A Special Girl heads to Kindergarten

[Kate Thomas]

This is a very touching story of a young girl who has a strong idenity, a Loving family, and bright future.

The story is about much more than Nicole, it is very informitive and touches on a wide range of  transgender issues.

Broward-Palm Beach New Times
By Julia Reischel
Article Published May 18, 2006
http://www.newtimesbpb.com/Issues/2006-05-18/news/feature_full.html

On a recent morning, it takes a lot of coaxing to tear Nicole away from watching The Ten Commandments to tell a reporter how she feels about being a "special girl."

"Do you know why you're a special girl?" her mother asks.

"Because... I have a girl brain in a boy body," Nicole says, lowering her usual penetrating voice to an almost inaudible sigh.

"What does that feel like? Does it feel good? Or is it hard?"

"Hard," Nicole says.

When her mother asks her if she's happy with the way she looks, she says no.

"What would you change about yourself?"

[Phoenix]

i want my penis to be cut off and destroyed alot of the time, but the only way for that to happen....is therapy, drugs, doctor, money, surgery, blood, healing etcc.....


i think Nicole is the coolest child in the world

[Kate Thomas]

Some updates:
A second version of this story
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/Issues/2006-05-18/news/feature_2.html

See Dick Be Jane
The country's youngest transgender child is ready for school. But is school ready for her?
By Julia Reischel 
Article Published May 18, 2006
"And what would you do with it then?"  asks a surprised Lauren, who later says she's never before heard Nicole express dislike for her penis.

"I would hammer it," Nicole says.

"What?" Lauren says.

"Hammer it," Nicole insists more strongly.

Later, Lauren says she constantly feels as if she's flying by the seat of her pants. "There is no protocol," she says. "Nobody knows of anybody. No 5-year-olds who go to school fully transitioned. There's no book called How to Raise Your Gender Variant Preschooler. "

Letters to the editor:
http://www.newtimesbpb.com/Issues/2006-06-01/news/letters.html

"Transgender shrink isn't in the Yellow Pages": Having been born a biological male myself and transitioning at the age of 32, I support the Andersons' attempt to give Nicole a normal life as a female. What some people, including my father, do not realize is that there is no choice in the matter. I knew when I was two years old that I was born in the wrong body, and my half-sister, who understood to a certain extent, emphasized that I should never tell my parents about it when I was that young. The ensuing years brought on anguish and suicidal depression while trying to live up to the expectations of being a young boy, a young man, and finally an adult.

Had I been allowed to transition physically at that age, I'm sure my life would have been much different and a lot fewer people would have gotten emotionally hurt in the process. To this day my father, now 73 years old, refuses to accept me as a female, and we're completely estranged. My mother drank herself to death in 1998. Her last question regarding me was, "What did I do wrong?"

The Andersons deserve respect and applause for giving their child the opportunity to be free of the turmoil and emotional anguish of spending her entire life play-acting the role of male and the thoughts of confusion and even suicide that every child and teen who is transgendered goes through simply to make their parents love and accept them.