As lawmakers consider options to bring Magic City Acceptance Academy into compliance with state and federal guidelines, the school is being highlighted in a recently released book promoting "trans kids." The book confirms some of the worst fears of child advocates concerned about the nature of the school and its impact on its students. Students who would otherwise reject radical gender ideology are instead rejecting their parent's wishes; a now former administrator offered thousands of dollars for a student to have a life-altering surgery and more.
Nico Lang, author of the recently published book "American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era," returned to Birmingham this weekend for a Q&A and book signing event at the Magic City Acceptance Center, which is the facility that the school partners with. He will also be in Montgomery on Sunday for another signing.
Lang's book includes the stories of seven teens from seven states over nine months between 2022 and 2023. One of the teens featured is Rhydian Gonzalez-Herrero, a young woman from Pelham.
Gonzalez-Herrero and her mother were interviewed by Lang in 2022 for a story in Rolling Stone magazine. They both chose to use pseudonyms in that story but have since revealed themselves by their names In Lang's book. It is unclear when the featured teen started using her new name.
In 2023, the Associated Press interviewed and photographed Gonzalez-Herrero while appearing at a "Transgender Day of Visibility" event in Montgomery.
According to the book, Lang followed Gonzalez-Herrero and her family for approximately two and a half weeks. The then-18-year-old was a high school senior at Magic City Acceptance Academy, which is featured throughout her story, with one of the four parts labeled "Gay School."
Her chapter begins with this heartbreaking line, lamenting that she'd be unable to have a double mastectomy: "Rhyidian Gonzalez-Herrero has been waiting years to take the next step toward becoming the boy he wants to be, and he just found out that he'll have to wait even longer."
Lang's tells her story in four parts:
Embrace the Suck – Named for the prophetic response by the child's father as the family comes to grips with the state law protecting children under the age of 19 from abusive and unnecessary medical procedures such as double-mastectomy.
Gay School – Describes school at the Magic City Acceptance Academy, saying, "MCAA first opened its doors in 2021, but the idea of a dedicated queer educational facility dates back to 2013." This chapter states that one student has moved in with one of their teachers.
This section states, "Before enrolling at MCAA, Rhydian's best friend, Zed, had planned to detransition and move in with his father in Texas."
Gringolas – Includes Rhydian telling her family she was a lesbian at 11. It notes that with the help of a gay hairdresser who gave her a series of "gender-affirming haircuts," she was able to look in the mirror "seeing a boy." By the age of 15, she was on testosterone. Images now show that the young lady has grown facial hair.
Upsetti Spaghetti— Rhydian's part of the story ends with a cliffhanger: Will she or won't she get the double mastectomy she wants in Atlanta? The book notes that the former principal at MCAA, Dr. Mike Wilson, offered to help pay for the surgery if insurance was denied. The book states, "Rhydian knows what getting top surgery after all this time would mean to him—the literal difference between life and death."
One theme runs not just through the Gonzalez-Herrero section of the book but is a theme throughout the entirety of American Teenager, promoting the familiar albeit false narrative that surgery, medication, and gender affirmation are the only things standing between vulnerable teenagers and suicide; state and federal efforts to protect children are just cruel and hateful. An argument that Alabama legislators, governor, and attorney general flatly rejected before passing and while defending the state's law to protect youth.
Chase Strangio, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), confirmed this when he testified before the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. vs. Skimetti, that such a threat wasn't based in facts or reality saying, "What I think that is referring to is there is no evidence in . . . the studies that this treatment reduces completed suicide. And the reason for that is completed suicide, thankfully and admittedly, is rare, and we're talking about a very small population of individuals with studies that don't necessarily have completed suicides within them."
Apryl Marie Fogel is a Birmingham resident who frequently appears on and guest hosts radio programs around the state. She can be reached at aprylmarie.fogel@1819news.com or on X and Facebook at @aprylmarie.
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