DON’T ask me if I’m worried this is “just a phase”. We all go through phases. I ratted my bangs and wore Z. Cavaricci pants. But I also started a journal in first grade, started writing poetry by second, and joined the church choir so I could sing all the time. Not phases. My son being trans is not a phase. Not at two, not at six, and not today at the age of nine. By asking me, it not only invalidates my decision, as a parent, to support my son, but also my son’s gender identity. And while we’re at it, DON’T ask if I’m worried he’ll change his mind. He never made his mind up to be trans; this is how he was born. And as he grows and matures, if he learns new things about himself and his identity, about his place in the world and how he fills it, that don’t match who and what he is now, I will still support him. I’m not worried in the least, because life is not a straight line from point A to point B.