I need to vent, and I also need some advice...it's long, sorry.
My granddaughter was staying with us over the weekend. She's 16, ADHD, strongly suspected to be autistic (not had a formal autism assessment yet, but the school think she is, as does her GP, along with her family). She is extremely suggestible, she will fixate on something or someone, and this will occupy most of her waking thoughts. She's a lovely kid, a very talented artist but she does struggle with "fitting-in" and with the normal teenage social relationships, which as we all know, can be a minefield at the best of times.
She's insisted that she is "bisexual" for ages, although most of her crushes are men (for context, her mum is gay and has a long-term partner) and tend to be middle-aged men. She has also had fixations on teachers, although, like all of her crushes, these come and go. She has a history of risky behaviour, she's not allowed a smartphone because she's been caught messaging boys/men and sending them photos etc, she just doesn't seem to grasp the consequences of such behaviour.
We've been out at the weekend and she's been talking non-stop about this teaching assistant at school. About how he's so lovely and caring, about how he's having trouble with his landlord and is having to move, about how he likes this band or that film, on and on. Eventually, she discloses that "Sir" is a TIF. No issue with that, I try to keep my more extreme views to myself, but I said, "Oh, that's a bit sad, those people often have a difficult life, and some mental health issues, I hope it works out ok for him" (because I'm not going to pretend that it's a normal thing!)
As the day goes on, she tells me how "Sir" has had top surgery (me: "you mean a double masectomy") but isn't planning to have bottom surgery because he doesn't want a "micropenis". She then helpfully informed me that the hormones help the clitotis to grow into a penis but it isn't very big. I did give her a bit more info about "bottom surgery" and how it's almost always unsuccessful, with hideous complications, but she then started on about how "most transmen use packers".
I don't know if it's just me, but I'm absolutely outraged that a TA in a position of authority is talking about her medical transition to suggestible teenage girls who are supposedly under her care. I've spoken to her mum, who is horrified and has disclosed that my granddaughter has been talking about wanting a binder and "wants to be a boy". This has come up a few times over the years, she has a "trans" friend, who looks exactly like she did before she was trans, and almost every girl in her school identifies as NB or one of the other rainbow letters, we had a long talk a whole back about how being a girl sucks but that it gets better and you just learn to deal with it, because women don't have a choice, etc.
Her mum isn't going to let any of this nonsense take hold if she can possibly help it, but we want this TA to be told to keep her trap shut. Her pupils do not need to know her medical history, nor do they need indoctrination into the trans cause. I'm honestly flabbergasted that a TA would even consider speaking about this, but when I said this to GD, she said it's a "trust thing", and that the teacher tells you about her issues so that you can tell her about yours. This sounds quite sinister to me, but what do I know?
We need to be careful, my GD can be a liar. However, this TA has written articles all over the "queer" internet about her trans journey, but I can't find anything which details her surgery, just vague stuff about how "freeing" it was, etc, etc. We're pretty sure that she is talking to young girls about it, but we're not sure how to raise concerns without coming across as troublemakers. (I personally don't give a shit, but my daughter has enough judgement as a lesbian single parent of a "difficult" kid)
I know that the education sector is generally in thrall to the holy grail of trans, but I don't feel that any teacher should be talking to pupils about their medical conditions anyway, imagine a male teacher telling teenage girls about his prostate surgery, or a woman telling 12 year old boys about her smear test...they don't need to know!!
Not really sure where to go from here...
makes me feel ill just thinking about it. I live in a multicultural city so see this a lot. The other day a lady was wearing the full outfit and her dress layer covered trousers which poked out at ankle length, which looked to be thick material. Meanwhile I was swooning from the heat on the way back from the shop in my loose white cotton blouse.
