The trans father letting his child switch gender
BRITAIN’S first transgender family say they have been shunned and abused after letting their five-yearold – who was born a boy – identify as a girl.
Little Jayden Rogers lives with her mum, Jody, 21, and step-dad Greg Rogers, 27, who was born a woman.
They are possibly Britain’s first two-generation transgender family.
Jayden loves wearing a dress with her Batman shoes and dressing up as Princess Anna from the film Frozen. But the couple say they have been victims of bullying and given the cold shoulder by other parents, who refuse to let their children play with Jayden.
The couple are being accused of encouraging Jayden to be a girl – with Greg, who transitioned at the age of 16, taking most of the blame.
Greg and university student Jody, who live together in Shotts, North Lanarkshire, have hit back at their critics. He said: “We’ve had people saying we’re using and Jayden for attention and that she just wants to be a girl because I changed sex.
“It’s ridiculous. Jayden knows nothing about my past. She just knows me as dad.”
Jody met Jayden’s biological father when she was 16 and still at school. She became pregnant but says her ex has not been involved in the youngster’s life since.
Cruel
Jody met Greg three years ago after trying online dating and they set up home together around last April.
She knew from the start that Greg had changed gender at 16. He had his breasts removed but is yet to undergo reassignment surgery on his genitals.
Jody said: “I knew Greg had been born a female but I had no fears. He’s just a typical man.”
The family said they lived a “normal life” until Jayden, who was born with partial hearing, recovered from an ear operation last February.
Jody said: “She started talking for the first time really and weeks later told us she hates being a boy and that she’s actually a girl. She wanted to wear girl’s clothes, so we decided to go with the flow and bought them for her.”
The couple claim they were told by the authorities to move away to solve the problem. They refused, but have since suffered a barrage of online insults from anonymous trolls.
Greg said: “They say it’s cruel to let her wear a dress.
“But is it not more cruel to do nothing when you’ve got a kid who’s so adamant she’s a girl that she’s ripping her hair off and banging her head off the walls?”
Jayden is now on the waiting list for a Glasgow clinic that offers a young people’s gender service.
Too young for medication or hormone treatment, she will receive counselling over the next few years.