When Exactly did Trans/Non Binary Become So Commonplace?

[miniaturepixieonacid]

This isn't to start (yet another!) debate on the rights and wrongs of gender identification, transitioning etc. Just pondering on how quickly and in what year it became so common.

I'm just watching an old episode of Waterloo Road (Drama set in a comprehensive school) where one of the characters (Casey Barry for anyone who watched it) realises that she wants to be a boy rather than a tomboy and everyone reacts as if it's extremely unusual. The other pupils mock and bully her, her brother gets violent and tells her she is disgusting and a freak and the teachers talk about what a difficult road she has ahead and how much support she will need.

The episode is set in 2013. Not the 1990s. Only just over 10 years ago. But in a Year 10/11 class in a comprehensive in 2024 this wouldn't even raise an eyebrow, would it. There will be several trans and non binary pupils (maybe even several per year group) and pupils would consider it normal.

I teach in a prep school (only goes up to Year 8) so we haven't actually yet had a single pupil transition to the opposite gender. There's one 10 year old who I could potentially see it happening to over the next couple of years but it hasn't yet. So I'm relatively unknowledgable about the whole thing.

Interested to know from secondary school teachers who have been teaching for 10+ years what year you think it was that transitioning and being non binary went from rare to a relatively popular trend.

I believe its from 2015 ish, when gay marriage was legalised in a lot of jurisdictions. Charities/NGo's either had to find a new oppressed group to champion or else sign on.
Spread like wildfire among teen girls on newly ubiquitous social media, adult men via porn, American pay per cut doctors and a general truffling out of any oppression, any where by activists eager to prove themselves by being civil rights heroes on.the right side of history.
Yes I'm cynical but take the eye rolling tone out of my words and I think the timeline stacks up.

Sounds about right @1Week

You can't put the whole history of this into one post. Driven by pharma, guided by Denton's, normalised by Tumblr, force teamed with LGB, and infiltrated by activists forcing organisations to comply or be down the list of Stonewalls Diversity Charts. Oh and financed by BlackRock. It is everywhere.

Coronation Street did it years ans years ago. Its not that new.

Just more talked about now and less “taboo”? I think things have changed in the last ten years or so. For the better imo. I have two family friends who are trans. Both so much happier now which is wonderful to see.

It might not be new, but it’s at unprecedented levels. It’s also causing a lot of distress and confusion for the kids, for the families.

When schools got convinced to teach material provided by Stonewall and Mermaids as if it were sacred.

Not sure that’s quite right.

No, I know it's not new! People have always had gender dysphoria and people have done the full spectrum of cross dressing to surgery sex changes for decades. But not that many and mostly adults. The levels of teenagers affected and the 'in between' kind of non binary identification seems to have been a sudden explosion over the last few years.

Thanks for the thoughts. I've never heard of Dentons, Tumblr or BlackRock. I'm not a fan of Stonewall. Never thought I'd be inspired to some google-led education by an episode of something like Waterloo Road 😂

I think you’ll get more answers on the feminism sex and gender bit of mumsnet. There are a million threads discussing this and similar issues…

I've long thought this too. Of course there's still homophobia but, in general, society in 2024 is very accepting of same-sex relationships. So the focus has shifted to gender identity, and how those who 'don't conform' feel oppressed.

I have great sympathy for those who genuinely feel they were born in the wrong body. However, I think those people are far fewer in society than the current narrative would have us believe.

The fact many policy and business decisions now seem to be made on the basis of whether something might offend a trans/non-binary/gender fluid person, rather than whether it meets the needs of the majority of the population (like NHS literature being altered to include phrases like 'chest feeding' and 'pregnant people'), is wholly unnecessary and rather disturbing.

Oh, thanks Bex5490 - I only really go on AIBU, Education and Baby Names. Didn't know there was a special board for gender issues.

I can remember many girls at my school who were confused about themselves (all girls school) this might have been about their sexuality, about how they felt about being female, that they didn’t quite fit in and so on

that children are able to express this and explore their feelings openly can only be a good thing, will all non binary children of 15 feel the same at 30 who knows we change throughout life and for some being accepted or being able to be open about how they feel about themselves and not so isolated should be encouraged

And in 1week’s case, randomly homophobic.

How?

Follow the money OP, it will led you to big Pharma/big tech, and propagated by social media.

When it became trendy, basically

There have always been people with gender dysphoria.

There have always been people who reject the idea of gender and gender stereotypes (although normally they accept the fact of biological sex.)

But what's causing the huge amount of non binary etc at the moment is attention seekers - mainly kids who all want to be part of the latest thing.

When I was at school it was coconut shampoo.
Now it's being they/them.

This group are the segment that will grow out of it and look back and cringe at how ridiculous they were.

The teens will be the first to get fed up. Then the uni students. They'll identify the next super extra marginalised group bandwagon and will jump on that one. They'll start shouting about all the things us nasty old women have been warning about only they'll be completely unable to remember any of that.

At that point, people with actual gender dysphoria will breathe a collective sigh of relief and be happy to get on with the rest of their fucking lives without other people making a mockery out of them.

I taught in a secondary for almost 2 decades. First 'trans' student was probably in around 2014 or 2015. They requested to be called the short/gender neutral version of their name and staff were not allowed to use any pronouns.

Then a few years later another changed their name and was struggling with their identity.

Fast forward to last year and there are around 10 NB/trans kids who have requested name changes and pronoun changes, some more than once, some reverting back. Some got together as couples (so in effect hetero but role reversal). It's been a definite explosion.

Mostly self-inflicted, I imagine. My kid is neither distressed nor confused because, as parents, we are not alarmist about it. She had a question about menstruating men (something she came across online), we had a brief discussion about the difference between sex and gender identity and that was the end of that.
What was more distressing is experience of my friend in the early 2000s who was asked by a doctor whether she (at the time) tried to have sex with men to “cure” gender dysphoria.

I returned from maternity leave summer term 2017 and suddenly we have several trans kids, none gendered toilets and trans issues on the psche curriculum.

I'm just watching an old episode of Waterloo Road (Drama set in a comprehensive school) where one of the characters (Casey Barry for anyone who watched it) realises that she wants to be a boy rather than a tomboy and everyone reacts as if it's extremely unusual. The other pupils mock and bully her, her brother gets violent and tells her she is disgusting and a freak and the teachers talk about what a difficult road she has ahead and how much support she will need.

I haven't heard of Waterloo Road but it sounds interesting!

In 2013 there were still rumbles and lots of activity on Tumbler (I think it was) about /between young trans people. The popular narrative was that they were terribly oppressed and bullied. I suspect that the episode you watched was part of a campaign (not led by young people) but by older people (men) who wanted their cross-dressing normalised. The intent was to make people aware and sympathetic.

‘Mostly self-inflicted, I imagine. My kid is neither distressed‘

Have you tried talking to an autistic teen about this? Nothing ‘self inflicted’ about it. For kids that have an all or nothing view of life this is massively distressing, especially when you consider most of the kids affected by this social contagion are autistic, and usually female. It’s incredibly difficult to navigate.

I started teaching in 2003. For me, the trans trend took off in 2015/16 although there were rumblings from acquaintances in 2013 (who were all very active on Tumbler and into a lot of Japanese Anime stuff coincidentally).

In 2015, the (Catholic) high school I was working in was under massive pressure from the School Nurse to be very LGBTQ+ aware (with the T being at the forefront and the L totally disappearing). This was to the extent that the school was forced for the Year Sevens to have a talk from Mermaids AND the school nurse in the very first week of Y7. Before anything else. THE most important thing our local NHS and local government wanted the school to prioritize was Trans Awareness. After that it was Online Safety which the police came out to deliver the following week. The school was at one point in 2015 threatened with legal action because a 14 year old's parents had asked that teachers continued to refer to their (autistic) daughter as she and her name given at birth. The school nurse referred the child to social services and was determined to get parental rights removed and the child place in care so they could live as a male.

Before that it was pretty much unheard of but by the end of the academic year 2016, there were whole friendship groups of trans kids (mainly anime obsessed autistic gay,bi or asexual girls).

Most of them, now adults, do not identify as trans anymore.

I'd say around a quarter of my current students identify as trans or non binary. Every single one of them is neurodiverse and suffering with anxiety and or depression, ocd, other mental health illneses.

Really interesting to hear the experiences of secondary teachers; thank you.

I'd say around a quarter of my current students identify as trans or non binary. Every single one of them is neurodiverse and suffering with anxiety and or depression, ocd, other mental health illneses.

A quarter?! Wow, that is a lot.

Well men are never right so maybe thats why some say they are women now.
Kids to much SM brain washing.
Parents to much gentle parenting.
Government dont have a clue what they're doing on any given day.
Teachers giving up because they simply cant teach kids that think their cats
and deal with parents that think their child is never to blame.
Gays/trans/whatever the other genders are be what you want but why dance around pride events half naked when kids are about.
And why try to force it on the rest of the bloody world.
Mental health is just a pull out free card now what about them that do really suffer.
Mental health is not a game or to be used as an excuse.
What about the male abusers that puts a dress on to court then get let out because hes now a woman.
Or the man that goes in the womens toilets when your daughters in there because hes a woman but he has a beard but got a pink coat on.
The parents to teens that have gone off the tracks because they believe everything online.
Parents simply cant parent because they may get it wrong or fear they will.
So many stupid pronouns that lgbt cant keep up TBH means fuck all in many years to come there is gonna be some bad mental health with this generation.
And many will look back and see how stupid they were.

And every week their will be a new post on the same thing.