9-year-old helps teach educators about queer youth

When a third-grade teacher from Texas asked her mostly 8-year-old students what they wanted to be when they grow up, one of them wrote on the white board: "drag queen."That response came from Keegan, now 9, a "gender creative" kid, in his mother's words, illustrating just one of the challenges facing educators as they accommodate the range of gender identities that students might express.

Educators who for centuries have divided students into boys and girls are now figuring out better ways to address students who are nonbinary, gender fluid and gender nonconforming, in addition to transgender kids, whose gender identity differs from the one they were assigned at birth.

Keegan is one student who has benefited from the Stonewall legacy. He plays soccer and video games and also likes to dress as a girl, using the name Kween-Kee-Kee when in drag, his parents say. Keegan has found acceptance and support at his school in a conservative, Christian suburb outside of Austin, Texas, his mother said.

Keegan's teacher paid close attention during the lesson on financial literacy, when other students aspired to be doctors and dentists and Keegan wrote "drag queen." Neither Keegan's teacher nor his principal said they received any formal training on educating gender nonconforming students and have worked with intuition and observation.

The teacher wants to let Keegan bring up the subject "at his own pace." His parents, too, have wanted to "let Keegan be himself" and not impose any norms on him. They said they were surprised when, five years after he first started wearing dresses and a full year after they began cooperating with a photographer on this project, he said he was gay.

Minneapolis Public Schools in Minnesota offer some of the most extensive guidelines for teachers, students and parents as part of its Out4Good program supporting LGBTQ children, outlining polices developed over 20 years on names and pronouns, gendered activities and facilities, and safety and bullying, said Jason Bucklin, the Out4Good coordinator.

-Daniel Trotta and Amanda Voisard