A Canadian transgender father has left his wife and children to start a new life as a six-year-old girl.

Stefonknee (pronounced ‘Stephanie’) Wolschtt is now living with an adoptive family and says she does not “want to be an adult right now”.

The father-of-seven had been married for 23 years before she identified as transgender.

“I can’t deny I was married. I can’t deny I have children. But I’ve moved forward now and I’ve gone back to being a child,” she said in a video series by The Transgender Project.

The 52-year-old admitted that her wife found it impossible to accept her as a transgender woman and told her to either "stop being trans or leave".

“To me, ‘stop being trans’ isn’t something I could do,” she says. “It would be like telling me to stop being 6ft 2 or leave.”

Her family's rejection of her new identity is what prompted Ms Wolschtt to find an adoptive family, who she says are “totally comfortable with me being a little girl”.

Ms Wolscht used to be an eight-year-old girl, but later went even younger at the insistence of his adopted sibling, the youngest grandchild of his new parents.

“A year ago I was eight and she was seven. And she said to me, ‘I want you to be the little sister, so I’ll be nine.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t mind going to six.’ So I’ve been six ever since.”

Ms Wolschtt explains that the two children have a "great time".

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"We colour, we do kids stuff. It’s called play therapy. No medication, no suicide thoughts. And I just get to play."

In an earlier part of the series, Ms Wolschtt spoke of how she became suicidal after taking part in the first Toronto transgender march in 2009.

She spent some time in hospital and after she was discharged, Ms Wolschtt's wife accused her of harassment and assault. She later pressed charges against her husband to achieve a restraining order.

In 2012, Ms Wolschtt's was invited to her eldest daughter's wedding but on the condition that she "dress like her dad" and sit at the back of the church without addressing the family.

The day of her daughter’s wedding, Ms Wolschtt attempted suicide for the last time, and was unsuccessful.

She now receives support from the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto where the congregation is mostly made up of LGBT people.

Irish Independent

Belfast Telegraph