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  • I'm the scary transgender person the media warned you about.

  • I'm Rebekah.

  • My name is Jamie Bruesehoff,

  • and I'm married, we have three children: they're 10, 8 and almost 3 years old. So,

  • I write a blog called 'I'm totally that mom'. In the past few years, my blog has

  • really become more focused on our journey with a transgender child. So, Rebekah has

  • always been gender non-conforming. As young as two or three, she gravitated to typically

  • feminine things. She loved pink and sparkles and all things girly and that was fine with us.

  • This is a soft blanket that I have,

  • and it says Benjamin on it. So, we put it with my Benjamin box.

  • As her gender non-conformity

  • intensified, we started to notice some distress around things like being grouped with boys

  • at school or in activities. So, by the time she was seven, all of this kind of hit a crises

  • point and her anxiety was crippling, and her depression was becoming life threatening,

  • and we were at a loss.

  • There is a picture of me. I don't look so happy.

  • We were faced with a 7-year-old kid, who wanted to die.

  • One time she punched out the screen in her second story window

  • and tried to jump out.

  • The hardest part of all this was

  • when I didn't transition and I was not happy and it didn't feel right.

  • So, we sought the support

  • of a gender specialist and so through conversations there, Rebekah came to tell us, 'No, this

  • is definitely me. I'm a girl. I'm a girl in my head, in my heart.'

  • I felt like I was a girl because

  • I liked the colour pink and I liked girls clothes and how they wear their hair and stuff.

  • At the time, it was the

  • happiest I'd ever seen her, frolicking through the girls section of the clothing store, picking

  • out clothes and seeing what she liked. She was just a different kid. It was like a cloud lifted.

  • It feels good to have like a sister instead of a brother,

  • since I already have a baby brother and I think a big brother

  • would just be too much for me.

  • When I see pictures of Ben, I just

  • think of it as part of my past and now I'm me.

  • When she told me I didn't believe

  • her. I was shocked. I was like: 'I don't believe you, that is not true'.

  • Rebekah really doesn't like thinking about the medical side of this.

  • She doesn't want to develop into a man.

  • So, medically transitioning involves a lot of different steps. And every transgender

  • person chooses their own adventure. For Rebekah, the first steps will be puberty blockers,

  • which will pause puberty and prevent her from going through male puberty and developing

  • secondary male characteristics like facial hair and a deeper voice and an Adam's apple

  • that are irreversible. The next step would be cross hormones. So, Rebekah is a natal

  • male and so she would take oestrogen to develop and go through female puberty. As far as surgery,

  • she hasn't indicated a desire for that, but that is a decision she gets to make down

  • the road anyway. That's not something she would do before she is 18.

  • I'm always worried about the reaction with Rebekah,

  • both in the community and the church, and the world.

  • I'm very worried about how the world's going to treat her, because I see lot of ugliness

  • in the world on a regular basis.

  • So, this is a picture I put up on my blog Facebook page

  • that went pretty crazy viral. It started out with some

  • really wonderful comments and lots of affirmation. But if I keep scrolling here, so I've got

  • this one: "This is embarrassing... first she is what? 10, I think I read K . At 10

  • she isn't mature enough to make this decision. This decision was forced on her by her parents.

  • This is a form of abuse not recognised. Parents forming their child into a social media spotlight

  • seeking their 15 minutes of fame. I do honour her courage to stand in front of people and

  • speak what she feels due to the forced dialogue of her parents. This whole transgender issue

  • is a mental illness. But it's "cool" because you have parents forcing their kids

  • into it.' We haven't had anyone in our community, in our families say that we're

  • pushing this onto her. We have had that through social media and through my blog and that

  • kind of thing, who go as far as to say this is child abuse, and we should have our children

  • taken away, and that we're sick, and we need mental help, and everything else. And

  • luckily, every major medical organisation says otherwise, and every medical professional

  • we've seen says otherwise, and so we feel pretty confident that we have the best resources

  • we can and we've supported her the best way we can and that we've gotten the support

  • we needed as parents.

  • Our hopes for Rebekah's future

  • are that she gets to be who she is, as boldly as she wants to be.

  • And that, you know, folks are going to accept her for who she is and I guess at some point

  • that being transgender is something that she can advocate for, but isn't going to be

  • a limit for her in terms of who she is and who she wants to be as an adult.

  • I want to make a difference in the

  • world by speaking out and spreading hopeful messages.

  • 'Hi, my name is Rebekah, I'm a transgender girl. I've been living as myself since I was 8 years old and now I'm 10.'

  • This is who I am. My friends don't

  • even believe me when I tell them that I'm transgender. I'm just a girl.

  • I want to send the message of 'you're not alone'

  • and 'you're safe' to other transgender kids.

I'm the scary transgender person the media warned you about.

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