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Produced by the Island at WBUR Boston.

From The New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, Loss and Redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chacrabardi.

Sometimes parents have to make an excruciating decision.

Should they prioritize their child's safety over their happiness?

That's the question Laurie Frankl confronts in this essay.

It's read by Jennifer Beals, who stars in the NBC drama Taken.

When our son turned six, my husband and I bought him a puppet theater

and a chest of dress-up clothes because he liked to put on plays.

We filled the chest with 20 items from Goodwill, mostly grown man attire,

ties, button-down shirts, a gray page boy cap and a suit fest.

But we didn't want his or his castmates creative output to be curtailed by a lack of costume choices.

So we also included high heels, a pink straw hat, a dazzling fairy skirt,

and a sparkly green halter dress.

He was thrilled with these presents.

He put on the sparkly green dress right away.

In a sense, he never really took it off.

For a while he wore the dress only when we were at home and only when we were alone.

He would change back into shorts and a t-shirt if we were running errands or had people coming over.

Then we would come home or our guest would leave,

...