Aising Gannon (RTÉ)

An Irish mum has shared her powerful story of raising a trans child, and said her son Steve knew he had been assigned the wrong gender when he was just two years old.

Aisling Gannon told RTÉ Radio’s Ray D’Arcy Show that he was two and a half years old when he first asked when he would “get the right privates”.

Since then, Steve – who is now 11-years-old – has been “consistent, insistent and persistent” that he is a boy, she said.

“He says he was always a boy, I just thought I had a girl,” Aisling explained.

Aisling Gannon started allowing her trans son to wear whatever clothes he wanted.

“My older girl, when she was born, by the time she could walk and talk she was the dancing queen as her granny called her.

“She was pink, she was sparkly, and the second kid came along and wasn’t.”

Later, Steve would throw tantrums when he was expected to wear girls’ swimming togs at the pool. Aisling went to her GP who referred her to a psychotherapist who said that Steve was having a gender identity crisis.

He says he was always a boy, I just thought I had a girl.

She was told that she should allow Steve to wear whatever clothes he wanted – and once she did that, he naturally started wearing boys’ clothes.

“He hadn’t yet turned three and he had a bike with no stabilisers and used to wear all these dress up outfits like Spider Man and Superman,” Aisling said.

“He’d be cycling on this little camouflage bike along the sea front and I remember, everyone used to say, ‘God isn’t he gorgeous, isn’t he great,’ and everyone just thought he was a boy.”

Steve has changed his name and moved into the boys’ class at school.

Steve went on to change his name when he was seven years old. He also moved into the boys’ class at school. Aisling said his transition at school has been largely positive – and has even encouraged his teachers to rethink the way they work.

When a school play was coming up, Steve knew that his teacher did not know where to put him.

“He’s standing in this class in front of her and she says, ‘I’ll never teach like this again.’ Because they used to have a girl line and a boy line to come in from the yard or go out to the yard or to go to the loo or whatever, and she goes, ‘This poor kid doesn’t know what to do.’ She could feel it was becoming a bigger issue.”

Sadly, Steve is still legally considered female because Ireland’s Gender Recognition Act only allows trans people 16 and over to get a gender recognition certificate. This is something his mum is now campaigning to change.