Thread by @TarynDeVere

My daughter told me when she was 5 that she was a girl. I didn't know how long it would last but I had to face the idea that she might actually BE a girl and that if so, her future would be much more difficult than what I would ever choose for her.

Not knowing what to do other than love & support my child, I contacted our Dr & @TENI_Tweets They said don't encourage or discourage, just support her & be lead by her. I was told that trans kids are persistent, consistent & insistent about who they are.

3 years later she is still adamant that she is a girl. She told her friends at school, and then her whole class & her teacher that she was a girl, with no prompting from any adult, she just couldn't not be herself anymore. She asked her friends to accept her as a girl.

She went to school recently for the first time wearing a dress, she was so nervous. When she got home that day she was like another child - I've never seen her so happy. "Everyone accepted me!" she said. Since then she has been dancing around the house.

"I can't stop dancing" she said, "I'm just so happy everyone accepts me." She is like a lighter version of herself. I had no idea of the weight she had been carrying around with her, the worry, the fear. Our world put that on a small child, made her feel scared to be herself.

For now she is in a school that accepts her. Her life is not touched yet by the transphobia that so many other trans people experience. I'm scared for her future if she is trans. I don't care what gender my kids are, what name they want to be called or what they wear,

those things are superficial to me, they don't matter. I care though that the very existence of people like my child is currently being "debated" on the radio. I care that disproved statistics that grossly inflate desistence rates are being said as if they are a truth

Because these inflated desistence rates are then used to disregard the feelings of trans kids, it suggests that it's all just a phase & that it would be best not to "indulge" it. Studies have shown, repeatedly, that family rejection causes suicide amongst trans kids & adults

The figures being quoted on Irish radio (& the UK) embolden transphobic people to negate or reject their trans family members - which literally leads to their death. Platforming transphobic people in the media leads to the death of trans people.

Most of the trans people I know are kids, becacause that's now the support our family needs, being connected to families like ours. I will fight for these kids, their lives should not hinge on the Irish media's grossly irresponsible programming decisons.
#LoveOurTransKids

These are the Irish shows that allowed the discredited 90% desistence rate to be said on air. The choice to allow this will lead to more transphobia & more self harm & suicide of trans people. #StopPlatformingHate
@ciarakellydoc @RadioRayRTE @IrelandAMVMT

I wrote this a year or so ago about parenting a trans child & how awful it is knowing there are people who want to hurt anyone who is trans.
“Trans kids & the people who hate them” by Taryn De Vere link.medium.com/jMroD1qJdS