"If Shannon Axe hadn’t transferred to Boulder Valley, a school district known as one of the most accepting in the nation for transgender children, she thinks she would have died.
The 15-year-old Boulder High School freshman, an actress and a dancer, says this without a hint of teenage drama.
The school district has revamped its policies — from bathrooms to curriculum to its computer system — in the last few years, and, as a result, families with transgender children have quit jobs and sold homes to move there.
Shannon and her family were among the pioneers.
The Axes left Douglas County in 2009, hoping to find a more welcoming school community in the state’s most liberal county. The first time Karen Axe talked to the new school, she refused to say on the phone what “special needs” her daughter had — she wanted to look the principal in the eye when she said it. He admitted he hadn’t known a transgender child before, but promised they would “learn together.”
Shannon immediately was allowed to use the girls’ bathroom and female pronouns. In middle school, administrators set up a panel discussion so Shannon could tell classmates she was trans. “I’m transgender. I’m proud to be transgender. And I just want to be who I am,” she said in front of the school."
Read more: http://extras.denverpost.com/transgender/culture.html
Posted by: Katie Steefel