My daughter transitioned when she was just over 16. It was between six months and a year before the school told us. They made her a little name badge and started using the new [male] pronouns, and were full-on affirming. We only found out at a parents’ evening. We’d gone in to see how she was doing in her A-levels and they dropped that on us.

Before it all started, she’d come out to us, saying she thought she was lesbian. We went, “Yeah, we wondered whether you’d tell us”. She started wearing masculine clothing and I thought that was her finding her identity as a lesbian. Then she had her hair cut, which suited her. I didn’t realise the symbolic meaning of it.

Looking