When Oregon schools freaked out about kids reading a book about a trans kid

In 2018, I had a 5th grade child who loved to read. He loved Oregon Battle of the Books, a competitive reading program that encourages kids to read diverse books and answer utterly obscure questions about them. One of the books selected that year was George by trans author Alex Gino. George is a story about a fourth grader trans girl, learning to be herself and the reactions of the people around her. A number of school districts in Oregon withdrew from the whole program, rather than have children read this book. Here’s a piece an opinion editorial that I wrote in response that was published in the Oregonian.