^ Hope y’all can read that. Sizing phone screen shots is a bitch.
Here is the promised edited version of the above prompt, complete with what I hope is a better explanation to children about trans people. I bungled up the first one and feel real bad about it. If this one also sucks, please tell me.
I write a lot of trans Lazytown stories and am always afraid I’m gonna make a mistake. I did last night with the original version of this. I’m very sorry about that. Thank you to the anon who very nicely pointed out the problem and to those who have been understanding. Yes I have also fixed the ao3 version.
“You’re trans?” Trixie repeated.
They had all just finished a game of basketball. Sportacus sat on one of the low walls around the park, playing with the cap of his water bottle. He wasn’t really looking at any of them.
“Yes,” he said, “I thought it was time you all knew.”
The kids all looked at one another. Ziggy gave a few contemplative licks of his lollypop. “What does trans mean?” He asked.
Sportacus still didn’t look up, “It’s um, well to start with it’s… Let me simplify it, take me for example. I… uh…” He looked uncomfortable. Ziggy almost regretted asking.
Pixel, who had been tapping at his wrist computer, suddenly spoke, “Trans: adjective. ‘denoting or relating to a molecular structure in which two particular atoms or groups lie on opposite sides of a given plane in the molecule.’” He squinted at his screen, “There’s a lot of words in the next part I don’t understand. This may take a second.”
A rush of laughter escaped Sportacus and he fell backwards onto the ground. The children ran around the wall to find him on his back, still laughing. “What-what are you reading?” he managed to get out.
“I plugged the word ‘trans’ into Google to define it.”
“Try putting in “transgender”. That’s the full name.”
Pixel did as he was told. All the kids crowded around him to read. He read it allowed anyway, “Transgender: adjective. ‘denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.’” Pixel furrowed his eyebrows, staring at the text.
Stingy hummed thoughtfully, “So it’s when... you’re born one person but want to be someone else?”
“Not quite,” Sportacus sat up, “In my case, I was born looking like a girl but was really a boy. When I got older, I changed my name and asked people to refer to me as ‘he’. Some people do the opposite where they are born and people call them a boy but they’re really a girl. Sometimes people are born as one of those but then aren’t either.”
Five faces stared at him blankly. Sportacus chuckled, “This might be too much at once. We can talk about that last part another time.”
Stephanie crossed her arms and looked down at herself, “So when I grow up, I’ll be a boy?”
“Not necessarily. Not everyone is transgender. I am, and I realized it early on. Some people don’t know until they’re much older.”
She seemed relieved, “Good. Because I like being a girl.”
“And that’s okay! If that ever changes though, you can talk to me. That goes for any of you,” Sportacus made a point of looking at each of his charges, “Ask me things before going to the internet. People on there can be mean about this kind of thing.”
Pixel raised a hand, “Just to be clear, you’re not a molecular structure in which two particular atoms lie on opposite sides of a given plane?”
Sportacus chuckled again, “Not that I know of.”
