Shea Encinas, a 12-year-old Christian student, says he pushed back when his school in California forced him to read a book about transgenderism to a kindergarten student because he realized “that it wasn’t really right.”
“The book made it very obvious that it was about gender and how it was forced by feelings, and I know that it’s not feelings,” Encinas told Newsmax’s “National Report” on Friday. “It’s people teaching you that you can choose your gender and I know that that’s not right.”
President Donald Trump brought Encinas on stage during an appearance at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., earlier this week where the now-sixth grader recounted how his school had him read the book “My Shadow is Pink” to a kindergartener when he was in fifth grade.
According to Encinas, the book teaches that “you can choose your gender based on feelings instead of how God made us.” He said he knew that was not correct but was afraid of getting in trouble from school officials. Once his parents intervened, Encinas said school employees began treating him and his brother badly and they were bullied by other students for their Christian faith.
“After I stood up about the book, I had a lot of people like, hating on me, saying that I should move schools, saying very mean things to me,” he said. “A lot of parents wouldn’t let me hang out with their kids because of what I did. But, you know, I just kept trusting God all the way through and I’m now at a private school where everybody loves what I did and it’s just really awesome.”
Public response to his story has been “pretty cool,” Encinas said, as he’s had “a lot of people that I don’t even know come up to me and say that I’ve done a great job.”
“It just makes me feel good, that there’s a lot of people on my side,” he said.
Commenting on Trump’s remarks about growing anti-Christian bias in the world today, Encinas said he thinks that “it’s really unfortunate.”
“This nation was founded on Christianity and the belief in the Bible, and people have just made a turn that’s just not right,” he said. “I think that we need to go back to how our founders would have wanted America to be.”
GET TODAY :
is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America with more than 30 million people watching!
Reuters Institute reports is one of the top news brands in the U.S.
You need to watch today.
Get it with great shows from Rob Schmitt, Greta Van Susteren, Greg Kelly, Carl Higbie, Rob Finnerty – and many more!
Find the channel on your cable system –
Sign up for and get , our streaming channel and our military channel World at War.
Find hundreds of shows, movies and specials.
Even get Jon Voight’s special series and President Trump’s comedy programs and much more!
Watch on your smartphone or home TV app.
Watch anytime, anywhere!
Start your now:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
