Parent Angelica Jadunandan says family moved from Florida for her trans daughter

Good afternoon.

My name is Angelica Jadunandan.

I use she, her pronouns, and I'm the mother of an eight-year-old transgender daughter.

Three years ago, my family moved from Florida to Brooklyn in search of the legal protections New York offers transgender people.

I'm now a member of District 15's Community Education Council and an organizer with parents of gender expansive kids.

I grew up in a conservative Christian home and knew nothing about transgender people when my daughter told me she was a girl at three years old.

She didn't say, I think I'm a girl or I wish I was a girl.

She said, I am a girl.

So I listened and I learned.

I joined parent groups, bought the books, and read the research.

And what I found was remarkably simple.

Trans kids have the best outcomes when they're loved and supported.

Along the way, I also encountered a lot of confusing rhetoric about trans youth.

To clear things up, my daughter isn't a girl trapped in a boy's body.

She's a girl who was born into a world that decided she was a boy before she could speak for herself.

We put children into one of two boxes before they're ever even born and expect them to spend their lives fitting into them.

But gender, biology, and nature are far more complicated than that, and it's precisely that diversity that brings beauty to our world.

My daughter knows she doesn't need to look or dress a certain way to be a girl.

In fact, she prefers shopping in the boys'section because that's where she finds the video game shirts.

And above all others, the title she claims is a gamer.

I don't know whether my daughter will ever need gender-affirming medical care.

She's only eight years old.

She also has several medical conditions that require us to see multiple specialists.

And as her mother, I selfishly hope that she won't have to navigate any more medical challenges.

But if gender-affirming care is something she needs to feel safe, comfortable, and fully herself in a world that constantly tells her she can't be, we need that option to be on the table.

My family came to New York City because we believed our daughter would be protected here.

Families across this country have looked to New York City as a beacon of hope where their children can live freely and access the care they need.

It's up to all of us to make sure this city remains that place.

Thank you.