Phoenix Nesmith attends Topeka High and speaks with palpable enthusiasm about it.

Forensics, Scholars Bowl, the right friendships. The gifted 17-year-old, who once struggled to feel happy in school, says the opportunities in this 2,000-student building helped bring about a change.

Or, as the incoming senior puts it: "I found my people."

There’s nothing uncommon about the story of a teenager grappling to find their place in the world. But in other ways, Nesmith’s experience is less known and lies at the heart of a national debate — a conversation that often plays out without the voices of the very students it concerns.

Nesmith is transgender and speaking publicly in hopes of shedding light on the topic.

"I feel like, there’s kind of a lack of understanding and lack of knowledge," said Nesmith, who is president of the Topeka-based LGBT youth group Beacon. "I feel like gender identity is a lot more fluid than a lot of people think."

In recent weeks, federal guidelines on the civil rights of transgender children and teenagers in America’s schools have sparked a backlash. Critics argue varyingly that the federal government should stay out of the matter, that transgender identity isn’t protected from discrimination under federal law, or that allowing children to use bathrooms that don’t match their birth sex poses a danger to other youths.

For Nesmith, such arguments ignore studies showing transgender people are bullied or otherwise mistreated at higher rates than the general population.

"There’s not been documented cases of trans kids harassing other people in a school bathroom," Nesmith said, and brushed off critics’ claims that students might pose as transgender for nefarious purposes, a ruse that would mean faking a stigmatized identity in-depth and over time, not simply choosing to shower with girls one day. "That’s not a thing that happens."

There are no reliable statistics on the prevalence of transgender children or adults. Locally, all of Shawnee County’s school districts serve transgender youths, according to Topeka psychologist Peg McCarthy.

The 14,000-student Topeka Unified School District 501 has transgender students at the elementary, middle and high school levels, said McCarthy, who is also a school board member there.

According to the American Psychological Association, sex and gender are different. "Sex" relates to biological characteristics like anatomy and chromosomes. "Gender" is a social construct — essentially the behaviors, activities, ways of dressing and more that a society associates with boys/men on the one hand and girls/women on the other. Such associations vary from culture to culture.

A transgender person’s gender identity — their sense of who they are — differs from the sex they were born with, the APA says. This could mean, for example, a male by birth who identifies as a female, or vice versa.

Or someone like Nesmith, who was born a female but identifies as neither, a concept sometimes called genderqueer.

"I say ‘gender nonconforming,’ ‘queer,’ ‘genderqueer’ — that kind of thing," they said.

Nesmith prefers to be referred to with the gender-neutral pronoun "they," which is also used by family members, friends and teachers.

In recent years, some media have used gender-neutral terms in this manner. The Washington Post is one high-profile example.

Some people find this difficult to accept or remember, Nesmith said, but argued it isn’t a big leap from the usage among English speakers of the word "they" to refer to a singular person of unspecified gender. (Think: "Who was sitting here earlier? They left their notebook.") The Oxford English Dictionary says this use has been around since the 1500s at least.

Nesmith first realized their feelings weren’t unique in freshman year or so, when they found an article describing gender identity as nonbinary — more like a continuum — on the blogging platform Tumblr.

"I read through and was like, ‘This is a thing?’?" they said. "And it was just kind of this massive realization of, ‘I’m not weird.’?"

"Phoenix" isn’t Nesmith’s birth name, which was feminine, nor do they like to talk about their birth name, which Nesmith is in the process of legally dropping. Nesmith also wants breast-removal surgery and often binds their chest to minimize it.

As far as school goes, their birth name still exists in records, they said, but alongside "Phoenix," the moniker teachers use. Topeka High staff allow them to use single-stall restrooms in the counseling center, which is what Nesmith prefers.

On how they feel if someone speaks about them as a girl, Nesmith described a feeling of invalidation — "not being seen as how I feel" — but added, "I understand, you know, when people meet me and don’t know. Because you don’t look at someone and say, ‘They use they-them pronouns.’?"

Nesmith tried other public and virtual school options before transferring to Topeka High, a school that they and their mother, Nicole Nesmith, say has robust counseling resources and experience supporting transgender students.

Phoenix Nesmith has suffered depression, social anxiety and panic attacks. They see their gender identity not as the root but as a contributing factor.

"I think a large portion of issues that I had with social anxiety and anxiety about, you know, being in a school setting and everything, was really related to dysphoria," they said, adding that this can relate to anxiety over one’s physical anatomy or over how one is treated by others.

In 2011, the National Center for Transgender Equality surveyed 6,450 transgender people and found high rates of discrimination, emotional distress and other troubling trends.

About 40 percent of respondents said they had attempted suicide. Of those who had openly expressed their gender identity as K-12 students, nearly 80 percent reported harassment and 35 percent reported being physically assaulted. Respondents also described harassment, discrimination and related problems at work, seeking housing and health care, and in other settings.

Nicole Nesmith says negative or incorrect statements by public figures about transgender people perpetuate the stigma and thereby increases a factor of risk faced by transgender youths.

She supports her child’s identity as genderqueer and was present with them during The Topeka Capital-Journal interview.

Like Phoenix, Nicole Nesmith sees talking about transgender matters as part of the process of overcoming misconceptions.

"It just makes such a huge difference when you know someone who is trans, know somebody in the LGBT community," Nicole Nesmith said. "The acceptance level increases."