My teenager has thought a great deal about orientation over the last four or five years; thought they had come to a conclusion (a ‘gay male’ label at 14), thought read and talked some more — and agonized quite a lot (about perhaps needing to change that label to ‘transgender female’ at 16) — before settling, at least for now, with a conviction to simply “Be Me" and be happier with a sense of non-binary fluidity without trying to pin down one narrow sense of identity.

Each step of the way I’ve had pretty identical conversations at points of ‘coming out’ to your short and sweet suggestion above — and I too absolutely despair at the parents who reject their children over this. So cruel, so callous. I just don’t understand it. Love a person for exactly who they are, all the parts of who they are, why think you can pick and choose and try to change them — and children are still People, they might be born in our bodies and carry our genetics, they might depend upon us, but they are there own selves, we don’t own them, we can’t demand that they change integral parts of themselves just because they’re young!