Mother of 5 year old transgender child fights Texas school district
The mother of a 5-year-old transgender girl in Pearland, Texas, is continuing her fight against the Pearland Independent School District to allow her daughter to use the girls' bathroom.
Kimberly Shappley -- mom of soon-to-be kindergartner, Kai Shappley -- said her fight against the school district started in May. The district allows students to use gender-neutral bathrooms, found in some areas of the school, but the mom says that isn't enough.
"I went to the campus and approached the school district to try and work with them," she told ABC News today. "I wanted to make sure Kai wouldn't be discriminated against and be able to use the girl's bathroom, but it soon became very apparent that the superintendent has a very strong, prejudiced stance against the LGBTQ community."
Coincidentally, later that month, the Obama administration issued a directive to schools saying that transgender students should be able to use bathrooms that match their gender identity.
The district's superintendent, Dr. John Kelly, said in a statement in May to The Pearland Journal that he believed the directive was just "one more example of unconstitutional interference and social engineering by the federal government."
"What's next? Legalizing pedophilia and polygamy?" he said. "Unless we return to the Biblical basis on which our nation’s laws were established, we are in serious trouble – and cannot expect God’s continued favor."
----
Though Shappley said she found the words and actions of the superintendent and the school "hurtful," she said she would be the first to admit she "used to be one of them."
"I am a devout and conservative Christian and an ordained minister," she said and explained that she tried to force Kai into being a boy when she was a toddler.
"I knew my kid was different before the age of 2," Shappley said. "My child was very feminine, flamboyant and dramatic. No matter how I tried to punish, reshape or discipline her, she continued being very feminine."
By the age of 3, Kai began "adamantly saying and verbalizing she was a girl."
Shappley said a turning point for her came, though, when Kai -- who was called Joseph back then -- began "consistently praying for Joseph to go to heaven."
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/mother-year-transgender-girl-fights-texas-school-district/story?id=41266373
= new reply since forum marked as read
