How could God make me wrong? (Sunday Express)
How could God make me wrong?Adam, seven, likes to be called Sarah. Here his mother, Louise, reveals how their pain was eased. It was four years ago that Adam’s condition first began to show. Until then he had occasionally tied tea-towels around his waist like a skirt of wrapped himself in the net curtains as though it was a wedding dress, but I just dismissed it as a child playing. Then, on that particular day, I went up to his room. He had pinned flowers all around his bed and was wearing one of my dresses and my make-up. My eyes just turned cold. I told him to take everything off, and said he was never to do it again. I cried my eyes out. I spoke to my husband, Adam’s stepfather, about it and I think we just thought we’d get him into normal boys’ things. But everything we did was pointless. He was getting more concerned with how he looked in the mirror, and how his hair was. He was wanting a doll, but we gave him a teddy instead. He just wrapped it up like a baby. We would tell him, ’You’ll never be a girl, you’re a boy and you’ll grow up to be a man.’ Then he would break down and scream hysterically. I was just dying inside. Once we found a huge poster he had made under his bed. It said, ’God made me wrong’. And every morning when he woke up, still a little boy, he would cry his eyes out. It was unbearable. He refused to do any school work, constantly complaining that he felt ’too much like a boy’. Then I found out more about his situation and broke down. I realised I wasn’t alone. Finally, I brought female shoes, socks and cardigan. Overnight he changed — his schoolwork became excellent and at home he felt happier than he had been for months. We saw a child psychiatrist and then a hormone specialist. Adam immediately asked for a ’special pill’ to help him. Of course, he’s not allowed anything at his age. At school, he uses the boys’ lavatory but does so during lessons by special dispensation. He likes to call himself Sarah, but we do not use that name. We still call him Adam. Now we have good days and bad days. Of course, I get very depressed. It’s quite a thing to have a son who has effectively become your daughter. But I have to show unconditional love.
|
