""And I have this memory of my wife handing me a printout of the book, and I read it, and I was just pouring tears," he recalled. "You'd think that would be because, like, this is a beautiful story of a trans kid, and it's our kid. But actually, no. Actually, it was because it was about all of us.""
""I'm cisgender. Everybody always assumed I was a man, and I actually am a man. And until my daughter came out, I never really had to think about my gender identity or even about anyone else's. It was like transparent to me. I never consciously checked in with myself. People just assumed something, and it happened that they were right, so it just sort of 'was'""
Jesse Thorn is a cisgender father of a transgender daughter. About ten years ago his oldest child came out as transgender, and his wife created a picture book titled It Feels Good to Be Yourself inspired by that experience. Reading the book produced an emotional reaction because the story reflected the entire family's experience. Thorn realized his own gender identity had been invisible and unexamined until his child’s coming out. He had to actively imagine a different gender experience and recognized that initial feelings framed the child's transition as a choice or a rejection. Thorn urges cisgender people to examine their assumptions and avoid reflexive hostility toward trans kids.
Read at LGBTQ Nation
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