Local award-winning story celebrates father's support and acceptance of transgender teen

Lou Medina, President of the Board of Directors of The Center for Sexuality & Gender Diversity, is a former staff writer for The Bakersfield Californian and an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction stories and short plays. His story, “Cub” which we feature in this month’s issue of The Center’s e-newsletter, was inspired by a Center event Lou attended in 2015: the screening at one of our movie nights, of a Spanish-language documentary film called “El Canto del Colibrí” (in English, “The Song of the Hummingbird”), about Hispanic dads who are supportive of their trans children’s coming into the fulness of their gender identity. “Cub” won Third Prize in the Writers of Kern (WOK) Fall Writing Contest that year and is featured in an anthology WOK published in late 2018.

​We present it here in celebration of and solidarity with our local trans community and International Transgender Day of Visibility, which is observed on March 31. Lou, who is gay, lives in Bakersfield with his two male cats, Rescue and Groom.

“Cub”: A Short, Fictional Story of a Parent’s Loving Affirmation of Their Trans Child

Read the story: 

In English
En Español