And the Dragons Do Come: Raising a Transgender Kid in Rural America, Sim Butler

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And the Dragons Do Come: Raising a Transgender Kid in Rural America
by Sim Butler (Hardcover – November 4, 2025)

A powerful, deeply personal account of one family’s fight to protect their transgender daughter amid rising waves of hate and legislative hostility in the American South.

In And the Dragons Do Come, Sim Butler delivers a moving chronicle of love, courage, and resistance in the face of relentless political and social persecution. When Butler’s daughter came out as transgender at age twelve, their family—living in rural Alabama—found themselves on the front lines of a national culture war. Suddenly, their child’s identity became a political target. Laws banned her from playing on girls’ sports teams, restricted her access to healthcare, and criminalized her parents’ efforts to support her. Even their local community turned hostile, with school events weaponized for political gain and strangers showing up to intimidate trans kids in the parking lot.

Written with grace, rage, and unflinching honesty, Butler’s memoir captures both the intimate emotional toll and the broader moral urgency of raising a trans child in a time of widespread fear and misinformation. This is not just one family’s story—it’s a portrait of the human cost of anti-trans legislation and the resilience required to stand against it.

And the Dragons Do Come is at once a plea for empathy, a guide for allies, and a testament to the fierce love that drives parents to protect their children—no matter how many dragons they must face.