President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

We went through the same thing, but in pre-K. His pre-K teacher insisted not only on calling him by his given name, but also that he had to be able to write it on his own so he'd be ready for kindergarten.

What we call him is a shortening of his middle name, which is also a family name but one that's mostly been used as either a surname or middle name.

Anyway, he was so confused. Eventually, when people would ask him his name, he'd say "X is my school name, but Y is my name" much to their confusion. It was really the only way he could process it. The pre-K was a state-funded program contracted out to a private center. When he moved to the actual public schools it got better because our local school system is one of those that's been at the forefront of accommodating trans kids, and they have built into all of their systems the ability for a kid to have a name they go by that's completely different from what's on their records.

It gave me small insight to how hard this must be for trans kids, though, especially when encountering a teacher or admin who insists on using their dead name.

 

I don't understand how this is hard at all. We all grew up with Williams who went by Billy, and Richards who went by Dick. Seems like it was always sorted out on the first day or two of school.

 

Why would a transgendered person want to change their name? Everyone should have to use their given name!

 

Christie did just that on Tuesday's CBS Mornings program.

 

Pretty sure my grandmother would be alive today (she'd be 108) had she not fallen and broken her hip six years ago.

 

Boo, hiss

 

Arkansas sounds like a wonderful place.

 

I have a hard-to-pronounce Hispanic name and when I was a kid, I went by another Hispanic nickname that makes sense if you speak Spanish. My teachers and friends didn't. By the time I was in middle school, my family had a shortened version of the nickname for me (think Jon for Jonathan). But my middle school friends had an English-friendly nickname derived from my original nickname (for those who are lost lost real name "Jonathan" --> nickname "Johnny" --> Parent's shorter nickname "Jon" --> Friend's shorter nickname "Donny." I sill go by "Donny" with most people). If I needed permission slips for that whole mess, I think my Dad would have murdered someone.

 

You boys from Arkansas, huh? Little Rock is a fine town. You twins?

 

In retrospect, I should have gone by my middle name. I think my dad told the school to use my home nickname to keep it easy for me. In the long run, an easier-to-pronounce middle name would have saved me a bunch of grief.

Also, my class rosters have nicknames included. So I am calling kids by preferred names right away rather than legal names. It doesn't work for Richard who wants to be called Rick, but it helps with Savannah who wants to be called Mark.