HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (CBS) — This Sunday, thousands of runners will take to the streets for the 46th annual Bank of America Chicago Marathon – and a Highland Park mother and her adult son will be running for a good cause.
Lev Grosshandler and his mother, Jen, support transgender and non-binary youth, and a youth-led movement they founded.
Lev admits that a marathon is quite a task.
“I’m a wrestler. I weigh 190 pounds,” he said. “I’m not built to run.”
But he and his mother are letting the world know that they want to complete 26.2 miles.
“If we were just running for ourselves, we would stop,” Lev Grosshandler said. “We’d say, ‘This is stupid. Why am I hurting myself? I want to go eat a cheeseburger.'”
But instead, they’re hoping to take a different kind of bite. They are passionate about tackling misconceptions surrounding transgender and non-binary children.
“We are running for our organization called the GenderCool Project,” says Jen Grosshandler.
The nonprofit Grosshandlers’ Highland Park shares positive stories about the youngest members of the trans and non-binary community.
“We’re not shouting. We’re not interested in raising our voices. That doesn’t work,” Jen Grosshandler said. “What works is just having the opportunity to meet these kids. They’re great. They’re funny. They’re ambitious.”
The Grosshandlers would know. Lev’s little sister is Chazzie, who identified herself as a girl in fourth grade.
“[I said]: ‘Mom, Dad, I’m not just a boy who likes girly things. I’m a girl and I want you to know that,” Chazzie said, recounting her coming out conversation with her parents, “and they looked at me, and they hugged me and squeezed me tight, and told me that everything is okay comes. .”
The GenderCool Project website recalls that in 2017, Jen Grosshandler and her husband, John, went looking for positive stories about trans and non-binary kids like Chazzie — and they could count on one hand the positive stories they found .
“In stark contrast, it took five seconds to find a flood of misleading, sensational, negative content about these wonderful young people,” the website said.
Something had to change, the Grosshandlers immediately decided. So Jen joined friend and member Gearah Goldstein – a diversity and inclusion expert, woman, parent and proud transgender person – and they founded GenderCool along with five young people and their families, the website recalls.
GenderCool has now become a global movement.
Chazzie Grosshandler has taken her story all the way to the White House – twice. She and other people from the GenderCool Project are on a mission to sit at the table as often as possible with decision makers in politics, business and more.
“I really want to continue spreading the word that I’m more than just a label, and that I’m just a human being,” Chazzie said.
Chazzie’s greatest allies – her mother and brother – and trudges through training so they can help spread her message.
“In those moments, I can endure any pain,” Lev said.
On race day, tens of thousands of people in different neighborhoods will see mother and son wearing shirts with three words on them.
“’Love Trans Kids,’” Lev said, “and so people will watch that, and they’ll know why we’re running and who we’re running for.”
The marathon preparations for the GenderCool Project include fundraising. The Grosshandlers said the money raised will help their trans and non-binary speakers with travel expenses as they share their message in the U.S.
The marathon is scheduled for Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Friday is National Coming Out Day.
Lauren’s victory
