Every morning on their way to daycare, Kimberly and her six-year-old daughter, Kai, pray for their estranged family. "No matter how I try to avoid mentioning certain people in our family, Kai continues to pray for them by name," Kimberly said in an interview with VICE. "That's difficult for me, to see this little girl, how she loves unconditionally, and how she has no idea what's going on—because I've strived so hard to protect her from that."Two of the people that Kai prays for are her twin cousins. Sometimes she asks her mom when they'll get to play together again, but Kimberly doesn't have an easy answer. It has been two years since Kai began to live as a girl. Within the first year, almost all of their relatives stopped talking to them.Kimberly and Kai live in Pearland, Texas, a growing city that's torn between the more progressive-minded culture of southern Houston, which it borders, and the other, more conservative counties surrounding it. Like many families living in the Deep South, Kimberly's is extremely conservative. She would like to salvage the ties that have been broken because of Kai's transition, but says it's simply not safe for her daughter. "I can't risk unhealthy relationships for her that I have an ability to help control," Kimberly said. "How do you do that to someone? How do you do that to Kai? Kai is five years old." (At the time of our interview, Kai was five. She has since turned six.)"It feels lonely," she said. "You feel like you're in the fight of your life to save your child, and the people that have been in your life fighting for you—the people you need to help keep you strong and support you—they leave you on the battlefield alone."Read the rest of this article on BROADLY.
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