It made me sick to go to school in a boy’s uniform.. I’m a million per cent happier as a girl
COURAGE OF TRANSGENDER GIRL, AGED 8 She left class as unhappy Tom and returned as super-popular Tegan
her that Tegan (then seven and still known as Tom) was upset because someone had called her gay.
Michelle said: “She broke down and said, ‘I’m not gay, I want to be a girl.’
“I realised then, it’s not just a phase, it’s real, very real.” So Michelle took her daughter to the doctor, who then referred Tegan to the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust’s gender identity clinic in Leeds.
“It sort of snowballed from there,” she said. “She was so adamant that she was a girl.”
Tegan’s first appointment was in August last year. And in April this year, she started living “full-time as a girl” at home and in public.
However, she was still dressing as a boy at school after it was decided that she would wait until the start of the new school year to return as a girl. “It’s a very lengthy process with a child psychologist,” said Michelle. “It’s a long, long process. There’s no medical intervention
until she hits puberty. People need to understand this is not just a phase they’ll get over. This is her life.”
She said the school have dealt with her daughter’s situation amazingly well.
Some of the teachers have even taken courses on the subject.
Michelle said: “Tegan is in a watch-and-wait process. Nothing is medically done, it’s a matter of watching her live her life as a girl.
“Josh took it better than me, he’s always seen her as his little sister. They love each other to bits and he’s dead proud of her.”
Josh said: “It made me sad that Tegan would not be happy because she couldn’t be who she really is.
“She’d always come crying to me and my friends. I would rather she was my sister than my brother.
“My brother was annoying but my sister isn’t.”
Michelle admits the process has not all been plain sailing.
“I sobbed in the playground on the last day she was Tom,” she said. “At first, I felt as if I was losing a son.
“Watching Tegan going to school on her first day as a girl was very emotional. I had a sense of dread and fear.
“But what happened was incredible. She was accepted instantly.”
Michelle added: “Some think she’s not old enough to make the decision, and ask if it’s the right thing to do.
“But when she goes to the clinic and they tell her at any time you could turn back to being a boy, she cries in fear, thinking they’re going to make her a boy again.”
Michelle’s parents have also been very supportive, with granny embracing the change and knitting mermaid blankets for Tegan.
Now Michelle cannot imagine her younger child being any other way.
“The day Tom took off the school uniform he was gone for good,” said Michelle. “I don’t remember Tom now. It’s really bizarre. Now she’s my wonderful daughter. My little diva.”
Tegan has a message for anyone who feels as she does: “I used to feel lonely but not any more. Just go for it, because it’s you who wants to be someone, and you can be.”
TEGAN