Mom Backs Teen's Sex Change in a Very Public Way

When 19-year-old Australian teenager Elizabeth Anne Bogert announced that he identifies as male instead of female, his mother Yolanda took out a classified ad in the Brisbane Courier Mail retracting her son's original birth announcement. She wrote: "In 1995 we announced the arrival of our sprogget, Elizabeth Anne, as a daughter. He informs us that we were mistaken. Oops! Our bad. We would now like to present our wonderful son–Kai Bogert." In case her humor was lost on her readers, Yolanda added: "Loving you is the easiest thing in the world. Tidy your room."

The parents' reaction to and support of Kai's decision was shared thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter, reports the Independent. Kai, who was shocked by his mother's ad, tells the Courier Mail, “I am so happy with what she has done. This last week has changed everything for me. I am still me but I am more me than I was a few days ago and feel free." Kai adds that it's too soon to make any decisions about hormones or gender reassignment surgery. (Punk rocker Tom Gabel's marriage to a woman stayed intact after Gabel became a woman in 2012.)