Gender Blender New law aside, straddling the sexes can be a bitch

http://www.csindy.com/colorado/gender-blender/Content?oid=1442596

Despite three metal studs protruding from his lower lip, Nico Valenzuela casts an unimposing figure.

• SEAN CAYTON
• Nico Valenzuela left Ellicott High School in April. He says faculty didn't accept his new first name, or his request to be referred to with masculine pronouns.

Standing 4-10, the 18-year-old has a wispy frame, gentle brown eyes and rounded features that he admits give him a "baby face."

"I look like a 12-year-old," he says blandly.

Another obstacle to projecting a tough, or even masculine, image is Nico's voice. He speaks softly, almost like whispering, and his voice registers in the tonal range of a middle-school girl.

"I feel like I've always been a boy," he says, "but my body isn't like that."