Last year my young neighbour, who had always dressed in a masculine way, told me she was transitioning to become a man. I found this surprising, but when I told my 10-year old about it he just shrugged. His ease made me question my own sense of discomfort. So I looked up some transgender and transsexual forums online and was shocked to learn that most transgender people had attempted suicide at least once in their life. And that many parents actually  disown their transgender children. This made me so sad, and angry. I went to my neighbour’s to tell her/him that he should never hesitate to come over if he needed us. And I just asked straight out what I should call him from now on. I’m old enough to be his mother but I still felt nervous about going over and asking him this. I suppose because it was such a new situation for me, and it felt like such a personal thing about him. But I’m so glad of our friendship, and now he knows I’m there for him.