Proud dad of trans 4-year-old shares journey to embracing his son’s gender
Matthew Stubbings opened up about his son’s gender identity. (Envato Elements)
A proud father has explained that his four-year-old transgender child Stormy knows for sure that he has “never been a girl”.
Matthew Stubbings said he and his wife Klara Jeynes, from Doncaster, noticed Stormy was showing signs he was unhappy with the gender he’d been assigned aged 18 months.
“Stormy would have been two, just before when we first noticed,” Stubbings said, according to the Daily Mirror. “We did the things that people do. Dressed his brother in boy clothes and gave Stormy pigtails.
“He got to the point where his hair started getting longer and he didn’t want his pigtails anymore. We took them out.”
Soon afterwards, Stormy started to become upset when wearing dresses and it got to the point where he wasn’t happy unless he was wearing “stereotypical boys clothes”.
When he was two-and-a-half, Stormy told his parents for the first time that he was actually a boy and not a girl as they had previously believed.
Over the following months, Stormy repeatedly told his parents that he was a boy. By the time he turned three, they decided to accept his gender identity and embrace him for who he really is.
Transgender child Stormy is ‘a bright, happy boy who loves his life’
Around this third birthday, the couple had a conversation with Stormy where they asked him: “Are you just not a girl, or are you a boy?” Their son was clear that he was a boy – although he has since suggested on occasion that he might be non-binary.
While Stubbings and his wife love and support Stormy unconditionally, they have had issues with other adults who have dismissed and denigrated their son’s identity.
All of Stormy’s friends know that he is a boy, but adults “have on many occasions insisted on calling him a girl,” Stubbings revealed.
Matthew Stubbings first opened up about his son’s amazing journey in a post on LinkedIn, telling followers that Stormy is “a bright, happy boy who loves his life”.
In the post, Stubbings said many people aren’t aware that Stormy was “‘sexed’ as a girl” when he was born.
“I am so proud that he knows who he is and isn’t constrained by societal norms and prejudices,” Stubbings wrote.
“We can all learn something from this small boy and I learn every day. Everyone is different. We all need [to] accept that people are different and not try to force those around us to fit into a box that suits us.”
He added: “Accepting people for who they are is the only way to encourage innovation, embrace growth and harness the best in everyone.”
