I am a father to a son and daughter who's ages are 10-12. In addition I coach a boys travel soccer team. This year I was introduced to a player on our team who identifies as "gender fluid." This player has long hair, wears jerseys of women players and has a pink uniform. Once I saw this I had 2 concerns:

1) how was I supposed to treat this player?

2) how were 10 other young boys going to treat them? Kids at that age can be cruel.

My concern regarding my 1st question was because I wanted to respect them and not try and put a particular label on them. Our society is so ready to do so on everyone. When you do that you force a child into a box of conformity that may not be right for them. You basically stunt there social and mental growth by asking them to fit into our norms. We have a huge issue with mental health in his country partly because of our desire to label and make people conform. Not allowing children to be who they are contributes to that. 

My 2nd question was answered very quickly. This player earned the respect of the others in how they played and how the practiced. As well they are just a great kid; always polite, always listening and laughing with the other friends/teammate's. What is so amazing and special to me is that the other kids on the team fully accept and respect them. 

If 10 year old boys can find normalcy in this setting don't you think we as adults should too!

Thanks for your comsideratition,

Bert Miller