“I threw open the bathroom door in tears. ‘Our son just asked us to make him a girl.’ My husband looked like a deer caught in headlights as he sat there silently processing what he heard. I knew right then we needed help.”
‘I want to be a girl, Mom! Just make me a girl!’ Getting into the shower, she threw her fists down in anger. I could feel the air suck right out of me.’: Couple throw second gender reveal party for transgender daughter
‘We met the birth mom. ‘Come to the hospital to greet your daughter.’ Days later, I got an email: ‘Your birth mother has been located.’: Adoptee adopts child from birth mom and foster care, becomes birth mother
“My birth mother abandoned me. Months later, my new parents were given a picture. ‘This is your daughter now.’ When I met Danny, we both had this deep longing. ‘Let’s adopt!’ I opened my search for my biological family. 3 weeks after the adoption agency told us ‘it will take years for a child,’ we received the call that changed everything. A brave mama was waiting for us.”
‘They bluntly asked, ‘So, where is your real Mom? She didn’t want you? Is there something wrong with you?’ Everywhere I went, I stuck out like a sore thumb.’: Transracial adoptee says ‘it’s okay to grieve the loss of your birth family’
“I wasn’t white enough, but I also wasn’t black enough. I’d be in line checking out with my mom when cashiers would remind me to put down the grocery dividers between us. It was a constant reminder others didn’t see me as belonging to my parents. Every birthday, I wondered if my birth mother thought about me. Every holiday, I wondered if she missed me.”
‘Can’t we all just agree to disagree?’ Of course we can disagree on some things, but human rights? Um, no thanks.’: Woman responds to viral post about political opinions
“There’s a Facebook post that’s getting shared around and I can’t get it out of my head.”
‘A flu-like bug started spreading. ‘You’re black and strong, nothing will happen to you.’ The healthy white girl got her own room instead.’: Dancer powerfully explains ‘I will never color my shoes’
“The makeup artist takes 30 minutes to figure out my foundation color. The theaters ask me to find my own flesh-toned tights and undies because ‘they don’t know where to get my color.’ I do my own hair because the ladies don’t know what to do with my curls. I will NEVER COLOR my shoes.”
‘If someone, anyone, put their knee on one of my boys’ necks for 9 minutes, I’d burn it all down.’: White mom talks privilege, ‘You would do the same for your white babies’
“You know you would, too. But we, as white bodies in this country, have the privilege of having only to imagine it.”
‘I saw you pushing a stroller with a tiny pink princess backpack hanging off your shoulder, your daughter giggling hysterically as you made silly sounds.’: Woman pens ode to black fathers, ‘Your love is as endless as your potential’
“I saw you verbally tap dance when the police pulled you over, carefully annunciating every syllable and narrating your movements. We locked eyes. Black father, you walk through a world where you’re stereotyped to death, but you still rise.”
‘I overheard Justin tell the kids, ‘You’re not allowed to scream in grocery stores. Someone might think I’m not your daddy.’: Woman details life in an interracial couple, ‘The past 12 years has been humbling’
“I notice the looks, the stares, the mean comments, the slammed doors as we approach people. When my husband and I started dating, I was nervous to introduce him to my family. He was Catholic, had a great job, and was incredibly kind. But, after all, he was black. Even though we are together, many people cannot understand it.”
‘I see people making grand declarations on their Facebook pages: ‘If you voted for So-So, unfriend me now!’: Woman urges ‘acknowledge differences and let love lead the way’
“There’s been a shift in the world, in the way in which we treat one another. No longer do we see the common threads that bind us.”
‘Mama, will that happen to me? I have black skin too.’ He wasn’t supposed to see the news clip, but there it was, out in the open.’: Woman urges ‘talk about racism, even if it’s uncomfortable’
“The news was on when two pairs of small feet walked into the room. A lanky 10-year-old and pint-sized 6-year-old boys. They caught a glipse of George Floyd. The image of a police officer with his knee on a Black man’s neck, squeezing the life out of him.”
