There is a girl named Alexis coming over today to hang out with my daughter.

She’s dating another of my daughter’s friends who is lesbian and openly had a crush on my daughter but they talked about how they had to stay friends because my daughter is straight. That whole situation was no big deal.

Now she’s dating Alexis, who’s been over a few times and seems really engaging for a middle schooler. She just kind of hangs out in an easy-going manner. We’ve had talks about fashion and cooking and music.

She goes by Alex with her parents and non-school friends. I thought that was a nickname like I have for my kids. I was gonna text her parents and my daughter said very seriously “make sure you use he/him pronouns when you talk about her.”

It turns out she is an out Trans girl in middle school, and all her friends protect her by flipping name and pronouns as easily as code-switching. Like, they all think of her as a girl, and they flip to he/him without even really thinking about it.

This is so amazing to me. And so so sad. Like that poor girl is in middle school and already has friends she can trust with her true self more than her family.