Devout Christian Mum Shares How She Accepted Her Transgender Toddler

A mum, who is a conservative devout Christian, has shared the moment she accepted her toddler son is a transgender.

Kimberly Shappley, from Texas in the US, told ABC13 how she used to dress her three-year-old son, Joseph, in blue when he was a baby and made him do “typical boy stuff” as a toddler. However, that didn’t stop Joseph from becoming who he is — a girl at heart.

Ms Shappley even recalled how Joseph pleaded for her to put a big red bow in his hair. “I want a bow like Daisy. Please mommy,” he begged. She said that she kept a secret within the family’s four walls, Joseph’s desire to wear girl’s clothes, as she is a Christian and Joseph’s choice was something that went against everything she believed in.

Despite Ms Shappley’s constant prayers, Joseph continued to be who he really is. He made shirts into skirts and begged to wear girls underwear – and also asked his family to call him “Kai.” However, it was when Ms Shappley heard Kai’s (Joseph’s) heartbreaking prayer that she knew she had to respect her child’s wishes.

“I overheard Kai praying and asking the Lord to please take Joseph home to be with Jesus and I realised Kai was begging the Lord to let her die,” she said.

So, the next thing Ms Shappley did was to buy her son the girls underwear that he had always wanted. Once she saw Kai’s reaction, she immediately knew that she had made the right decision.

“When Kai came home that day and opened the drawer and saw princess panties, she fell down on the floor with the panties, crying and thanking me that this was the best day ever,” she said.

However, Ms Shappley still continued to ask for advice from pastors and people from the church on how to encourage her son to behave like a boy. She said that her mindset is that Christians are not gay, which was strongly supported by the faith leaders who reassured her that God simply didn’t make mistakes.

“Christians are not going to have a transgender child, because as a Christian, that goes against everything that we read in scripture,” she said.

So, Ms Shappley was left feeling completely lost and alone so she looked over social media to see if anyone else has the same predicament that she is in, and then she found a secret underground Facebook network of over 2,000 Christian mothers who also had transgender children. Ms Shappley said that the stories of the mothers were disturbing such as being threatened by people who said they would kidnap their children if they supported them wanting to live life as the opposite sex.

“We knew that, at some point, if someone found out that our child was transgender, that you could put our safety at risk,” she said.

Yet, despite this, being part of that Facebook group has helped Ms Shappley accept her child for who she is.

Now five years old, Kai is thriving and is about to start at a public school in Pearland, Texas, at a time when schools across the US maintains a directive that says transgender students should not be treated any differently to any other students.

However, the Pearland Independent School District will not allow Kai to use the girl’s toilets.

“Now that my daughter is entering public school, the superintendent of our school district has made it where we have to come out. We have to take a stand,” she said.

Ms Shappley has now teamed up with the non-profit organisation Equality Texas, to take on the fight. She insists she is just trying to protect the development and well-being of her daughter.

“She’s not a threat to your children, but when you teach your children that my kid is a monster, then your kids are threat to mine, and that’s not fair,” she said.

Source: Kidspot.com.au