“Love my son’s transgender dragon”
Yesterday on the LGBTQ in Technology Slack, Franzi posted a screenshot they’d seen of a Facebook post with an adorable story. I make no promises as to whether it ever happened, I just found the story so cute that I had to share it more widely. The text was helpfully transcribed by Cable, another Slack user.
My son has a stuffed dragon named Dragoo.
Dragoo has been a member of the family since he was about 18 months old and we went to TRU to grab my other son a toy as a reward. We have the rule “Gift one, gift all” (when it comes to non-birthday or specific stuff).
Anywho, kiddo grabbed the dragon. Hugged it. Said, “My fwiend.” And that was both his first words and first time grabbing something, so we didn’t argue. (Massive delays with this kid.)
Anywho, Dragoo was a boy dragon that went everywhere with our son. Our son spent years in and out of hospitals. Dragoo was his constant companion. When the doctor examined my son’s spine, kiddo stubbornly told the doctor that Dragoo hurt his spine also. The doctor would solemnly examine Dragoo’s spine and agree that Dragoo also had scoliosis, or pneumonia, or hemi-hypertrophy, or an improperly growing kidney, or whatever the current medical problem was. When kiddo went under anesthesia for serial casting, Dragoo had his own anesthesia mask and cast applied.
The doctor asked him last year and a checkup if his Dragon were very brave. My kiddo said, “Oh, yeah. But Dragoo is scared too.”
The doctor asked if Dragoo were scared of monsters. Kiddo shook his head no. “Dragoo wants to be a girl. But is scared people won’t like her.”
The doctor looked at my son, asked casually, “Do YOU want to be a girl?”
My kiddo said, “No. I’m happy being a boy. But I love Dragoo. She is my friend. I want her to be happy.” The doctor took Dragoo for a walk, and came back with a big gold hair bow pinned around the dragon’s tail. “There, and that didn’t hurt at all… Dragoo is now a girl.”
And my son, to this day, loves his transgendered dragon.
I take Dragoo to to ladies with me when we are out in public or kiddo takes her to the family bathroom. But don’t you dare assume Dragoo is a boy because she plays with a boy. Dragoo is a girl and very much loved still.
Love my son’s transgender dragon!
The text content of this post is not mine and is reproduced here without permission, as a transcript of a screengrab from Facebook, shared off-platform. The Trans Pride Dragon is by kaenith, from their Pride Dragons collection of illustrations, found on RedBubble.com (where you can buy wall art, apparel and other items bearing the image) via Google, and is used without explicit permission. Their original post and their full range of Pride Dragons may be found on Tumblr.
Both of these will be copyright the original owners; I make no claim to be a rightsholder for these works. If you own the intellectual property to any part of this Medium post, please contact me on Twitter and I will be happy to withdraw the work or agree some recompense.
