Kids Say The Darnest Things

We should listen to our children in some ways they are smarter than adults.

When The Kid Becomes The Teacher: On What It Means To Be Transgender
NPR
By Johnny Kauffman
June 1, 2016

It's bedtime, and 12-year-old Ethan and 8-year-old Allie Slipakoff are riled up. The kids goof off in the playroom of their suburban Atlanta home; parents Jen and Adam sit in the kitchen nearby.

Allie likes to talk about her striking, red, shoulder-length hair. Sometimes she puts it in a side ponytail, the second-grader says, and it "actually turns out really good."

Allie is transgender, and gets lots of compliments about her hair. When she was younger and dressed in boys' clothes — she began transitioning when she was about 4 — Allie still made her parents buy her dozens of accessories to wear on her head.
[…]
" 'How did she go from being a boy to a girl?' and the teacher said, 'Well, she grew her hair long and wore girls clothes,' and the little girl was like, 'OK,' and that was it, and they literally held hands, turned around, and skipped away, and that was the end of it."

Kennesaw, the city where the family lives, is in one of the most conservative congressional districts in the country.

Allie's parents say that for the most part they get a lot of friendly questions from friends and other parents — though they have encountered some people who, Adam says, "have trouble holding their tongue, because they want you to know where they stand on it" — but Allie remains the best teacher.

Jen is smart beyond her years. At her private school they force her to use a separate bathroom and she thinks that is like,

Jen says it reminds her of racial segregation in the South.

"[People say,] 'You know I'm not against anyone that's transgender, I just don't want them using my same bathroom.' I mean that's like saying, 'I like black people, I just don't want them to sit at my lunch counter,' " Jen says.

Why can’t other people realize that? Why can’t they see beyond their fear over something that they don’t understand?

It seems like children have no problems with trans children, it is when the grownups butt in that there are problems. In Maine it was a grandparent who caused all the problems with Nicole Maines, around the country it is when outsiders start protest the school policies that begins.

It is like Jen said “I like black people, I just don't want them to sit at my lunch counter,” feeling uncomfortable is not grounds to discriminate.