In response to President Obama's inaugural address -- the first in the nation's history to expressly mention gay and lesbian Americans -- an 11-year-old transgender girl in Arizona wondered why the president didn't also mention trans folk.
The fifth-grader named Sadie was inspired to write her own address after she heard the President's speech and felt the transgender community wasn't included, Sadie's mother, Sage Croft, told The Huffington Post. Croft also told HuffPost that Sadie began her transition from male to female in kindergarten and was home-schooled until this year.
Croft said the letter doesn't surprise her, since her daughter is outspoken, passionate, and articulate in any location.
"I'm always 'on' when we go out because I never know when she'll strike up a conversation with the person in front of her in line at Trader Joe's," Croft told the Huffington Post. "When she chats with people, she introduces herself as, 'Hi, I'm Sadie, my favorite color is pink, I'm vegan, and I'm transgender. Who are you?"
The letter, titled "Sadie's Dream for the World," reads as follows:
"The world would be a better place if everyone had the right to be themselves, including people who have a creative gender identity and expression. Transgender people are not allowed the freedom to do things everyone else does, like go to the doctor, go to school, get a job, and even make friends.
"Transgender kids like me are not allowed to go to most schools because the teachers think we are different from everyone else. The schools get afraid of how they will talk with the other kids' parents, and transgender kids are kept secret or told not to come there anymore. Kids are told not to be friends with transgender kids, which makes us very lonely and sad.
"When they grow up, transgender adults have a hard time getting a job because the boss thinks the customers will be scared away. Doctors are afraid of treating transgender patients because they don't know how to take care of them, and some doctors don't really want to help them. Transgender patients like me travel to other states to see a good doctor.
"It would be a better world if everyone knew that transgender people have the same hopes and dreams as everyone else. We like to make friends and want to go to school. Transgender people want to get good jobs and go to doctors like they are exactly the same. It really isn't that hard to like transgender people because we are like everyone else."
