Trigger warning: This post mentions gender identity disorder and suicide. It may be triggering for some readers.
The first words in a child’s life are simple.
It’s usually a single word; easy to say; and probably mispronounced.
This wasn’t the case, however, for Georgie Stone.
Her first words were “Mum, I want a vagina.”
Georgie Stone recalls the moment she knew she was meant to be a girl with her Mum, Rebekah, and Mia Freedman on No Filter. Post continues after audio…
Georgie Stone is a 16 year-old transgender girl.
That’s pretty amazing in itself: the courage to openly identify as transgender; the self-assurance in terms of who she really is; and the persistence in overcoming stereotypes and pre-conceptions she’d be faced with on a daily basis.
But Georgie is so much more than that.
She publicly came out in 2015 – at just 15-years-old – and in doing so became an advocate for transgender children. Not only in the media, but also in the legal system.
Top Comments
What a cool person Georgie is, and what a lovely family she has! I hope trans kids can look at Georgie and see that they can be truly happy and successful with the right support. And I hope that all cis people can look at Georgie and realise that trans people deserve endless support, respect and love. be true to yourself!
I wonder why as a society we aren't talking about why it is so important for someone to feel that they have to have the body of the opposite sex. I'm not sure about others here but I couldn't have really cared less what I was born with, you just accept you were born a woman or a man, have some mild curiosity as to what it would be like to have a penis or vagina but beyond that you just accept it, just like if you were born Asian you would accept that and if you were born white you would accept that.
It's only because of modern medicine that people can actually do anything about this dislike of the sex they were born into anyway.
I have no issue with gay rights, but I do wonder sometimes if the whole transgender thing is a mental illness because why can't they just accept that they were born a certain way that they can't change, just like if you were born Asian you wouldn't make yourself miserable all of your life trying to change it.
Being gay though on the other hand to me is a totally different thing because you can choose to sleep with a man or woman. It's not like you have to undergo surgery to do so.
I am not objecting to a man who wants to become a woman and vice versa from doing so, but I am just saying that it seems to me so irrelevant to even care what you were born with when the rest of us just accept it, and it seems they put themselves through such misery just because they can't accept they were born with a penis or a vagina. It would be like me feeling bad all my life because I wish I only had 4 toes instead of 5. Surely you just accept that this is the body you were born into and get on with life.
I think the bigger thing is what society expects men and women to act like, for instance men are expected not to wear dresses. I get that some people prefer to live in a way that is not defined by society, therefore if a man wants to cry and wear a dress why not, because these 'roles' for men and women are just constructs. But you shouldn't have to lop off body parts. Surely it should instead be that there is a broader range of acceptable behaviours for men and women so they don't feel that they have to become biologically a man or woman to live in a different way.
this is an extremely naive and ignorant comment.
put simply: you don't understand. you are seeing things through the very simplified lens of your own experience. here's the thing though...not everyone has your simple experience. it's so easy for you to just say 'accept what you're born with' because guess what? you were born with the genitals that matched your brain. you can't even fathom what it feels like to be trans because it's so far out of your experience and knowledge base.
before we had the medical capability to help trans people transition to the opposite gender that they identify with - do you know what happened? they remained miserable, depressed and move often committed suicide. this still happens all the time though, unfortunately, because we have a long way to go until people like you to accept trans people and understand their experience.
try this: if tomorrow you woke up as the opposite gender to what you are now, but with the same brain, how would you feel about that? or if you woke up with an appendage where it shouldn't be. you'd feel like you were not yourself. you'd feel weird, uncomfortable in your skin. people would treat you different to how you saw yourself. you may think that you'd just 'accept it', but actually it would be extremely distressing.