Behold our trans agenda. (It involves cats.)
It was a great campaign: one that I was truly proud of. I got 560 votes -- one more than the total number of all the votes cast in the entire district when this seat was up for election last time. So before I left the house to go to my election watch party, I cried. Ugly tears. Big, fat, angry, pissed off tears of frustration and rage. I knew I was going to lose...
They thought they could pick on trans kids like my son, they thought that no one would notice if trans people just disappeared, but they underestimated this mamabear, and they underestimated the power of the people. Because TOGETHER WE RISE.
In a world that wants to tell trans kids that they're different, you have an opportunity to tell them that they're special. Here are 5 ways you can be a better ally:
Max, as my son is now known, has never really had to “come out” to the people in his life. He did, however, start using male pronouns and introducing himself as a boy by the time he was 6 years old, but honest to goodness he doesn’t even remember a word of the conversation we had together. Being true to himself is all he’s ever known in this family.
I had hoped that Speaker Straus would have taken the time during the very busy special session this summer to read my open letter that I wrote to him in the Texas Tribune. I tweeted him, I emailed him, and I stopped by his office in Austin to make sure he got the message. But he's a busy guy, so I wasn't holding my breath. Looks like he heard us, though, because this (not-a-standard-form) letter came in the mail today:
In no particular order, and certainly far from complete, here’s a list of a half-dozen things that parents of trans kids are thinking about when the school year starts, and how teachers, parents of cisgender kids, and friends can be allies. I’m sure we’d all rather be thinking about cool monkey bar tricks on the playground instead — but there’s a lot of work to do, first.
This story doesn’t begin with a bathroom break. This story begins at the age of two, when my child told me that he was a boy. To be honest, two-year-olds like to pretend that they’re lots of things, so I chalked it up to playing another round of make believe. Little did I know what the future would hold for my family.
I would like to believe that my representative cares about Max. But after seeing his name on that bathroom bill, my hunch is that he cares more about getting re-elected than he does about doing the right thing.
My grandfather was a Marine in the Korean War, and always said he didn't care who was in that foxhole next to him, as long as they were wearing the right uniform.
Like most parents, there are plenty of days when I ask myself whether I’m a good mom. This was not one of them.
For 140 days, we defeated MULTIPLE attempts by the Texas Legislature as they tried again and again to pass anti-transgender legislation. The regular session is over, but the special "session of oppression" begins on July 18, 2017. The stakes are high for kids like Max, but with your help, we can win again. Here's how… Continue reading For Max
When Max’s peers line up for the bathroom next fall, Dan Patrick and Greg Abbott want my son to be separated from his class, to do a shameful march down the hall and to use a different facility. They want to demonstrate to his classmates that being different isn’t okay and that it’s perfectly acceptable to treat those differences with disdain and ridicule. That sounds like an awful lot like what bullies do.
People often ask me why I chose to allow my son to be transgender. But I think they're asking it all wrong.
In January of 2015 I filed paperwork to become a city council candidate. About a week earlier, my child and I sat down and finally addressed something we had needed to talk about several months – if not years – earlier: he wasn’t the daughter I thought I had, but rather, he was my son. … Continue reading Leading with a heart: A thank you to Kathleen Wazny
The blue jellybeans were assembled in pint-sized mason jars on my kitchen table, and my husband was about to head to the store to pick up the balloon bouquet while I put the finishing touches on the decorations. The kids and I had made a batch of homemade chocolate ice cream, and the giant, freshly-baked… Continue reading Baby Shower 2.0: Celebrating My Transgender Son’s New Identity
It can be hard to understand our kids sometimes, but it should never be hard to love them. Here are a few of my reflections about our journey to become a trans-inclusive family.
Love to the Max 