Between getting called a tranny and being shoved into whatever hard, metal object was around at the time (car, water fountain, lockers, doors) and even at one point getting hit in the back of the head with cleated shoes, I don't know which hurt more.

I come from a town full of rich kids. Carmel, Indiana. "Top 10 safest areas to raise your kids" if they're cookie cutter normal. I don't like sports, I'm not a girly girl. I even cut my hair short in the first grade which in my class wasn't a normal "girl" thing to do.

From then on I knew I was gonna be treated different. In elementary school, other girls wouldn't go near me half the time. And when we lined up for recess they pushed me into the boys line because I looked like one. In third grade I'd had enough of that. So I decided to blend in. I grew my hair out. I started wearing makeup and dresses and secretly hating every second of it. Fifth grade rolled around and I started cutting myself. Fifth grade. That would've made me what... 11? 11 years old and already to the breaking point.

After enduring another year and a half of dresses and long hair, I had a break down. My mom cut my hair. My dad and I went out and bought an entirely new wardrobe. And I got a chance to be me no matter what was going to happen.

I didn't stop cutting though. Still haven't. It's been almost six years since that breakdown and I still haven't gotten over what I did to myself in order to fit in. As for high school, I'm still going through that. Seventh and eighth grade I came out as truly bisexual. Leaned more towards girls than boys, which opened to door for words like "fag" and "f-cking queer" to be etched into my back as if those two words were my new names. Eighth grade I took it a step further. Came out as bigendered or gender fluid. Oh boy. That just pissed everyone off. My teachers stopped looking my way when entire sports teams would gang up on me in the hallways. The nurse didn't even call my parents when I went into her office with two fractured ribs and a pretty decent shiner on my left cheek. Administrators looked the other way when things were thrown at me. And I was the one that got in trouble when "Trannies aren't welcomed here" was sharpied onto the front of my locker.

Since then. I've changed schools. I go to a no tolerance towards bullying high school. Half of the student body almost is some part of the LGBT community. And people are accepting. But the fact is simple. NOBODY. Should have to be forced to drive 45 minutes away from their own home just to be safe at school. Not when there's a school not even five minutes down the street. It shouldn't be an issue for administrators to push past their own opinions and help out a student in need. And it really shouldn't be an issue for teachers to recognize "hey. that kid might need my help after all"

-Jordan White, 16