Kim Shappley on Tuesday made an
emotional plea to school officials in Pearland, Texas to let her
transgender daughter use the girls' bathroom when she starts
kindergarten.
“Please understand I'm not fighting
about bathrooms, I'm fighting about her life, I'm fighting about her
well-being,” Shappley said of her daughter, Kai, during a city
school board meeting. “I'm fighting for her happiness. I'm
fighting for her future.”
Kai, 5, has lived as a girl since she
was three. Kim Shappley said that Pearland Independent School
District officials have told her that her daughter will not be
allowed to use the girls' bathroom when school starts. Officials
have said that transgender students are allowed to use a private
bathroom located in the nurse's station and gender-neutral bathrooms
located in kindergarten classrooms.
“Every person that has a degree who
has studied this says that it is wrong to tell my child, for anyone
to tell my child, that she cannot use the facility that aligns with
the gender she identifies with,” Shappley
told the school board.
In an AP interview, Shappley said that
accepting her child's gender identity was a “challenge.”
“I really thought that this was wrong
and I thought that this didn't happen to Christians,” she said.
She added that her thinking
“transitioned” when she heard her daughter praying for God to
take home Joseph, Kai's birthname.
“It was my heart that had to change.
It was my mind that had to change. It was my behavior that had to
change,” Shappley
said.