Then some solidarity:

I was incredibly moved by my buddy Jen Anderson Shattuck‘s story about how her son was bullied by a grown man for wearing a tutu and called it child abuse. I wanted to show her three-year old kiddo, nicknamed Roo, that it was just fine for him to wear a sparkly tutu if that’s what he wanted to wear. So, I ordered up my own TuTu and thought up the idea of #TuTusForRoo

We need to let kids be kids, and if kids want to dress in a way that doesn’t match societal expectations, we need to support that choice. Anyone can wear whatever clothing best suits them and their personality – gender expectations be damned.

I am proud to serve as a Director of Religious Education in a Unitarian Universalist faith community that joins me in honoring the idea that gender is a spectrum, not a binary, and that we need to support how our kids are expressing themselves. So count me in with #TuTusForRoo and if any kids in my program, or any kids out there in the greater universe, are worried that they just might want to wear a tutu but are too afraid? I’ve got your back. And now, a bright pink and purple TuTu to wear with you in solidarity.

If you haven’t read Jen’s story – read it. It’s an incredible expression of the kind of parenting we need to see more of in the world. I’ve gotten to know Jen through years of UU blogging, and she is an amazing person (as you can tell by reading her story.) It’s just a perfect representation of UU parenting and it motivates me to do the best I can to help other parents parent according to their own values. Her story has been shared over 13,000 times and I, for one, am not surprised her story has struck so many of us.