Last month, I was stunned to see that the children’s book I wrote made the front page of the News Reporter in Columbus County, North Carolina. Reading on, I learned that the local school district had banned my book “One of a Kind, Like Me/Único como yo,” calling it “age-inappropriate.”

The bilingual book is about a little boy who dresses up as a princess and is based on my child, Danny, who is now an adult. After a college student performed the book for the district’s elementary schools, some parents became “troubled and disgruntled.” They complained on social media and voiced their concerns to school officials. One mom said that her daughter was confused, and asked why Danny “wanted to be a girl when he was a boy.” School officials apologized for “missing the mark” and said that it wouldn’t happen again.