Imagine you’re drowning. You are suffocating and no one is there to help you. This feeling is familiar to Keith (his name has been changed for this article), who is non-binary, or a person identifies as neither female nor male, feels on a daily basis.

The discomfort a person may feel when in this situation is called dysphoria. For Keith, dysphoria feels “like suffocating in your body with no escape.”

Growing up, Keith didn’t think about their physical gender until around 8-9 years old. They now openly express gender in a way that is true to them.

The only bullying from being trans that they have experienced is from people misgendering them on purpose.

“I have the same [school day] as any non-trans student, aside from all the misgendering that happens to me, and the constant fear, and anxiety of being misgendered,” Keith said.

The most frequent form of being misidentified occurs through the use of gender specific words. Yet Keith tries to keep this in perspective.

“My only advice [ for people questioning their gender] is to do what is right for you, not what others may want, or expect you to do. Only you know what you need to do in order to be your most authentic form,” they said.

Recently, the topic of introducing LGBTQ+ sex education to Wellness courses has been discussed within a portion of the students of PA. Keith is all for it.

“LGBTQ+ sex ed should be taught as part of the normal sex ed curriculum,” they said. “There should be no segregation of LGBTQ+ students from the rest of the student body.”

Keith also believes that schools should allow transgender, gender non-conforming students to use the locker room of their choice.

Being a transgender, or non-binary, teenager is not uncommon. According to The New York Times, there is an estimated 149,750 transgender teenagers nationwide. At PA, there are at least three transgender students who are openly expressing their gender identity. For some, passing as a gender they were not biologically assigned is easy, while for others it can be more difficult.

In the United States, 71 percent of transgender people reported hiding their gender or gender transition in an attempt to avoid discrimination. Being non-binary/transgender can be considered harmful due to the fact that they are more likely to be bullied or discriminated against.

When someone is drowning, sometimes they just need a hand.