I struggle with this.

I want to be supportive of anyone struggling to be who they are, but at the same time, I remember just how difficult and how long it took for me to really find who I am and what I see as my place. (I still struggle with that. My midlife crisis is that I no longer feel like I know who I really am anymore.)

So I hesitate when it comes to supporting someone to make a permanent, irrevocable change during a period of life that is considered the most in flux.

Both my daughters have traveled the spectrum, calling themselves straight, to bi, to gay, to pan, to trans, and back. It started at 8 and while not as dynamic now, they have settled a little bit at 14 and 12. The 12 year old likes girls and seems trans curious, while the 14 year old goes between liking boys, sometimes girls, or feeling asexual.

I wasn’t sure how to support them but at the same time, I was afraid they would make decisions that would affect a good part of their lives, based off something that was potentially transient.

I ended up telling them that I support them. That I am not telling them they are not who they say they are, but they should avoid jumping into assigning themselves a label. I tell them this age is about self exploration and finding that identity. But they have the luxury of time to explore and experience, and that the moment they box themselves into a label, then that is what they will become to the world.

My fear is them getting trapped into a supposed identity before they really know who they are.

I do not have personal experience with children who express gender dysmorphia at a young age to such an extent they want an externally driven change, so I don’t feel like I can argue in good faith.

And I also understand that the quality of life of someone who truly is trapped in the wrong gender would be much greater, were they able to transition much earlier.

So how do you know? How can you help and support someone, at that age, when everything about individual identity is still so new and unknown to them?

Can you show me on the doll where today touched you?

Excused absences don’t count toward this award. At least not in any of the schools my daughters have attended.

So, apparently this used to be a day club.

Then the freeway was built.

THEN Miniya Academies LLC bought the property and made it a charter school.

So, IMHO, all blame goes to Dayton SMART. (Who the fuck would want their kids to go there?)

This school apparently has tests scores well below the Ohio average. Big surprise.

Looking at the traffic flow, it looks like the ONLY way to get to this school is from the right lane, passing through the underpass. Elementary kids aside, this is a traffic safety nightmare. I thought Texas had bad zoning laws. Whoever approved this should have to work solely from this building for the rest of their life. Even the on/off ramp looks like a traffic nightmare.

Just think of the picture as a clown sitting on a pile of money, and the sentiment works.