Flight
Pride on the Page Day #26
Each of the mini-essays I’m publishing for the month of June are part of a creative challenge to share joy during Pride. You can find out more in the link below. You can even participate, if you’d like!
Wild Lion*esses Pride from Jay
26. Flight
So this one time a couple years back, I was walking my kids home from elementary school. They were a good distance ahead with their friends, chatting away about everything and nothing.
One of the other kids looked back and hooked a thumb in my direction. “Who’s that?” they asked.
My kids glanced back at me. “That’s our dad,” I heard one of them say.
You probably think that’s not a big deal, but it really was. I had never heard them call me that before. When we talked to them about my transition in those early months, we walked around the title “dad” with eggshells under our feet. It’s… complicated. We offered the kids a few less-binary titles for me, and they loved “Poppy/Papi” right away. But not everyone has a Papi, and so they went with the flow around their peers and friends.
And so I became a dad, and my heart took flight.
Your trans friend,
Robin
Robin, I felt that moment through your words—the way a single sentence can land like a soft, solid wingbeat. I’ve never experienced that kind of recognition myself, yet I can imagine it so clearly. My brothers were 16 and 18 years younger than me—only the younger one is still alive. And my late partner, who remained in her marriage, had children who were 16, 18, and 25 years younger than me. I was close with them for many years, and still, I often wished for just a little more acknowledgment, something simple and true to reflect the space I held in their lives.
So when your child looked back and simply said “that’s our dad,” I felt that sentence echo. That’s the kind of everyday miracle that stays. Thank you for naming it. You carried something gentle and wide open right into my afternoon.
my children still call me “Mommo” - I feel so much joy when they use he/him pronouns for me.i am seen and valued as I am and in my role in their lives.