Get cozy

Before you read this enthralling — but long — story about transgendered children.

"As a toddler, Brandon would scour the house for something to drape over his head—a towel, a doily, a moons-and-stars bandanna he’d snatch from his mother’s drawer. “I figure he wanted something that felt like hair,” his mother later guessed. He spoke his first full sentence at a local Italian restaurant: “I like your high heels,” he told a woman in a fancy red dress. At home, he would rip off his clothes as soon as Tina put them on him, and instead try on something from her closet—a purple undershirt, lingerie, shoes. “He ruined all my heels in the sandbox,” she recalls."

It's the conversation about nurture vs. nature that I find so effing fascinating. That we are hard-wired — or not — for certain behavior and tendencies has been an upfront issue lately, and it very well should be. I cannot fathom for one second how difficult it would be to be a parent and be faced with the many, many decisions that come with having a transgendered child. But I'm thankful that we live in a day and age now where people can find answers, doctors and outlets for what they are going through.

Toward the end of the story, there are two stories about a boy who wanted to be a girl and a girl who wanted to be a boy and what their respective parents did. It's a different ending than the previous story and I'm sure equally as controversial.

"A Boy's Life" is one of the most objective and researched articles I've read about this in a long time. I hope you can take away as much from it as I did. Mmm, food for thought. Yummy.

(Screenshot image taken from theatlantic.com)