Problems? We got problems
Mar. 29th, 2008 04:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengrYet another story idea hit me the other day (like I don't have enough that aren't started/finished)
The basic idea was a school/shelter/refuge for TG and gay kids.
Stories could involve things like the kids who get thrown out by their parents and how they eventually get help from the folks running it. How the people running it find ways to make the kids understand that nobody their is going to be on their case for being different. And of course, the weird stuff that is apt to happen anyplace with "weird" kids. :-)
It's that last that lead to this post's title.
It's pretty obvious that most of the kids are going to be living in dorm type housing. And I realized that figuring out who to put where gains *several* new dimensions when all the kids involved are at least *thought* to be gay or TS....
Even though it's a private facility (I figure that while there are states that'd be ok with such a place, no way is any sane bureaucrat gonna want to be *running* it!) it's still going to have various laws to comply with. Which can be problematic...
Obviously, they are going to have to keep kids grouped by biological sex. But with TG kids involved, they are going to have to do subgroups by gender. As well as deal with the kids who aren't sure yet.
And then, just to make things more fun, you throw sexual orientation into it for the older kids...
Probably going to have to have an official rule of "no sex" just like I suspect most boarding schools have. But they'll have to be rather more careful than "normal" ones about what the kids wind up doing in spite of the rules.
And no, I don't see this as being a "sex" story/series, even if some winds up occurring. But you can't ignore it either.
Feel free to suggest other ideas about the practicalities of a place like this. Or ideas about what might happen there.
Stuff I've worked out so far for the background.
Going to be in a smallish town within an hour or so of a big city (Portland, just because I know the area and both Oregon and Washington have relatively sane laws about sexual orientation and gender identity). That's needed so that they have access to various resources, but are isolated from a lot of the problems.
Another factor is that both states have a lot of conservative folks especially in the smaller towns, so there's lots of room for the "kid gets kicked out", "kid gets abused for being 'bad'" etc without having to go too far afield.
I figure that the town where the facility is located is one of those oases of tolerance you occasionally find in rural areas. The townsfolks know about the kids and are mostly ok with it (and, of course, that draws more tolerant folks to the place in a self-reinforcing cycle).
While relations with the state agencies regulating the "school" aren't perfect, most of the folks at the agencies realize that it frees up more resources for the state to deal with the more "normal" kids. So only the real bigots will go out of their way to cause trouble and even they have to be careful because of anti-discrimination laws.
There will "normal" kids there too. After all, some straight kids are going to get mistakenly targeted as gay/G by nutso parents. Especially the fundie types. But most kids there will be at least questioning their sexuality or gender.
Not sure if I want to go with school uniforms or not If I do, they'll definitely be "gendered", it'll just be that which one you wear won't be forced on you. :-)
I may need to do some research on what rights kids have to their possessions, especially kids who the parents kick out. I have some vague memory of there being case law if not actual laws to the effect that the parents *can* be forced to cough up clothes and personal possession. It's just that it rarely happens.
Yes, I want to stay relatively close to reality on this one. As in "this is something that *could* exist, if the right people and resources got together".
The basic idea was a school/shelter/refuge for TG and gay kids.
Stories could involve things like the kids who get thrown out by their parents and how they eventually get help from the folks running it. How the people running it find ways to make the kids understand that nobody their is going to be on their case for being different. And of course, the weird stuff that is apt to happen anyplace with "weird" kids. :-)
It's that last that lead to this post's title.
It's pretty obvious that most of the kids are going to be living in dorm type housing. And I realized that figuring out who to put where gains *several* new dimensions when all the kids involved are at least *thought* to be gay or TS....
Even though it's a private facility (I figure that while there are states that'd be ok with such a place, no way is any sane bureaucrat gonna want to be *running* it!) it's still going to have various laws to comply with. Which can be problematic...
Obviously, they are going to have to keep kids grouped by biological sex. But with TG kids involved, they are going to have to do subgroups by gender. As well as deal with the kids who aren't sure yet.
And then, just to make things more fun, you throw sexual orientation into it for the older kids...
Probably going to have to have an official rule of "no sex" just like I suspect most boarding schools have. But they'll have to be rather more careful than "normal" ones about what the kids wind up doing in spite of the rules.
And no, I don't see this as being a "sex" story/series, even if some winds up occurring. But you can't ignore it either.
Feel free to suggest other ideas about the practicalities of a place like this. Or ideas about what might happen there.
Stuff I've worked out so far for the background.
Going to be in a smallish town within an hour or so of a big city (Portland, just because I know the area and both Oregon and Washington have relatively sane laws about sexual orientation and gender identity). That's needed so that they have access to various resources, but are isolated from a lot of the problems.
Another factor is that both states have a lot of conservative folks especially in the smaller towns, so there's lots of room for the "kid gets kicked out", "kid gets abused for being 'bad'" etc without having to go too far afield.
I figure that the town where the facility is located is one of those oases of tolerance you occasionally find in rural areas. The townsfolks know about the kids and are mostly ok with it (and, of course, that draws more tolerant folks to the place in a self-reinforcing cycle).
While relations with the state agencies regulating the "school" aren't perfect, most of the folks at the agencies realize that it frees up more resources for the state to deal with the more "normal" kids. So only the real bigots will go out of their way to cause trouble and even they have to be careful because of anti-discrimination laws.
There will "normal" kids there too. After all, some straight kids are going to get mistakenly targeted as gay/G by nutso parents. Especially the fundie types. But most kids there will be at least questioning their sexuality or gender.
Not sure if I want to go with school uniforms or not If I do, they'll definitely be "gendered", it'll just be that which one you wear won't be forced on you. :-)
I may need to do some research on what rights kids have to their possessions, especially kids who the parents kick out. I have some vague memory of there being case law if not actual laws to the effect that the parents *can* be forced to cough up clothes and personal possession. It's just that it rarely happens.
Yes, I want to stay relatively close to reality on this one. As in "this is something that *could* exist, if the right people and resources got together".
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 03:23 pm (UTC)My current thinking is one of those old Army setups with the nice brick officers quarters. I've seen several of those that have been turned into school (hell we drove thru one every month both before and after the conversion back when I was a kid)
Anyway, as I said, there'd still be issues with mixing on the same floor. And even with decent funding, there's a limit to how much you can allocate per kid in the way of space and personnel.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 06:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 06:23 pm (UTC)Rules for under 18 (nominal adult) are different. And rules for under 16 (age of consent and all that) are *very* different.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 08:21 am (UTC):-)
no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 08:12 pm (UTC)At a *minimum* you need four categories.
male/boy
male/girl
female/boy
female/girl
The boy/girl separation but be as little as floors or ends of a hallway. The male/female will probably be separate dorms.
Even if it doesn't bother the students to mix boy/girl, what it would look like to visitors, especially state inspectors or the like would be a problem.
I figure that the gay/bi/straight thing can mostly be handled the way I expect boarding schools handle the gay thing now. Have rules about sex in the dorm and on school property (which boil down to "don't do it unless you are both over the age of consent, and don't get caught even if you are)
Even if someone complains that gay students might be sharing rooms, they can get asked pointed questions along the lines of "And you think that doesn't happen at 'regular' boarding schools?"
I figure that new students are likely to get a separate wing/dorm, and likely with individual rooms, because of several factors:
1. even kids kicked out for being TG may not be, or may not be sure.
2. most of the kids kicked out for being gay/tg/whatever are apt to need extra supervision and support because of the trauma.
3. at least some of the kids may have been abused and will need extra support for that.
Once they've got their heads somewhat together, *then* they get moved into a "normal" dorm.
And yeah, the "intake" dorm is gonna have a *much* higher staff to student ratio than the regular ones.
Oh lord... I just realized that I forgot PE!!! Guess the locker rooms will have individual showers and changing cubicles or something. Or careful scheduling. Or something else.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-01 05:09 am (UTC)Uniforms aren't a problem, locker rooms/showers are.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-01 07:49 am (UTC)