Washington Blade Online – Jennifer Vanasco
Nicholas was born a boy but prefers to live as a girl. Now this 5-year-old is about to start public school.
Nicole, 5, was born Nicholas. She wears ponytails and pink flip-flops, she loves dresses and dolls.
A story, written by Julia Reischel for the New Times Broward-Palm Beach, quotes Nicole?s mother, Lauren Anderson: ?As a young toddler, he wouldn?t let me snap her onesies together because she wanted to wear a ?dwess? like his sister,? she said.
The Andersons love their child and want Nicole to express herself. At first, they tried telling Nicole she could be a girl at home but needed to be ?neutral? in public. After a while, they gave up and friends note Nicholas has become the shining personality of Nicole.
But now the Andersons are faced with bringing Nicole into a bigger, harsher world: She starts public school in the fall. Maybe as a girl. Maybe as a boy.
The school system has not yet told the Andersons what gender they will assign to Nicole when the child enters a classroom for the first time.
Therein lies the problem: that the school has the power to decide.
Americans battle constantly over how we as individuals and communities raise our children. We struggle over what we teach them in textbooks, what methods to teach, using single-sex classrooms or experiential learning.