Paula performs her signature “penis pirouette” for students in her transgender tutu. “Some people will say that my presence is ‘inappropriate,’” says Paula. “But that’s only because of a cisgendered, heteronormative, biologically obsessed worldview that still fails to realize that biology does not equal gender does not equal sexuality. Severing the false connection between those things is a big part of my work, which is why it’s so crucial that I be able to reach people when they’re still young enough to hear my message.”

Last week, conservative social activist Christopher Rufo — who attracted national attention with his crusade against Critical Race Theory in public school curricula before pivoting to what he terms “radical gender theory” — published a report on San Diego Unified documents that outline an effort to, in his words, “dismantle ‘heternormativity’ and break the ‘gender binary.’” Part of that effort included a sex-ed training module produced jointly between San Diego Unified and Planned Parenthood that advised teachers to call biological males “people with a penis,” because, says Rufo, “according to the district, some women can have penises.”

“That’s where I come in,” says Paula the Penis, a biological female who regularly dons an inflatable penis costume and performs for schoolchildren all over California. “Though I was assigned a sex - female - at birth by a gender-binary-dominated societal structure, and though there is a powerful cultural association with being female and not having a penis, by putting on this costume, I can become a person with a penis, no matter my sex, or gender, or sexuality. I’m a walking, talking visual aid, doing my part to take the trauma out of childhood.”