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What’s it like when the kid you’ve known every day of their life as a “she” says they aren’t? Tom Rademacher’s child was in third grade when they said they didn’t feel like a girl — or a boy.  

Rademacher, a 2014 Minnesota Teacher of the Year, writes about learning to support his child’s gender expansive identity in a new book called “Raising Ollie: How my Nonbinary Art-Nerd Kid Changed (Nearly) Everything I Know.”  

Having a child who doesn’t conform to gender norms can hurl a parent into unfamiliar, and, for some, unwelcome territory. Half of transgender youth say their family and others they live with 

do not accept their gender identity and pronouns

, which can exacerbate mental health challenges and weaken family relationships. 

Host Angela Davis talks with Rademacher, a physician and a nonbinary young adult about how parents and other adults can support gender expansive children and teens. 

Use the audio player above to listen to their conversation.

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Host Angela Davis talks about how to support gender expansive children with teacher Tom Rademacher, who wrote a new book about what he’s learned raising his nonbinary art-nerd kid, a pediatrician who leads a gender health program and a nonbinary young adult who works with nonbinary teens.

MPR News with Angela Davis - MPR News host Angela Davis talks with teacher Tom Rademacher who just wrote a new book about what he’s learned raising his nonbinary art-nerd kid.  And she talks about how to support gender diverse children with a pediatrician who leads a gender health program and a nonbinary young adult who works with nonbinary teens. 

Raising a gender expansive child

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