The thing about Alex is that she knows who she is and what she likes. Alex is nine; she’s a girl; and she likes to eat mango, read The Wizard of Oz, and play baseball and soccer. She also likes to joke about how old her dad is — “he has so much white hair!” — and to tell the story about the time dad dropped all the eggs on the floor while singing along to Ray Charles. That story still makes the whole family, including Dad, laugh.
Alex’s dad, Jeremy, admires how Alex moves through the world as herself. “It’s not even confidence,” Jeremy says, trying to put Alex’s energy into words. “There isn’t even a question. This is just who she is.” Watching Alex with her sibling, on her own, and with her friends, Jeremy feels the freedom and joy that’s possible when you love, support, and accept kids for exactly who they are. Alex’s sense of self gives Jeremy and her mom, Laura, the hope they need when their love comes up against harmful policies that target trans kids.
On June 18, 2025 the Supreme Court gave such harmful policies a green light. The Court failed to protect families’ freedoms and instead upheld Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors. This decision means that state bans on essential medical care will continue to wreak havoc on the lives of transgender kids and their families. These bans have already uprooted families and communities across the country, and the risk of further harm in light of this Court’s ruling is devastating.
But what’s important to remember is that no matter what the Court or politicians say, transgender kids and their families are not alone in this fight. We will continue to fight in courtrooms and communities across the country to ensure that all people — including transgender people and families of trans kids — have the freedom to shape their own futures.
The truth is that trans kids are not a political battleground; they’re kids like Alex who just want to be themselves.
When she was about four years old, Alex began asking her mom to change her bedtime stories a little. Alex wanted to still be the main character, but she asked her mom to “tell it where I’m a girl.” After several months of bedtime stories that felt more like stories about her, Alex wanted to try wearing a dress to school. “And that was not just buying any old dress because her school has uniforms,” says Laura. “And that was when I thought, ‘Ok, we are doing this.’”
Laura knew that her kid’s school — and the law — had her kid’s back, so she felt good sending her kid to school in the uniform Alex felt most comfortable in. “And then one day I asked her what words she wanted us to use to talk about her,” explains Laura. Alex did not hesitate: her words were “she, her, sister, daughter.” So, Laura, Jeremy, and Alex’s sibling Riley went with those words, and so did Alex’s school. “I was very happy to live in a place that’s very affirming and where I knew that she would be accepted at school,” recalls Laura. Alex’s grandad also had her back. As he put it, “She’s got blue eyes and blonde hair, and she’s a girl, that’s that.”
We know that trans youth, like Alex, who are affirmed in their gender by their families do better in school, feel safer in their communities, establish healthy relationships with their parents and peers, and are better equipped to plan for their future. In contrast, denying them this support increases their likelihood of dropping out of school, increases their risk for substance use, worsens symptoms of depression and anxiety, and gravely increases their risk for suicide.
For Alex, it hasn’t all been acceptance and affirmation, though, and she has faced some unique challenges. For example, one time she was using the restroom at a new day camp, and two older girls she did not know told her she could not be in the girls’ bathroom because she was not a girl. Alex responded, “You don’t tell me who I am. I tell you who I am.” Jeremy says that this example makes him “tear up because she has this type of strength and sense of justice.” He adds, “And I think a lot of it is because of our community, where, at almost every turn, she’s just made to feel like she is who she is.”
Trump and other politicians are attacking the freedom for kids like Alex to simply be who they are and the freedom for their parents and communities to support them. The same politicians and activists banning books and banning abortion are trying to force transgender people out of our communities, our schools, and our workplaces. They are targeting anyone and anything that does not follow their outdated and strict ideology.
This wave of attacks on trans people can make it, as Jeremy explains, a “terrifying time” to be a parent of a trans kid. “Our number one job is to keep our kids safe,” says Jeremy. Laura is also concerned, particularly as the President and Congress have significant influence over what happens in D.C. because the District is not currently a state. “In some ways, it seems like having a governor and more state resources that aren't subjected to control by the federal government would feel safer,” she explains. Jeremy and Laura have gone back and forth about how to best protect their kids in this environment. Do they protest? Do they lie low? Do they stay in D.C.? Do they move?
To Jeremy, right now, “The way to protect my kid is to be ready to fight.” And he is not fighting alone. For example, a big group from Alex’s elementary school marched in the Pride Parade together in 2024. Jeremy says that experience was “like out of a Hallmark movie of how you would want your kid to be treated.” He knows that Alex will fight for herself — and her family, community, and local and national advocacy organizations like the ACLU are matching her energy.
The truth is that wherever and whenever governments have tried to enforce rules around gender, there have been people defying them. Laura explained that accepting Alex as a girl “is not a political choice we are making. We are not an agenda. This is just our kid being who she is and who she wants to be, and this is just us wanting her to be herself and to live her full life.” Ultimately, every family should have the freedom to love, support, and protect their child, transgender or not.