Independent congressional candidate Suz Seymour challenges Vermont schools to create Tomboy Clubs—and offers to help fund them
by Suz Seymour
Independent congressional candidate Suzanne “Suz” Seymour is challenging Vermont schools to try something unusual: create a Tomboy Club—and she is willing to put her own money behind it.
The proposal grew out of a discussion on WDEV’s Hot Off The Press about transgender children, gender identity and how society should respond when young people struggle with their bodies or question who they are.
Seymour’s answer is that children need more room to grow, more support, and more time to understand themselves before adults assume they need to change their bodies.
“I am willing to self-finance any school in Vermont that is willing to start a Tomboy Club. Young girls need strong role models and people within the school system saying, ‘You know what? Maybe you’re not a boy—maybe you’re just a strong girl.’ Why aren’t we advocating for that?”
For Seymour, a Tomboy Club wouldn’t be about telling girls who they should be, but a place of refuge for girls to feel confident who are athletic, adventurous, outspoken, enjoy science or car mechanics, are competitive, outdoorsy or simply different. Growing up a tomboy herself, she says the conversation shouldn’t stop with girls. Boys have many of the same struggles.
“Puberty is hard. Almost all young people struggle with their changing bodies. We need to teach our kids to love and care for the bodies they have. This is the vessel we have to navigate through life; we must learn to respect it, care for it and appreciate it in every way.”
Seymour’s proposal comes at a time when Vermont is taking a very different position at the federal level.
In July, Vermont joined a multistate lawsuit challenging federal actions aimed at restricting access to gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary youth. More recently, Vermont joined another lawsuit challenging a federal rule that would prohibit Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care for low-income youth.
Seymour says she believes Vermont needs to have a bigger conversation than simply arguing over who should pay for these treatments, and ask the most important one first: what is best for the kids?
“I am opposed to puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgeries for children. We need to listen to our kids when they are struggling and take their feelings seriously—but we also need safeguards. We shouldn’t fast-track children into medicalization or toward a lifetime of pharmaceuticals when they aren’t yet developmentally equipped to fully understand the long-term consequences of those decisions. They need qualified counseling, thoughtful guidance and time to grow and understand themselves before making decisions that could permanently alter their developing bodies.” – Suz Seymour
Seymour says adults should have the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies, including plastic surgery and other forms of body modification, but children deserve additional safeguards.
“We shouldn’t teach children that discomfort with their bodies automatically means their bodies are wrong.They need more time and support to understand themselves, and feel comfortable in the bodies they were born into. To me, that truly is what ‘gender-affirming care’ actually should mean.”
Seymour says she’s not interested in simply criticizing the system. She wants to try something different—and she’s willing to put her own money behind it. That’s the idea behind the Tomboy Club proposal. Rather than making children the battlefield in another political fight, Seymour says Vermont should be willing to invest in alternatives that help young people feel comfortable in their own skin without immediately assuming that discomfort or gender nonconformity requires a medical solution.
Seymour is putting her proposal into action. “If a Vermont school is interested in starting a Tomboy Club, reach out to my campaign. You’ll be one of the first to accept the challenge—and I hope, before you know it, there will be Tomboy Clubs popping up all across our country.”.
Seymour’s message is ultimately about giving children permission to grow into themselves without being boxed in by stereotypes—or rushed into life-changing decisions that they may regret and unknowingly on their part, may be too late to go back.
Republished campaign statement by Suz Seymour, Independent candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Vermont, www.ruokvt.com