any of it on the basis of class, color, creed or gender is detrimental for its sustainable growth.

I can't get it why people can't understand that Gender as the basis of stratification of society is completely man-made as it is sex that is natural and can have various manifestations. It is gender that society assign to a child when born but cannot change or manipulate the sex or sexual preferences of child. Sex is a natural biological aspect that one doesn’t chose for and therefore to treat someone “differently” or outcast them on basis of their sexual choice is unjustifiable.

We all need to understand that sexuaity is only one aspect of personality and not the complete personality of a person. It should be calibre, intelligence and work of people that should take precedence and not the sexuality.

Well, it's good that LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY in recent times has become quite active to voice and back their demands. Also, nations around the world are taking active steps to normalize the way society looks up to the people belonging to this community. We as society must strive for LGBT- Let’s Generate Better Thoughts. What you feel professor about this?”