I was contacted recently by Riley Graham, a graduate student in the School of Education at Mills College in Oakland, CA, about her study: The Young Child’s Independence in Expressing Gender Nonconformity.

Riley is looking for parents or legal guardians of gender-nonconforming children between the a… Read full post »

Do you ever get the sense that things are moving?

In the last month, our school brought in trainers from Our Family Coalition, the LGBT advocacy and education organization. They also sent eight—eight—faculty and staff members to a 2 1/2 day training with Keshet, the organization working t… Read full post »

I have been engaged in a multi-year, multi-faceted, multi-media conversation about parenting, kids, culture, and gender with my fellow momblogger Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser. Much to my delight, Sarah, mama of four kids ranging in age from three to 16, has agreed to be a guest poster on my blo… Read full post »

I am thrilled to announce that my blog has made it onto Babble’s list of Top 100 Mom Blogs for 2011! Thank you all for being my faithful readers, for voting for me, and, most of all, for supporting our kids to be exactly who they are.

If you are… Read full post »

November 20 is the international Transgender Day of Remembrance, when we take a moment to honor the lives and mourn the deaths of transgender victims of hate crimes.

Last night I attended Shabbat services at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco’s LGBT synagogue. I heard a prayer th… Read full post »

I just saw a mind open, and it was beautiful.

In early summer I was interviewed by psychologist Samantha Smithstein for her blog on Psychology Today, about writing, raising a gender-nonconforming child, and responding to bullying. Last week, an anonymous commenter wrote in to say of me, “This… Read full post »

I’m thrilled to be trading guest blog posts with writer Sally Bellerose. 

Today Sally posted my review of Operation Marriage on her blog. While I was reviewing Operation Marriage, I thought a lot about same-sex marriage rights, and about how those rights affect us all, gay or straight. But I d… Read full post »

I’ve got an essay today up on Huffington Post—my first on the site, which is very exciting. (It’s posted on the Gay Voices page, which I suppose makes me an honorary Gay Voice, which I rather like.) It’s about Fox News’ recent attack on the family of a transgender child. I hope… Read full post »

If you'd like to enter for a chance to win this book, please comment on the post on my website.

I’m so excited to share this book with you.

Operation Marriage tells the story of a spunky eight-year-old San Franciscan, Alex, whose best friend shuns Alex because she has lesbian… Read full post »

It’s been not-quite-five months since I started my series on anti-bullying work at Sam’s school, and in that brief time I’ve felt more despair, inspiration, relief, exhaustion, and companionship than in the previous not-quite-five years at the school. When I began writing, I really had… Read full post »

This post is the next in my series of letters parents have written to schools on behalf of their gender-nonconforming and transgender children (the first, second, and third appear here). The following letter was written by Jenna Murase* to her son’s middle school principal. Jenna sought perm… Read full post »

This post is the next in my series of letters parents have written to schools on behalf of their gender-nonconforming and transgender children (the first and second letters appear here). The following letter was written by Natanya*, the mother of Jamie, a transgender teenager entering high sch… Read full post »

In my last post, I shared the letter that my husband and I wrote to the parents in Sam’s kindergarten class. Since my readers have a variety of school situations, and their children span a wide age range, I plan to share several letters from readers in the hopes that those… Read full post »

Dear Readers,

Apologies for my recent disappearance from the blogosphere! I don’t even have a good excuse like the last time I took a blogging break, except that sometimes the work-writing-parenting-life balance gets out of whack, especially during school vacations.

I’m looking for… Read full post »

I’m honored that clinical psychologist Samantha Smithstein recently interviewed me for her blogs on Psychology Today and the San Francisco Examiner. We discussed my advocacy work for gender-nonconforming kids, what it means to be a pink boy, and school bullying prevention.

Responding t… Read full post »

Janice!

Janice will now receive her very own autographed copy of Leslea Newman’s new book, Donovan’s Big Day, courtesy of the author.

(And here’s the glitch in my system: I have three facebook friends named Janice. Would the Janice who posted the winning comment #6 please sen… Read full post »

I was happy to see Louise Sloan’s essay Green Nail Polish and Gay Marriage this week in Ladies Home Journal, one of the more conservative women’s lifestyle mags.

Sloan’s son wanted to wear green nail polish, and, with a bit of trepidation and some justification (“It was… Read full post »

Please comment on my blog for a chance to win this wonderful book.

Leslea Newman, of Heather Has Two Mommies fame, has recently published a new picture book, Donovan’s Big Day, a delightful story about the day a little boy’s two moms get married.

Told fro… Read full post »

The Mother Company—dedicated to social and emotional learning for parents and kids—recently posted a two-part series on childhood gender expression. I was honored to be asked to contribute an essay for the first part of the series, about the first time Sam went to school in a dress.

The se… Read full post »

I got the most awesome email (with an even awesomer attachment) the other day. It said:

From my darling child to yours, I send you a message of hope and love. My daughter wrote this to Sam with no prompting from me (I did part of the tree illustration, that’s it!) This story… Read full post »

Today I dropped the kids off at camp, where Crazy Hair Day was in full swing. Some campers wore mismatched barrettes all over their heads; some had braids going every which way; others had colored their hair with rainbow stripes. Sam and Ruby had matching hairdos in their long hair: three b… Read full post »

After I posted Tired, the ninth post in my series about combating bullying at my son’s school, I received some lovely, supportive comments from my readers. Thank you. Your words give me hope, encouragement, and strength.

And then I received this comment, in which a reader named Robin Han… Read full post »

Reader Robin Hanson wrote this comment to my post Tired, the ninth post in my series about combatting bullying at my son’s school:

Have you considered, economically, that it’s not viable, likely, nor perhaps even ethical for the school system to devote such a significant amount of… Read full post »

This is the final post in a series about my son’s recent experience with bullying at school.

After heartbreak, frustration, a friend’s inspiration, and talks with other parents and the school counselor, we got busy. We met with the principal of the lower school. We met with th… Read full post »

This is the ninth post in a series about my son’s recent experience with bullying at school.

I am tired.

In the last month we have met three times with the school principal, twice with the head of school, four times with the school counselor, and once with an awesome group… Read full post »