Connectivity: vol 7, iss 1, Ask Gearhead

Dear Gearhead:

I’ve been hearing a lot about possible issues for youth at the upcoming True Spirit conference. I’m getting worried. I’ve heard about carding everyone to mark name badges by age, and a friend of mine was sent a medical release-type form thingy because they assumed he was under 18. They asked him for stuff like when his last tetanus shot was—but also asked for his legal name. They also wanted his parents to sign said form.

I don’t know what to make of any of this. It doesn’t apply to me, but it bothers me that it’s going on. Any thoughts would be welcome—i’m always highly suspicious of any attempts to separate out and label the youth... What COULD they do to youth, what would they want to bar youth from? —–Worried

Dear Worried:

At Connectivity’s press time, it was not clear precisely what youth would be barred from at TSC 2002, although the decision to card everyone and mark name badges by age seems to be firm. TSC co-chairs did promise, however, that those under 18 would not be turned away from TSC if they didn’t have the medical waiver form signed by a parent.

There is a legal issue here, in that it’s against the law in D.C. for minors to see certain images. Some of the TSC organizers are worried about staying on the legal side in order to avoid risking police closing down the whole conference. However, we’ve certainly heard others charge that some organizers are pushing the age issue because they wish to impose their morality on youth and/or because they hold stereotypes about youth.

Because legality of trans+/SOFFA gatherings; the need to support young trans+/SOFFA individuals; and questions of stereotyping, morality, and exclusion are all ongoing issues in our community, Connectivity will devote part of its May issue (theme: sexuality and SM) to an exploration of the legal, moral, political, and personal issues surrounding youth and sexuality. We encourage everyone to write us with your experiences and opinions.

In the meantime, if you are not connected to other trans youth, we'd like to point out two resources. TransFamily runs a youth discussion email list for people who are younger than 21 and who are transitioning. For information on this, go to www.transfamily.org/emailist.htm. TGTS-youth is an email list for people under age 26 who are transgender, transexual, or questioning. For information on this list, go to www.queernet.org/ and search for "tgts-youth."

We would like to feature more resources for trans youth and SOFFAs in our May issue. Please send information and leads to editor@forge-forward.org.

Gearhead

	Connectivity volume 7, issue 01
	Ask Gearhead