"Thomas gave me many clues that something was going on and I could see that it wasn't going away," his mother said. "So when he insisted on cutting his hair short and confided, 'I want to look more like a boy,' I wasn't surprised. I took the time to digest it, to educate myself and change the way I spoke and felt . . .. I told him, 'Nothing has changed. You still like animals and reading and folk music and eating steak. It's still you.' "