As his trans daughter struggles, a father pushes past his prejudice. ‘It was like a wake-up’

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
Associated Press

SMITHVILLE, Mo. (AP) — Dusty Farr used to be someone else. Before his transgender daughter was suspended after using the girls’ bathroom at her Missouri high school. Before the bullying and the suicide attempts. Before she dropped out. Before he filed a lawsuit. Before all that, he was in his own words “a full-on bigot.” Now, he has found himself in the unlikely role of fighting bathroom bans that have proliferated at the state and local level in recent years. He explains it this way: “When it was my child, it just flipped a switch. And it was like a wake-up.”