“If we don’t talk about these important issues, things will never change,” Neidlinger said. “My then five-year-old son came to me so sure about his gender identity, that I concluded this level of commitment made it literally impossible for it to have been culturally/family or ‘reading the wrong books’ induced. It was consistent, insistent, and persistent. He was five then, and had no idea about the cultural ramifications of being ‘gender expansive’ in today’s world. As a parent all we want is for the world to be kind to our babies. Hearing these parents that think my baby’s a freak breaks my adult heart. Please consider that these are small children. We all want the same things for our kids. We’re all much more alike than we are different.”