New Patient Story

This is my story on learning my child was transgender and dealing with the cruelty that comes with it. I always thought my daughter was a Tomboy like myself. She never wanted to play with girl toys or with the girls when she was a very small child. I would try to dress her up when she was a toddler in dresses and tights, for special occasions. She would scream and cry until she couldn't catch her breath. As a pre-teen we would fight and argue about her only wanting to wear basketball shorts and her hair up in a pony tail. When she was about 12 years old and we were doing back to school shopping, we had a blow out fight about the close she wanted to wear. We went home and she finally said, "mom I need to tell you something." She said, "I'm transgender." This was 15 years ago and it wasn't talked about like it is today. I felt like the worst mom in the world for not seeing it earlier and fighting and arguing all this time. I started crying and gave her the biggest hug and said I'm so happy you felt comfortable to tell me. The next day we went and chopped off all her hair and went school shopping in the boys section. He was so happy from that day on, he could be free to be himself and feel safe. It was never a problem for me to except, you love your children for who they are, not who you want them to be! I was worried about my child coming out to the world and how he would be treated. It wasn't an easy road for sure, but I'm his biggest supporter and just want my child to be healthy and happy. People have a lot of questions for me. How do you deal with that? What do you call him? Are you sure this isn't a faze? As I look back, the signs were always there I just didn't see it. As a mother of a transgender child, you know it's not a faze and it's hard for some people to except. People are afraid of what they don't understand. I will always support my child, and encourage others to treat everyone with kindness even if you don't understand there story.