I want to commend the strength and courage of Amanda Wilson to tell her story to your paper recently.
That level of honesty and openness is so helpful for us all to understand better what drives a transgender person to acknowledge their true identity and do something about it.
What I found very touching was her compassion for the confusion of the teens who drew this to everyone's attention.
Instead of being offended, she was concerned they may have been frightened or felt threatened.
And as a result she told her story, which may risk her own safety.
To me the real gift Amanda has given us is a greater understanding of the issues and, as a result, a greater level of tolerance and acceptance.
This takes down the heat of the arguing over which and how many bathrooms and who uses them.
If we can all just pause, understand and then naturally show respect, we'll figure out the rest.
Sarah Kennedy
