A Mother-Son Story of the Mother of All Changes

I’ve been thinking a lot about how change happens. To help me unpack the mother of all topics, I invited a dozen really big thinkers (and feelers) to talk to me on Kelly Corrigan Wonders and at the end of each conversation, I summarized my takeaways. I share them here in the hopes that they will be useful to us all as we inch our way toward something better.

On Transitioning:

In a long, moving conversation, I connected with an insightful and forthcoming 15-year-old who is transitioning from a girl to a boy, as well as his mother about how you know you have to change and the series of decisions, losses and gains found along the way.

1. There is no moment quite so sublime as the one in which you discover that you are not the only one.

2. People know long before they “know.” They can’t form the words because they’ve been conditioned to doubt even their most persistent instincts.

3. There are some very deep, progressive, love-first grandparents out there.

4. In some states, a legal defense for murder is, “I thought he was gay and he was coming on to me and I was scared.”

5. One thing, even one very big thing, does not a person define. Just because you are happy to be trans doesn’t mean you want to lead with it in…