Expanding our conceptions and preconceptions of what it means to be a boy or a girl would go along way toward making kids feel comfortable with who they are and stopping well-meaning adults from trying to make them into something they are not or do not want to be.
Kids who feel as though they were born into the wrong body are real, but not every kid who defies gender role norms is one of them. Let's make sure we are doing the right things for the right kids.
"I want trans kids to feel free and safe enough to be who they are. I also want adults to have a fluid enough idea of gender roles that a 7-year-old girl can dress like “a boy” and not be asked — by people who know her, not strangers — whether she is one."
