An anonymous parent went viral recently after their cool and inclusive "talk" with their kid about the gender spectrum ended up on Twitter. Jay Jackson, who identifies as nonbinary, was at work when a kid asked them if they were "a boy or a girl."
Jay told the Independent that when the kid asked, they were "nervous to respond to the kid's question at all because of how the parent might react, but they were asking so politely and curiously so I just blurted it out as simply as I could."
Jay blurted out "neither."
"At work a kid asked me if i was a boy or a girl so i said 'neither,'" Jay began their post on Twitter.
Then the child's parents stepped in to help explain.
"Their parent explained that some people are 'he,' some are 'she,' and others are 'they' — the kid replied that they had never thought of that, and the parent said they could think about it more together later," Jay continued.
"Parenting done right, i welled up, my coworkers were emotional, it was everything," Jay added.
"The parent also said that just because we're told by other people that we are something doesn't mean that [it's] true," Jay wrote.
After the thread went viral, Jay's boss joked that the company would hire security if needed to deal with Jay's newfound fame viral fame.
"My manager is enjoying the story going viral as much as I am I reckon," Jay wrote. "Love my job, love the team I work with."
"It was a lovely and heartwarming interaction to have, that I wish was more common," they later told the Independent.
Luckily, the response to the interaction was overwhelmingly positive.
"I do hope more parents respond like this in the future," wrote one Twitter user.
Something that was continually pointed out was how children accept the gender spectrum with ease, despite the fact that so many adults are resistant to the idea.
Sadly, Jay did receive a fair share of negative and hurtful comments.
"The tweet getting so much attention was very unexpected, and the responses have been harder to deal with than I would have thought," Jay told the Independent, adding that they've received death threats over the tweet.
"It's been a very emotional couple of days seeing so much interaction with my experience from all perspectives," Jay added in the interview.
Despite the trolls, one good thing that happened is that Jay and their partner — Reuben Lisgarten — have been able to bring more attention to their GoFundMe page for their fertility treatments.
Sadly, we'll never know who this cool anonymous parent is.
