Releasing on: November 4, 2025

Published by The New Press

Our country stands at a critical cultural crossroads, with a wave of anti-trans legislation emerging at unprecedented levels targeting trans children, in particular, who face increasing stigmatization and erasure. Sim Butler’s And the Dragons Do Come is a poignant account of one family’s experience of parenting and supporting a trans child against this nightmarish backdrop.

In recent years, the Butler family faces an impossible reality in their home state of Alabama, where trans rights are increasingly under attack. Butler recounts their family’s struggles and sacrifices to protect their trans child against the barrage of state-sanctioned intolerance in the legal, educational, and health arenas.

Around the time she turned twelve, his daughter’s personal struggle became political fodder. Along with other trans kids, she was outlawed from playing sports and forbidden to use the girl’s bathroom. Another law made Butler and his wife felons for seeking trans-affirming healthcare for her. When her charter school was featured in several gubernatorial campaign ads, local community members began driving through the parking lot to yell at trans kids.

Serving both as a compassionate story of one family’s struggle for acceptance and as a window into a fraught issue that parents, grandparents, other family members, and friends are confronting across the nation, And the Dragons Do Come provides a firsthand perspective on the human cost of anti-trans sentiment.