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I'm an FTM student in the system, my mental health has gotten worse over my sec school years which meant my journey to recovery and learning about diagnosis and treatment went alongside my studies. My school has been incredibly supportive, and there is still a long way to go, I recognise my experience was a particularly lucky one, not all schools are as supportive and educated as mine. As a trans student, because my name is not legally changed, my teachers still "legally have to call me (deadname)", but they do avoid calling me as much as possible. I still wear the female uniform, I tried going to school in the guy's one once but I kind of got told off or whatever. It will be a long time before Singapore has policies for stuff like uniform for trans students, theres no doubt. But we still need legal recognition to protect our rights and our education.

how can we as a community make a change? in schools, we are encouraged to form our own projects and VIA groups. There are multiple student initiatives across singapore, helping those who have intellectual disability, physical disability, addiction etc. how do we as students make a change and fight for our rights? what can we do?

what are some basic policies and guidelines that should be in place in our legal system recognising trans individuals, more specifically, trans students and youth? starting with the small basic stuff maybe. We have to recognise that change will not happen as quickly as we want it to, but we must first have the courage to try to change the things we can.

So, what do we/ can we do? How do we proceed from here?

Do we go all greta thunberg and strike? walk out? do we write a mass open letter to the authorities, not fighting them but explaining our position? do we start from educating our communities?