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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

CoastLine: Parenting A Transgender Child

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HB2, the North Carolina legislation that mandated bathroom use according to the gender on one’s birth certificate, helped to stoke a mainstream national conversation about people who are transgender.  

We’ve  seen popular culture pick up the conversation with Amazon’s production of a TV show starring Jeffrey Tambor called Transparent.  We’ve watched a very public transition of Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner, and we’ve seen the rise of transgender actress Laverne Cox on the hit Netflix series Orange Is the New Black – for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award.

But outside of pop culture, artistic milieus, or some social circles, that conversation is often relegated to the shadows.  On this edition of CoastLine, we meet two people who are the parents of a child born a boy who started showing signs as a toddler that he wanted to be a girl.  That statement alone is rife with ideas that need defining – and here we set about doing just that. 

The parents, Stephanie and Eric, are not using their real names.  This not a tactic WHQR typically employs, but in this case, because we’re talking about a child, we’ve agreed to protect their identities.  

Rachel hosts and produces CoastLine, an award-winning hourlong conversation featuring artists, humanitarians, scholars, and innovators in North Carolina. The show airs Wednesdays at noon and Sundays at 4 pm on 91.3 FM WHQR Public Media. It's also available as a podcast; just search CoastLine WHQR. You can reach her at rachellh@whqr.org.