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Parenting is tough enough (I'm looking at you, obnoxious strangers who have apparently formed a "Why is your baby wearing/not wearing a hat??" club on every city street). But trying to be a good parent to a transgender child within a country whose leadership acts as if that child's gender identity is somehow less than valid? It's tough. Rachel Anne Bradbury knows this.
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Bradbury's 4-year-old son, Robin (whose name has been changed), is transgender. "When Robin was about 2, he started telling me he was a boy," Bradbury explained, according to PopSugar. "Not that he wanted to BE a boy, or that he FELT LIKE a boy, but, simply, that he WAS a boy."
It's not uncommon for trans kids to self-identify as their true gender as early as toddlerhood, and Bradbury trusted her son's instincts. "What brought me to support him was pretty simple, actually: I have always known I am female," she explained. "I've never questioned it. Robin was telling me that...he knew he was a boy. Who am I to say he's wrong? Who am I to tell a 2-and-a-half-year-old, a 3-year-old, and now a 4-year-old that I know his being better than he does?" Well said, Mama.
But Bradbury is understandably afraid for her son's future in this country. For example, just this week, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case of trans teen Gavin Grimm, who is fighting to be able to use the school bathroom that matches his gender identity.
"I understand that things are complicated in government," Bradley said, acknowledging the Supreme Court's negligence. "Politicians and constituents must both be petted, cajoled, encouraged, manipulated, used, appeased. Many pieces are at play, certainly. But what is that to a little boy? He knows nothing about politics. He just wants to be himself, to be Robin, in a world that seems intent on making that extremely difficult."
It's high time the government got off its high horse, stopped disappointing trans advocates on both sides of the aisle, and started protecting trans kids (and adults). Even science says it's crucial to do so.
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