[MUSIC PLAYING] REBEKAH BRUESEHOFF: I'm the scary transgender person that the media warned you about. I'm Rebekah.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE BRUESEHOFF: My name's Jamie Bruesehoff, and I am married. We have three children. They are 10, eight, and almost three years old. So I write a blog called I am totally "that" mom. In the past few years, my blog has really become more focused on our journey with a transgender child. So Rebekah has always been gender-nonconforming. As young as two or three, she gravitated to typically feminine things. She loved pink and sparkles and all things girly, and that was fine with us.
REBEKAH BRUESEHOFF: This is a soft blanket that I have. And this says Benjamin on it, so we put it with my Benjamin box.
JAMIE BRUESEHOFF: As her gender-nonconformity intensified, we started to notice some distress around things like being grouped with the boys at school or in activities. By the time she was seven, all of this kind of hit a crisis point. And her anxiety was crippling, and her depression was becoming life threatening. And we were at a loss.
REBEKAH BRUESEHOFF: Here's a picture of me. I don't look so happy.
JAMIE BRUESEHOFF: We were faced with a seven-year-old kid who wanted to die. One time, she punched out the screen in her second story window and tried to jump out.
REBEKAH BRUESEHOFF: The hardest part of all this was when I didn't transition, and I was not happy. And it didn't feel right.
JAMIE BRUESEHOFF: So we sought the support of a gender specialist. And so through conversations there, Rebekah came to tell us, , no this is definitely me. I'm a girl. I'm a girl in my head, in my heart.
REBEKAH BRUESEHOFF: I felt like I was a girl because I liked the color pink, and I liked girls clothes, and how they were there and stuff.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE BRUESEHOFF: At the time, it was the happiest I'd ever seen her, frolicking through the girls' section of the clothing store, picking out clothes, and seeing what she liked. She was just a different kid. It was like a cloud lifted.
[LAUGHTER]
ELIJAH BRUESEHOFF: It feels good to have a sister instead of a brother, since I already have a baby brother. And I think a big brother would just be too much for me.
REBEKAH BRUESEHOFF: When I see pictures of Ben, I just think of it as part of my past. And now I'm me.
GIRL: When she told me, I didn't believe her. I was shocked. And I was like, I don't believe you. That is not true.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMIE BRUESEHOFF: Rebekah really doesn't like thinking about the medical side of this. She doesn't want to develop into a man. So medically, transitioning involves a lot of different steps. And every transgender person chooses their own adventure. For Rebekah, the first steps will be puberty blockers, which will pause puberty and prevent her from going through male puberty and developing secondary male characteristics, like facial hair, and a deeper voice, and an Adam's apple that are irreversible.
The next step would be cross hormones. So Rebekah is a natal male. And so she would take estrogen to develop and go through female puberty. As far as surgery, she hasn't indicated a desire for that, but that is a decision she gets to make down the road anyway. That's not something she would do before she's 18.
CHRISTOPHER BRUESEHOFF: I'm always worried about a reaction with Rebekah, both in the community and the church, in the world. I'm very worried about how the world's going to treat her because I see a lot of ugliness in the world on a regular basis.
JAMIE BRUESEHOFF: So this is a picture I put up on my blog Facebook page that went pretty crazy viral. It started out with some really wonderful comments and lots of affirmation. But if I keep scrolling here—so I've got this one.
"This is embarrassing. First, she is what? 10, I think I read. K, at 10 she isn't mature enough to make this decision. This decision was forced on her by her parents. This is a form of abuse not recognized, parents forming their child into a social media spotlight seeking their 15 minutes of fame. I do honor her courage to stand in front of people and speak what she feels due to the forced dialog of her parents. This whole transgender issue was a mental illness, but it's cool because you have parents forcing their kids into it."
We haven't had anyone in our community and our families say that we are pushing this on to her. We have had that, through social media, and through my blog, and that kind of thing, who goes so far as to say this is child abuse, and we should have our children taken away, and that we are sick, and we need mental health, and everything else. And luckily, every major medical organization says otherwise, and every medical professional we've seen says otherwise. And so we feel pretty confident that we have the best resources we can, and that we've supported her the best way we can, and that we've gotten the support we needed as parents.
CHRISTOPHER BRUESEHOFF: Our hopes for Rebekah's future are that she gets to be who she is as boldly as she wants to be, and that folks are going to accept her for who she is. And I guess, at some point, that being transgender is something that she can advocate for, but isn't going to be a limit for her in terms of who she is and who she wants to be as an adult.
REBEKAH BRUESEHOFF: I want to make a difference in the world by speaking out and spreading helpful messages.
Hi. My name is Rebekah. I am a transgender girl. I have been living as myself since I was eight years old, and now I am 10.
[CHEERING]
This is who I am. My friends don't even believe me when I tell them that I'm transgender. I'm just a girl.
I want to send the message of, you are not alone and you are safe to other transgender kids.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]