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An open letter to the Texas public school system
From the last person you expected to become one of those.
Dear Texas educators,
Since high performance is often mistaken for intelligence (and intelligence for dignity and dignity for humanity), I’m going to use a whole lot of hubris here in an attempt to humanize a group you may have been thinking about a lot lately.
To set that particular stage, I’m Katy High School’s 2010 salutatorian and a kid who pulled off a 5 on every single one of my nine AP exams. I eventually graduated summa cum laude from Texas A&M University and am now a successful software engineer. And guess what? I also came out as transgender a few years ago. Yes, it can happen to anyone.
This is not new, we are not a contagion, and we can be anyone.
This particular life circumstance is not a product of ‘wokeness’ or troublemaking or whatever you’ve been told to be afraid of.
And it does not magically go away if you choose not to teach about it, talk about it, or even acknowledge its existence.
As someone who went to high school before this was a ‘thing’, with no words for any of my feelings — and no inkling of an idea that I might not be alone — I would know.
I can only imagine the even better outcome that one of your best and brightest could have, should they happen to be transgender in a kinder and more knowledgeable world than the one many of you wish to perpetuate.