Seven weeks from today, I’ll experience one of those big, proud, bittersweet milestones of parenthood:  I’ll pack my kid a lunch, help her pick out a special outfit to wear, and cry a little as I drop her off for her first day of kindergarten. When I was a kid, every year in late August,…

When did you first know what gender you were?  Chances are, by age four or five, you were firmly and comfortably established, for life, as a boy or girl.  I know I was.  But it’s not like that for everyone. My recent post on the Bitch magazine blog got a fair number of responses, among…

She sees the box of tampons in the bathroom and pulls one out to take a look. “What are these for, Mama?” I choose my words carefully.  “They’re for people with vaginas,” I say.  In my house we don’t assume that all people with vaginas are girls, nor that all those with penises are boys.…