On the recordFebruary 2, 2022
Today for the Jazz and Friends National Day of School and Community Readings hosted by HRC's Welcoming Schools program, I am going to read from the book ``Calvin'' written by JR and Vanessa Ford and illustrated by Kayla Harren of Minnesota. It is critically important to make sure that transgender and nonbinary youth not only feel supported but valued and affirmed for who they are. I am reading from the book ``Calvin.'' For as long as I could remember, I knew I was a boy. I'd draw myself with short hair and a shirt like Papa's. I'd dream about swim trunks like my dad and brother wore. I didn't tell my family until the night before our summer trip to Gigi and Papa's. I was scared they wouldn't believe me. But I knew it was time to be me. Whenever I have to do something scary, my dad always says: ``Take deep breaths and count down from five.'' Breathe in. Breathe out. Five, four, three, two, one. ``I'm not a girl,'' I told my family. ``I'm a boy--a boy in my heart and in my brain.'' ``We love you if you are a girl, boy, neither, or both. We love you whoever you are,'' my dad said. Later, Dad told me the word for how I felt was transgender. Being transgender means other people think you are one gender, but inside, you know you are a different one. I wondered how Gigi and Papa would react. As we got closer, I squeezed my stuffed lion to my chest. I had already told my family who I was. Now I needed to tell them my name.…
