Hello!

9 Comments

Mother of transgender six year old hits back at critics.

The mother of a transgender six-year-old girl tells SUNDAY NIGHT the controversial Safe Schools programme turned her depressed son into a happy daughter.

Briella Carmichael began her transition a year ago after becoming so upset at being identified as a boy she tried to rip her penis off.

Since starting at a Safe School in Melbourne this year, Briella found other children no longer shunned her and were more accepting of her gender, mother Kirra said.

Safe Schools is a nationwide educational programme that aims to reduce homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools.

Parents Kirra and Scott Carmichael said the programme at Cranbourne South Primary School in Melbourne had a huge impact on their daughter’s happiness.

‘All the kids were really excited for her to come to school and Safe Schools said ”What would you do if you had seen Briella sitting by herself or feeling sad?”.

‘The kids were like ”I will go up and cuddle her and say she can play with me”,’ Mrs Carmichael told Sunday Night.

Mrs Carmichael added that parents who did not accept her daughter’s transition should mind their own business.

She said: ‘She’s a little girl. What is in between her legs is her business, nobody else’s.’

briella-2 briella

In February Mrs Carmichael described the heart-wrenching moment she knew her son Baylin was meant to be a girl.

‘She started to harm herself downstairs. It was over a period of time and I don’t know how long for.

‘She tried to rip (her penis) off and it swelled up and got infected,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.

‘She was also off school for a week for being dehydrated.

‘She stopped drinking because she didn’t want to use the boy’s toilets. She was so dehydrated her lips were all chapped.’

Briella’s parents started attending transgender information sessions before they decided to see a gender specialist with their child.

She was then diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

‘At home we were calling her Briella and the family started using female pronouns – she requested us to. Slowly over time we started buying girl stuff. It made her so happy,’ Mrs Carmichael said.

Melbourne mother-of-four Cella White said Safe Schools taught children about highly sexualised concepts they had no right to know at such as young age.

Ms White was so opposed to the programme she had withdrawn her children from their primary school when it started to teach it.

‘Safe schools has highly sexualised content and I don’t believe that that’s the schools place,’ she told Sunday Night.

‘I just don’t understand confusing children at such a young age you know they are all trying to develop healthily.’

Do you support safe schools programme?

Share your comments below.

Image via Sunday Night

We may get commissions for purchases made using links in this post. Learn more.
  • Aw bless her, what a difficult feelings to deal with at such a young age !
    Wishing Briella all the best in finding her personality, the person she’s meant to be. Hope she finds acceptance and respect within herself.


    • Exactly – being the person she is meant to be and other people be educated about it being ok.

    Reply

  • I feel for this family and understand where they’re coming from. I think the safe schools stuff is a big extreme though. I think it’s exposing really young children to topics they’re not ready to deal with

    Reply

  • Programs that educate should always be taken on and implemented by schools.

    Reply

  • What amazing parents and a lovley child I was so furious at the other mother, maybe she needed to see this story the way it was presented. I think the safe schools program has merit……….change needs to happen.

    Reply

  • I can’t imagine what it must be like to feel like you’re in the wrong body. I’m glad people are free to become the person that makes them happy.

    Reply

  • I love how kids these days don’t have to wait to “come out” these days, the accepting nature of people is awesome compared to when we were kids!

    Reply

  • Wishing Briella all the best for a wonderful future ahead.

    Reply

  • Parenting is hard. I think this mum is doing a wonderful job of supporting her child.

    Reply

Post a comment
Add a photo
Your MoM account


Lost your password?

Enter your email and a password below to post your comment and join MoM:

You May Like

Loading…

Looks like this may be blocked by your browser or content filtering.

↥ Back to top

Thanks For Your Star Rating!

Would you like to add a written rating or just a star rating?

Write A Rating Just A Star Rating
Join