In this blog post, geneticist Jess McLaughlin offers six detailed strategies for trans inclusion in biology education. They also include an extensive list of resources.
Response to Common Criticisms to Gender Inclusive Teaching
Making gender-inclusive changes to our curriculum sometimes elicits the attention and concern of the school community. This resource, containing suggested responses to common criticisms and concerns, was a part of our The Science Teacher article “Gender-Inclusive Biology: A framework in action”
Gender Spectrum have also put together a collection of responses to common concerns about teaching about gender in non-science-specific context.
Pathways STEM Outreach Program
This is a unique STEM outreach program for LGBTQ+ high schoolers. Please share with students who may be interested! Sam Long will lead a workshop about diversity in biology in the July session.
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Calling all LGBTQ+ high schoolers! Wanna learn about LGBTQ+ scientists, build STEM skills, and meet other students this summer? Check out the new Pathways in STEM summer outreach program at CU Boulder! All events are online over summer 2020.
Info and registration at http://bit.ly/pathwaysstem
All bighorn rams that mate with ewes participate in gay courting & copulation most of the year. (Gender Showcase, 9-12)
Bighorn Sheep
1. Males (rams) & females (ewes) live separately except during breeding season.
2. Females are only sexually active 3 days of the year! They refuse all other approaches the rest of the time.
Book excerpt:
The males (rams), with large thick horns that curl back from above the eye to behind the ear, weigh up to 300 pounds. Their macho appearance has become a symbol for many male athletic teams. The females (ewes) live separately from the males. The sexes associate only during the breeding season, called the rutting season, which extends from mid fall to early winter. A female is receptive for about three days, and will not allow herself to be mounted outside of these three days. (EN29)
(EN29 ) V. Geist (1971) Mountain Sheep: A Study in Behavior and Evolution, University of Chicago Press; J.T. Hogg (1984) Mating in bighorn sheep: Multiple creative male strategies, Science 225: 526-29; J.T. Hogg (1987) Intrasexual competition in and mate choice in rocky mountain bighorn sheep, Ethology 75: 119-44.
All male bighorn sheep that breed with female ewes also participate in homosexual courting & anal copulation.
Book excerpt:
The males have been described as “homosexual societies.” Almost all males participate in homosexual courting and copulation. Male-male courtship begins with a stylized approach, followed by genital licking and nuzzling, and often leads to anal intercourse in which one male, usually the larger, rears up on his hind legs and mounts the other. The mounted male arches his back, a posture known as lordosis, which is identical to how a female arches her back during heterosexual mating. The mounting male has an erect penis, makes anal penetration, and performs pelvic thrusts leading to ejaculation.
Source: Roughgarden, J. (2013) Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. University of California Press, Berkeley. pp. 137-38.
article excerpt:
Four behavioral phenotypes have been described in domestic rams raised in all-male groups: female-oriented, male-oriented, bisexual, and asexual. To make behavioral assignments, rams are first given sexual performance tests, also known as serving capacity tests, to determine whether or not they are attracted to females and to get a measure of their sexual performance.
Source: Roselli, C. E., Reddy, R. C., & Kaufman, K. R. (2011). The development of male-oriented behavior in rams. Frontiers in neuroendocrinology, 32(2), 164–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2010.12.007.
Bighorn Sheep have 3 behavior-based genders & 2 body types:
1. Female-body ewes live separately from gay male rams and only accept mounting 3 days of the year.
2. Male-body rams live together separately from females and copulate anally with other male-body sheep most of the year.
3. Male-body rams that live with female-body ewes most of the year and refuse mounting by other male-body rams.
Book excerpt:
The few males who do not participate in homosexual activity…are identical in appearance to other males but behave quite differently. (EN30) They differ from [so-called] “normal males” by living with the ewes rather than joining all-male groups. These males do not dominate females, are less aggressive overall, and adopt a crouched, female urination posture. These males refuse mounting by other males. In physical appearance, including body size and horn development, these males are indistinguishable from other males.
(EN30) J. Berger. (1985) Instances of female-like behaviour in a male ungulate, Anim. Behav. 33:333-35.
Citation: Roughgarden, J. (2013) Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. University of California Press, Berkeley. pp. 137-38.
Species: Ovis canadiensis (wiki)
Range: North American (Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, southwestern US, Mexico)
Heteronormative safety policies, violence, & harassment at schools cause decrease in perceived safety for gender-nonconforming students in 28 high schools. (J. Adolesc)
Heteronormativity, school climates, and perceived safety for gender nonconforming peers.
Abstract
Students' perceptions of their school climates are associated with psychosocial and academic adjustment. The present study examined the role of school strategies to promote safety in predicting students' perceptions of safety for gender nonconforming peers among 1415 students in 28 high schools. Using multilevel modeling techniques, we examined student- and school-level effects on students' perceptions of safety for gender nonconforming peers. We found that older students, bisexual youth, Latino youth, and youth who experienced school violence perceived their gender nonconforming male peers to be less safe. Similarly, we found that older students and students who experienced school violence and harassment due to gender nonconformity perceived their gender nonconforming female peers to be less safe. At the school-level, we found that when schools included lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues in the curriculum and had a Gay-Straight Alliance, students perceived their schools as safer for gender nonconforming male peers.
Citation
Toomey et al. (2012) Heteronormativity, school climates, and perceived safety for gender nonconforming peers. Journal of Adolescence. 2012 Feb;35(1):187-96. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.03.001. Epub 2011 Apr 8.
[HS and College] Inclusive and Accurate Approaches for Teaching Sex and Gender in Biology
Image of a presentation slide with the rainbow-colored Project Biodiversify logo containing an atom, a DNA double helix, a single-celled organism, a plant, and a winged insect. Title reads “ESA 2018 WK 44: Inclusive and Accurate Approaches for Teaching Sex and Gender in Biology.” The bottom of the image lists three presenter names: Alex Webster - she/her/hers - @alxweb, Ash Zemenick - they/them/theirs - @mtn_ash, and Sarah Jones - she/her/hers - @joness943.
Project Biodiversify team members Alex Webster, Ash Zemenick, and Sarah Jones presented this workshop at the 2018 Annual Meeting for the Ecological Society of America (ESA). The slides contain comprehensive information about the benefits of teaching inclusive biology, and how to adapt existing curricula using an iterative process. Extensive examples are given for sexual reproduction, sex determination, and sexual selection.