What happens in a small, semi-rural community in a southern state when an "out" transgender student decides to speak up for his civil rights?
Here in Gloucester County, Virginia, where I live — not far from the Historic Triangle of Yorktown-Williamsburg-Jamestown — the answer is that all hell breaks loose.
For years here at 13.7, I've been writing about the spectrum of gender expression, the fact that gender identity isn't only — or even mostly — about biology and that it's most certainly not reducible to the sex one is assigned at birth. I've celebrated that spectrum, and worried over discrimination against transgender individuals.
Now these issues have hit home in a very direct and local way: A 10th grade student named Gavin Grimm, who was born female and identifies as male, has challenged the status quo and asked to use his gender-identified bathroom — the boys' bathroom — at the local high school here.
[For more of this story, written by Barbara J. King, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/...ght-echoes-of-others]
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